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Will racial infighting impact the Second Congressional District primary?

Chaka Fattah has never faced a primary challenger as the incumbent in the Second Congressional District. Now under indictment and due to start trial on federal racketeering charges six days after the April 26 Democratic primary, the U.S. representative is facing three challengers.

Chaka Fattah has never faced a primary challenger as the incumbent in the Second Congressional District.

Now under indictment and due to start trial on federal racketeering charges six days after the April 26 Democratic primary, the U.S. representative is facing three challengers.

Call it a coincidence.

There's more than one in this Democratic race.

Fattah and one challenger, state Rep. Dwight Evans, are black.

The two other Democrats, Ninth Ward Leader Dan Muroff and Lower Merion Township Commissioner Brian Gordon, are white.

Pennsylvania has 18 congressional districts. The Second District, which includes a lot of Philadelphia and a little of Montgomery County, is the only one where African Americans, at 58 percent, make up a majority.

That prompted the moderator of a debate on Thursday to ask Muroff and Gordon: "Why does it make sense to fill [the seat] with someone who is not African American?"

Muroff and Gordon handled the question in similar fashion, focusing on issues and not ethnicity.

This is how Muroff wrapped up his response: "I want to represent the entire district. Everybody. Not just a select group."

Gordon added: "I think anyone has a right to run. And I don't think race should control."

Here is what went unsaid at the debate: There is a continuing effort to bump Gordon from the ballot, which would leave Muroff as the lone white Democrat in the race.

Two voters filed legal objections in state Commonwealth Court on Feb. 23, challenging Gordon's nomination petitions.

Candidates need signatures from 1,000 registered Democrats in the district to qualify for a spot on the primary ballot.

As for coincidences, a simple Google search showed that Muroff is acquainted with the voters who filed the challenge. And a consultant for Muroff's campaign helped sort through the challenged signatures when the two campaigns met.

It's not uncommon for voters to challenge a candidate on behalf of another candidate in the race.

Muroff didn't run from the legal challenge. But he didn't exactly embrace it.

"I'm familiar with it," he offered when asked.

Gordon accused Muroff of using what is often called in local politics "racial math" - white voters support white candidates, black voters support black candidates - to tilt the race in his favor: If he's the only white guy on the ballot, the reasoning goes, he picks up the lion's share of white votes.

"I absolutely believe it was done in order to make Dan Muroff the only white candidate in the Second Congressional District," Gordon said. "And I think it's unseemly to play race-based politics."

Asked about Gordon's accusation, Muroff said, "I haven't thought about it that way."

This all rose up while the challenge was under way, but it settled down on March 18, when a Commonwealth Court judge ruled that Gordon should stay on the ballot.

On Friday, the voters who filed that challenge appealed that ruling to the state Supreme Court.

I asked Larry Otter, the attorney who filed the challenges, whether Muroff was behind the effort.

The lawyer answered: "Who?"

Otter, a veteran of election law cases, has a knack for the nudge-nudge, wink-wink approach to answering such questions.

Last week's debate was a serious, if staid, affair. The race seems ready to liven up from here.

During the debate, Muroff said he got into the race because he wanted to let the voters decide.

Gordon turned that on him Friday, saying, "Rather than letting the voters decide, he is using a cheap political strategy of knocking his opponents in the courtroom rather than at the ballot box."

Muroff, during the debate, said he always expected a "robust primary." Asked what that meant, he said, "A lot of people."

I guess he thinks one less will change the complexion of the race.

brennac@phillynews.com

215-854-5973

@ByChrisBrennan