Why do they want to be mayor?

EVERY CANDIDATE in every campaign faces a basic question: Why are you running?

Presumably it's a question given much thought before any candidate for any office formally declares and starts a race.

To me the answer often offers something fundamental about a candidate's hopes, goals and even character - and I've found one's campaign can be a reflection or extension of a single, usually simple reply.

So during a series of sit-downs with top-tier candidates in the May 19 Democratic primary, I posed the question: Why are you running for mayor?

Two out of three gave pretty good answers; one, not so much.

Take former longtime City Councilman Jim Kenney. His response was immediate.

"To move the poverty needle in the down direction," he said.

Then he talked about how so many of the city's problems and challenges are related to poverty and the fact that people can't find jobs, especially blue-collar jobs. And he talked about targeting job-creation, especially at the port.

Given that Philly is the poorest of America's largest cities, with a poverty rate of 26 percent, Kenney's answer makes sense.

Whether he or anyone can actually do anything about poverty is an open question. But if one wants to be mayor to attack poverty, that's a pretty good reason to run.

And, yeah, I know some say Kenney's real answer to why he's running is because Council President Darrell Clarke chose not to and former City Solicitor Ken Trujillo dropped out.

But still. In this race, Kenney's stated answer was the best I heard and Kenney's campaign is the best I've seen.

Former District Attorney Lynne Abraham also offered a good response.

"I'm on a mission to save the city from the status quo," she said.

She noted that too much of government is poorly run and that she wants "by sheer force of will, to use the office [of mayor] to force things to get done."

Her list of "things" are, in order: schools, crime, jobs, taxes, the economy, poverty, disaffected government and the "appearance of being unconcerned about the ordinary guy."

A long list, I know. But ending the status quo, seeking "change," is a solid campaign core theme, even though this election seems more about building on progress.

(How often do you hear Mayor Nutter criticized? I mean other than for his proposed property-tax hike for schools. And that's only because no candidate is going to suggest raising taxes for anything. Come on, they're candidates.)

State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams' answer baffled me.

He's been in elective office more than a quarter-century. He was to the political manor born. He essentially inherited his seat from his father, the late state Sen. Hardy Williams, who also was in elective office more than a quarter-century.

So one assumes the current senator picked up some tips along the way about, well, presentation.

Yet when I asked him why he's running, he said this: "Because I want to be a chief executive. I've been a legislator for a long time, but that's not a person who sets policy and is held accountable. I think I have a vision and a plan for Philadelphia."

The answer suggests his priorities are in the mirror.

Maybe they're not. Maybe he answered without thinking (not a great trait for a politician). Maybe he played catch-up by adding the vision thing.

But answers to simple questions often say more than a pile of policy papers conceived, researched and written by advisers and aides.

Specifics and innovation aren't common to campaigns. So don't expect many details or new ideas on, for example, fighting poverty or fixing schools.

Yet sometimes, when it comes to candidates, ye shall know them by their words.

Blog: ph.ly/BaerGrowls

Columns: ph.ly/JohnBaer