Council candidate switches to the GOP to run for mayor

Saying she is tired of politics in her party, Karen Brown, who had been running as a Democrat for City Council, says she will instead run for mayor - as a Republican.

As of Wednesday, Brown, a former teacher, appeared to have the blessing of city GOP leaders, who had lately been all but reduced to buttonholing strangers and asking them to run in the May 17 primary.

Party activists told of receiving an e-mail from the Republican City Committee that said, "Our mayoral candidate is Karen Brown." GOP Chairman Vito Canuso had said earlier in the day that the party might endorse Brown, real estate agent John Featherman, or no one.

"The Republicans came to me and said, 'We welcome you with open arms,' " said Brown, 49. "A woman can make a difference in the city, and I think people are going to see that."

She would be the city's first female mayor if she unseated Mayor Nutter - a big if in a town where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by 6-1. Brown must first switch her registration and collect the 1,000 signatures needed to run by Tuesday's deadline.

She said she was switching parties because she saw few differences between the D's and the R's and was disillusioned that her ward leader, union leader John Dougherty, had decided not to endorse her for Council despite her years of work for the party.

Brown said her platform would focus on creating jobs and eliminating the city's Deferred Retirement Option Plan, a controversial pension benefit. - Miriam Hill