Knox fined for role in anti-Nutter primary ad
He'll pay 15G for attack spots that ran on black stations
Former mayoral candidate Tom Knox has agreed to pay $15,500 in fines and expenses for secretly funding an attack ad against Michael Nutter that ran on several black-oriented radio stations in the closing days of the 2007 primary election.
The agreement, made public yesterday by the city Board of Ethics, followed a board investigation that stretched back more than a year and apparently required extensive work on computers used by the Knox campaign.
The board's executive director, J. Shane Creamer Jr., deflected questions on whether Knox and his campaign aides had misled investigators when they first asked Knox about the radio ads.
Knox, a multimillionaire businessman now interested in next year's race for governor, refused to answer any questions about the controversy.
His campaign manager, Josh Morrow, put out a prepared statement that failed to address any specifics in the settlement agreement.
"While the [Knox for Philly] Committee disagrees with several of the Board's allegations, it believes it is in the public interest to defer to the Board's judgment and accept its conclusions in this settlement," Morrow's statement said. "The comparatively minor fine involved does not justify further litigation or cost."
The basis of the radio ads was a dispute over a 15-acre tract of mostly undeveloped land at 49th and Parkside, where the Christian Stronghold Baptist Church wanted to build a new church.
Nutter sided with neighborhood and business groups that said the land should be reserved for a profit-making business, to take advantage of other economic development in the area.
From May 10 into May 15, the day of the 2007 primary, advertisements aired on WURD, WPPZ and WRNB criticizing Nutter for fighting the church's plans. "It was as if he wanted to disrespect the church, which is a step away from disrespecting God," the ads said.
"Paid for by the Alliance for Better Christians," the ads concluded.
In fact, the "Alliance" didn't exist, and the ads were paid for by the Knox campaign, yesterday's settlement agreement disclosed.
Morrow told the Daily News yesterday that neither he nor Knox had been aware of the advertising effort.
But the Ethics Board settlement, signed by Knox, said that the advertising audio had been e-mailed to Morrow on May 6, 2007.
And on May 9, Knox signed a wire transfer sending $13,215 to the West Philadelphia Democratic Club, a political group chaired by Jeffrey Felder. The same day, Felder wrote $13,215 in checks to four radio stations that had been asked to run the ads. One of the stations, WDAS, refused to run the ads and returned the check.
Morrow declined to answer any other questions on the record.
In another announcement at its monthly meeting, the Ethics Board settled a dispute with Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez, whose 2007 campaign had saved $2,500 on newspaper ads by buying them through another campaign committee.
That was a technical violation of a city ordinance allowing candidates to use only one political committee.
Quinones-Sanchez agreed to pay $2,250 in fines, and the Board of Ethics agreed to drop a lawsuit seeking $7,500.
In an interview yesterday, Quinones-Sanchez acknowledged the violation but said that she still felt that the board had been "heavy-handed" in dealing with her campaign, costing her more than $10,000 in legal fees besides the fine.