Schmidt's running for controller. Unlike other recent candidates, Schmidt is a Republican, former executive director of the city committee, and not a Democrat who flipped to avoid an expensive primary. And he's qualified, having worked five years at the Government Accountability Office in D.C., the auditing arm of Congress charged with investigating how the government spends taxpayers' money.

That's precisely what a city controller should do. In a year when the budget and fiscal woes have dominated, the controller's job is paramount in ferreting out waste. In a city where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans almost 7-1, a watchdog should be indebted to few. He shouldn't be a ward leader, a pooh-bah of local politics, like incumbent Alan Butkovitz, who many believe lacks the sharp incisors for the job. The Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News endorsed primary challenger Brett Mandel; many of his volunteers are now campaigning for Schmidt, a fiscal conservative and social progressive.

GOP boss Michael Meehan has called Schmidt "brilliant." So guess what he did when Schmidt approached him about running? Meehan tried to talk him out of it.

"Who is really interested in the city controller's position?" the boss told Philadelphia magazine. "It's not like there's contracts, OK?"

Meehan earned his job the old-fashioned way, that is to say the Philadelphia way: He inherited it, from his father, Billy, who inherited it from his father, Austin.

And he's wrong about the contracts. The Controller's Office awards plenty. The problem is they're granted to auditing firms, not unqualified crony hacks.

"Your job is to be unpopular. We have a municipal government that's bigger than we can afford," says Schmidt, 38, who has a doctorate in political history from Brandeis. "We have this huge tax burden. Instead of looking to cut costs, we're raising taxes more. We haven't had a single financial audit of any agency of the last year so we can identify any mismanagement."

It was his idea that the Philadelphia City Committee have a full-time executive director instead of only a secretary and administrative assistant. Schmidt had to raise his own salary, and found an additional $50,000 for voter registration. He describes his relationship with party leaders as "cordial." He approached them for a contribution, receiving $5,000 in a campaign that has raised $100,000.

"It's a disappointment so many voters regard the primary as the election. Who bears the responsibility for that? The Republican Party," Schmidt says. "There's ferocious factional fighting within the majority party that gives the impression of competition. But it isn't really a competition of ideas. It's competition between factions for control and patronage."

Not that the GOP is doing much. "The problem with Philadelphia's Republican Party is it's lazy," St. Joseph's Randall Miller says. "Republicans have an obligation to make a case for being Republican. They should use the guarantee of being the minority party to be watchdogs."

The city had a strong controller in Jonathan Saidel, who served for 16 years. "I was independent, consistent, open, and aboveboard," says Saidel, who is running for lieutenant governor and supports Butkovitz.

"Saidel issued these fantastic reports on how the city could reposition itself regionally and nationally. The office can help shape policy," Miller says. "With Butkovitz, it's almost as if it doesn't exist."

The city needs an active, vigilant controller. It needs a true opposition party, too, not a party acting like some Northeast vestige of the House of Lords.

"If I could stop giving a damn about Philadelphia, then I could move on to something else," says Schmidt. "We're doing things differently, and this campaign may turn out to be a failure. But the problem with doing it the same way is that we know it will be one."