Clout: Nutter, Abraham headed for college in Dec.

YOU DIDN'T see their names on

the ballot Tuesday, but if you live in Pennsylvania, odds are you voted for Mayor Nutter, D.A. Lynne Abraham and a legendary running back for Penn State and the Pittsburgh Steelers, Franco Harris.

That's because these three, and 18 others, were on the list of presidential electors that Barack Obama submitted to state election officials in September, after he secured the Democratic nomination for president.

Anyone who voted for Obama and his running mate, Joe Biden, actually was voting for a slate of 21 Obama electors. They are scheduled to meet in Harrisburg Dec. 15 as the Electoral College to deliver Pennsylvania's 21 electoral votes, one at a time, on paper ballots.

While it would be a shock if anyone besides Obama got their votes, each is theoretically a free agent.

Nutter and Abraham are the only Philadelpians on Obama's list, but they're joined by several suburbanites: Chester County Commissioner Kathi Cozzone; soon-to-be-state-senator Daylin Leach, of Wayne; Blank Rome attorney Christopher Lewis, of Berwyn; state Rep. Josh Shapiro, of Rydal; and labor leaders Wendell Young IV, of Lower Providence, and Pat Gillespie, of Havertown.

Other Obama electors include state Auditor General Jack Wagner; state Senate Democratic leader Robert Mellow; the Democratic mayors of York, Lancaster, Reading and Braddock; and two Democratic commissioners from Lackawanna County. The state's top Democrat, Ed Rendell, a Hillary Clinton supporter last spring, is not on the Obama slate. But by tradition, he's expected to treat the crowd to lunch at the governor's mansion after the electoral college adjourns.

Panhandling for street money

The Obama campaign held firm to its early decision not to pay "street money" to the Democratic ward leaders who provided party backing on Election Day. Obama relied instead on an unprecedented force of volunteers, estimated at 16,000 statewide.

But Democratic City Committee still scraped together more than $300,000 to distribute to ward leaders and committeemen throughout the city - a standard payment of $200 a division.

Comcast executive David L. Cohen made many of the fundraising calls, tapping the campaign treasuries of Rendell, Nutter, party chairman and U. S. Rep. Bob Brady, Democratic State Committee and several labor unions.

The checks were distributed to ward leaders last Friday, with one exception - Northeast ward leader John Sabatina, who sent someone to City Committee headquarters to pick up his money, only to be told it wasn't there.

Sabatina said he never got an explanation. But speculation had it that Brady is disturbed by Sabatina's work as a freelance political consultant, helping judicial candidates secure backing from Democratic ward leaders, with or without support from City Committee.

Over the weekend, Brady apparently softened.

"I had called to find out what the heck's going on," Sabatina said. "Then he said, 'I have your check.' I met him and got it on Sunday."

And we've got problems?

Philadelphia took all sorts of lumps

this fall for alleged voter fraud. It was one of many big cities, highlighted by Republican operatives, where community groups turned in thousands of voter-registration applications that were rejected by election officials for bogus names, bad addresses and other obvious problems.

As far as we know, none of the phony applicants ever managed to vote.

But what about Choconut Township, a small community in Susquehanna County, near the Pennsylvania/New York border?

Its unofficial election results show a total of 366 registered voters and 369 votes for president - a phenomenal 101 percent turnout. (An additional 10 Choconut voters apparently chose not to cast votes in the presidential race.)

John McCain carried the township by 63 votes, 216 to 153.

Blank for State Rep

The Democratic Party sample ballots distributed in most of Center City had a curious blank where the state House contest was supposed to be listed. Turns out, incumbent Babette Josephs failed to pay the "assessment" that was "requested" by City Committee. She professes not to remember the amount.

"I wanted to give my money to some hardworking Democrats in other parts of the state who could use the money now," Josephs said. She mentioned Judy Hirsch, a Democrat who nearly toppled longtime Republican Sen. Jeffrey Piccola in Harrisburg, and Fern Kaufman, who narrowly lost a House race in Chester County.

Josephs was also miffed at some sample ballots distributed in April's primary, touting one of her opponents. But after winning re-election to a 13th term with better than 80 percent of the vote, she said she intends to give some money to City Committee in spite of the Election Day slight, "as soon as I do some fundraising. . . . I don't want to be fighting with them forever."

The GOP's future

At a post-election breakfast Wednesday, Committee of Seventy president Zack Stalberg asked U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter and Gov. Rendell, "Does the Republican Party belong to Sarah Palin now?"

"No," Specter said.

After some laughs and applause, the crowd seemed to expect Specter to continue.

"If my answer needed amplification, I would have done so," Specter said.

Rendell stepped up. "I think the answer to that is, 'You betcha.' " *

Staff writers Bob Warner and Dave Davies contributed to this report.