Clout: Candidates know when to put politics aside
CLOUT'S BEST wishes go out to judicial candidate Beverly Muldrow, who collapsed while speaking at a candidates' forum Wednesday night, and whose life may have been saved by two rival candidates.
"She was about two sentences into her speech, and she just fell like a brick," said attorney Anthony Jackson, who was just steps away from Muldrow at the NAACP/Kappa Alpha Psi forum in Mount Airy.
Two other candidates, attorney Joe Waters and Municipal Court Judge James DeLeon, quickly performed CPR on Muldrow, who Jackson said appeared not to be breathing at one point.
"They kept at it, with Judge DeLeon breathing in her mouth and Joe Waters pumping her chest. It was scary," Jackson said. Paramedics eventually arrived, gave Muldrow a jolt with a defibrillator and took her away, breathing and moving her arms.
Muldrow yesterday was recovering at Presbyterian Hospital, where she was said to be in good condition.
Torsella: I won't oppose Specter
U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter's main opponent in the Democratic primary next year is out.
Civic leader Joe Torsella says, in a video to be posted on his campaign Web site last night, that he's concerned that the race would become more about Specter's record than about looking forward, and that that's not good for the state.
Torsella, 45, former president of the National Constitution Center, is the chairman of the State Board of Education.
He entered the race before Specter switched from the Republican to the Democratic Party and began absorbing party-establishment support that would logically go to Torsella.
Delco's U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, however, continues to weigh a primary run against Specter.
That would open the door for state Rep. Bryan Lentz to run for Sestak's seat. Lentz was subject of a gushy "Huffington Post" blog item this week by Hal Donohue.
Money talks
We've heard this week about the so-called "Millionaire's Provision" - which allows for double the campaign contributions from individuals and political-
action committees when one candidate gives his own campaign $250,000 or more. But what about a "Millionaire's Backlash"?
Six City Council members assembled in their City Hall caucus room yesterday to endorse Seth Williams in Tuesday's five-way Democratic primary for district attorney. But Councilman Frank DiCicco said that he was "pretty much staying out of the race."
Then Dan McCaffery, a candidate with strong support from the building-trades union, triggered the Millionaire's Provision this week. DiCicco said that "tipped the scales" and encouraged him to endorse Williams.
Cutting through the gun debate
The five Democratic candidates for D.A. sharpened elbows in their final debate, taped last night. Seth Williams, Dan McElhatton and Dan McCaffery aimed barbs at each other, but the line of the night came from Brian Grady, who said that state lawmakers must give the city the right to enact stronger gun laws, regardless of the impact on hunters.
"You want to hunt? Get a knife, go out, take the animal down the way they used to. You don't need a gun for that either," Grady said.
