CLEM MURRAY / Inquirer Staff Photographer
Republican mayoral candidate Al Taubenberger leaves a Young Republicans event at the Benjamin Franklin House in Center City. “I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t think I was going to win. I’m in it to win it,” he says.
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Uphill climb for Taubenberger
Odds are against the GOP candidate for mayor, but that won’t stop him.
"If you take the time to knock on someone's door, they're generally pretty polite. They'll tell you what's on their minds. It makes a difference."
Contact staff writer Gail Shister at 215-854-2224 or gshister@phillynews.com. Read her recent work at http://go.philly.com/gailshister.
Top priority on Taubenberger's platform: "Jobs, jobs, jobs. The mayor needs to be chief salesman as well as chief executive. . . . I'm good at it."
Public safety: More police, with better deployment and increased foot patrols. His single most important appointment would be police commissioner, he says.
Education: Smaller classes in the public schools, particularly at the elementary level.
He differs with Nutter on the issue of stop-and-frisk. To Taubenberger, it's very personal, and he's against it. "I don't like people targeted for any reason."
When he was 21, Taubenberger discovered that his father, like many other German and Japanese immigrants, had been interned during World War II.
Alfred Sr., who came to America in 1930, was detained in 1941 for almost 18 months at Army bases in New Jersey, Maryland, Texas and North Dakota.
Taubenberger made the discovery while applying for visas for a family trip to Germany. His father hadn't told him "because he never wanted me to have a bad feeling about this country, which he loved so much."
Five weeks before he died from cancer in 1983, Alfred Sr. became a U.S. citizen. "His journey was complete," Taubenberger says, fighting back tears.
Few believe that Taubenberger will complete his journey to City Hall, and that liberating absence of expectation, in itself, may explain why he's having so much fun along the way.
"He's almost like a great musician," says Katz. "He doesn't really care if the audience likes the music or not, he enjoys playing it. There's a lot to be said for that."
Contact staff writer Gail Shister at 215-854-2224 or gshister@phillynews.com. Read her recent work at http://go.philly.com/gailshister.
