David Tayoun, son of Jimmy, throws his hat into A.C. mayor ring

David Tayoun, son of former Philadelphia City Councilman Jimmy Tayoun, is running for mayor.

Of Atlantic City.

"I'm going to be spending my weekends canvassing in Atlantic City," said the elder Tayoun, who publishes the Philadelphia Public Record.

David Tayoun, 42, is a former Atlantic City cop and onetime city official who's no stranger to the rough-and-tumble of the resort town's politics.

He narrowly lost a race for City Council there in 2001 (he says he was undone by tainted absentee ballots), and his stormy nine-month tenure as the city's chief code-enforcement officer in 2006 ended with a firing and a lawsuit.

Tayoun claims that then-Mayor Bob Levy removed him from his post as director of neighborhood services because Tayoun was exposing municipal corruption. Tayoun filed a whistle-blower lawsuit over the firing.

Tayoun's detractors note that investigators demanded records involving his purchase of a property across the street from his house that his own agency had cited for code violations.

Tayoun says that the inquiry, which led to no charges, was nothing but political retaliation. "I was uncovering so much corruption, it was getting too close [to city leaders] for comfort," he told the Daily News yesterday.

Tayoun will run in the June 2 Democratic primary against incumbent mayor Lorenzo Langford, a former pit boss at the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort, and City Councilman Marty Small. Tayoun will formally announce his candidacy tomorrow.

Jimmy Tayoun, a veteran of ward politics who did prison time for a 1991 corruption case, said he's sure he can help his son. "There are a lot of people in Atlantic City who know me and like me," he said. "I'll be knocking on doors all over town."

Another of Tayoun's sons, James, lost a 2004 State Senate race to Philadelphia incumbent Vince Fumo. Fumo is now awaiting a verdict in his corruption case.