Brady gets endorsement from city Democrats

Breaking with recent tradition, the city's Democratic party organization yesterday opted to endorse one of the five party members vying to be Philadelphia's next mayor.

The choice: U.S. Rep. Bob Brady. Who also happens to chair the organization.

Brady won what he called an overwhelming victory in a closed-door voice vote of the ward leaders who make up the Democratic City Committee. The vote came after Brady and three rival candidates - State Rep. Dwight Evans, U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, and former Councilman Michael Nutter - took turns making their case to the party's policy committee.

A fifth candidate, businessman Tom Knox, opted not to come, releasing a statement that called the vote "a hollow gesture" and suggesting that the ward leaders only wanted to protect their patronage jobs.

That Brady would have the party machine behind him is no surprise, but it was nonetheless a subject of controversy in recent weeks. Knox and Evans have called on the congressman to step down from his party post in order to run for mayor.

When he spoke to the group, Evans said, he urged it to make no endorsement.

"The process should be open," he said. "We can no longer do business in the back room."

Nutter and Fattah did not criticize the vote or ask the leaders not to have one. Rather, the two candidates downplayed the significance of the endorsement.

Fattah noted that he won seats in the General Assembly, state Senate, and U.S. House of Representatives without the organization's support. Nutter likened the ward leaders who unified around Brady to members of a family coming together. He joked that since his own wife and daughter supported him, he was even.

Nutter, who is also a ward leader, also quipped that "I got one vote. . . . I finished second."

Moments after the vote was cast, Brady posters were placed in the windows of the party headquarters building in Center City. The initial display of those posters, last month, first sparked the controversy over Brady's run. They were subsequently taken down.

Standing with ward leaders including City Council President Anna C. Verna and Councilmembers Bill Greenlee, Joan Krajewski, and Daniel Savage, Brady pronounced himself humbled after the vote. Though the party has not made mayoral primary endorsements in his 20 years as chair, Brady said it chose him because "we thought that they needed a unifier and a healer."

Brady said the main benefit of the endorsement would be logistic, as the party structure includes 69 ward leaders and 3,400 committee members.

"If we could take this organization, and I could bottle them and put them on a bus and take them down to Miami, we'd be saying 'President Gore' right now," he said. "If I could take it to Cleveland, we'd be saying 'President Kerry' right now."

But even Brady supporters have acknowledged that support from the organization means less in a mayoral election than in races for lesser jobs such as judge. Most voters make up their own minds in a mayoral contest and are less susceptible to the influence of committee people.

And, despite the unanimity on display yesterday, many ward leaders have signed on with other candidates.

Several pro-Evans ward leaders, including Councilwoman Marian Tasco, stayed away from the meeting.

"It was a done deal," Tasco said.

A sole protester, Temple University professor Nicholas D'Arecca, stood outside the building with a sign that called the endorsement a "coronation." D'Arecca said he had volunteered for Nutter but was only there on his own behalf.

The tension between Brady's roles as candidate and party chief were on display as he took questions from reporters after the vote. Asked about a $20,000 contribution from the party to his campaign, Brady demurred.

"I can't answer that," said Brady. "I don't have nothing to do with the finances of this party."

The party treasurer, State Rep. Frank Oliver, was standing next to Brady. Asked the same question, Oliver said: "I have no comment."

Oliver must have signed the check, a reporter noted.

"I sign many checks," he said.

When the question was rephrased, Oliver responded, "Evidently, you didn't hear my answer. I said I sign many checks."

"That issue is over and done with," Brady interjected. "Thank you, Frank, for all the support you've given me."