Archive: November, 2008
Chris Brennan
PhillyClout has heard a couple of interesting rumors about Chris Matthews from MSNBC's Hardball running for the U.S. Senate as a Democrat in 2010 against incumbent Republican Senator Arlen Specter. We ran those rumors by political consultant Neil Oxman this afternoon. First up: We hear Matthews is talking to Oxman about running the media for his campaign. We also hear Matthews is looking around for a teaching post out west in Pittsburgh.
Oxman, who did the media for Mayor Nutter's campaign last year and for Joe Hoeffel's unsuccessful run against Specter in 2004, said Matthews has not hired anybody to run for anything yet. "If he runs, I hope to be involved," Oxman said. "I have not settled anything with him."
Oxman has been urging Matthews, a Philadelphia native who loves to talk about his hometown on television, to run for the Senate for years. "I know he's thinking about it," Oxman said. "That's all I can say. He's weighing all his options."
So what about that Pittsburgh teaching gig? The biography for Matthews posted on MSNBC.com notes that he was a visiting fellow at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, Institute of Politics and holds 16 honorary Ph.D.s. "He's talked about teaching someplace in Pennsylvania," Oxman said. "That's one of the places he's talked about."
Catherine Lucey
According to www.fivethirtyeight.com, TV personality Chris Matthews is in talks with "veteran Obama staffers" to work on his rumored senate campaign. Matthews is reportedly considering taking on U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter in 2010.Check out the report here.
Catherine Lucey
Clout reports that an assistant managing director lost his job after trying to get the police commissioner to fix a traffic ticket.Have the Foxwoods Casino and the American Commerce Center skyscraper received different treatments from the city?
Family of a man who was brutally beaten in a SEPTA concourse is suing SEPTA and the city.
Will Black Friday be a bust this year?
Chris Brennan
City workers are now trimming an enormous Christmas tree erected in the City Hall courtyard yesterday afternoon. Mayor Nutter's press office passes along this information about the tree from the Fairmount Park Commission:
The Colorado Blue Spruce is 33-feet-tall, 24-feet wide, weighs 3,000 pounds and is estimated to be 35 years old. Fairmount Park workers supervised by an arborist harvested the tree, which was donated by an anonymous donor from Northeast Philadelphia. Sautter Crane Rental lent a large crane and flatbed truck to remove, transport and install the tree, which received an escort from the Philadelphia Police Department.
Catherine Lucey
Hardball host Chris Matthews met this week with state Democrats to talk about potentially running for Republican Arlen Specter's senate seat in 2010, according to this report from the Tribune Washington Bureau.Here's an excerpt:
Leading the pack of prospects -- at least in celebrity -- is Chris Matthews, the MSNBC "Hardball" host and a former Capitol Hill Democratic staffer. The Philadelphia native has been toying with a run for months, and this week he sat down with state Democrats to discuss the prospect of taking on the five-term GOP senator.
Others considered in the mix include Rep. Joe Sestak, who is sitting on $3 million in campaign funds; state Rep. Josh Shapiro; and U.S. Rep. Allyson Y. Schwartz, a two-term Philadelphia area lawmaker who has moved up quickly on the Hill and has a Rolodex full of prospective donors from her unsuccessful 2000 Senate run. "We'll see," she said about a repeat bid.
Catherine Lucey
Mayor Nutter's effort to get more federal aid for cities is moving forward. Yesterday, top city administrators -- including Budget Director Steve Agostini and Finance Director Rob Dubow -- hosted a conference call with officials from cities around the country to talk about municipal fiscal woes.On the call were chiefs of staff and budget personnel from Dallas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Baltimore, Miami, Milwaukee and Minneapolis. They talked about Nutter's request that the federal government make some of the $700 billion bailout package available to cities -- so that cities could borrow to shore up pension funds, run their governments and start infrastructure projects.
Many cities, like Philadelphia, are facing devastating budget shortfalls due to low tax revenues and poor performance of pension fund investments. Nutter spokesman Luke Butler said the other cites expressed support for the request for federal aid. The next step will be a conference call between the cities and the Treasury Department.
Catherine Lucey
State Sen. Vince Fumo wanted to "nail" a man dating his ex-girfriend, according to an email revealed yesterday in his corruption trial.Nutter tries to explain his budget cuts to South Philly in his first town hall meeting.
The City Controller calls for the elimination of student transpasses.
Details on tomorrow's Thanksgiving Day parade.
Catherine Lucey
South Philly gave Mayor Nutter an earful on the budget cuts tonight.Nutter held the first town hall meeting on his budget plan at South Philadelphia High School this evening. Many emotional attendees begged Nutter to reconsider closing libraries and pools, and asked him if he had sought out new revenue and outside funding for city services.
“I believe you’re cutting the middle class and the poor, the services that they need,” said Karen Brown, president of the Southwark Civic Association, “What are you going to do with the youth in the summer when crime goes rampant when they have no place to go?”
Tonight's session was the first of eight community meetings Nutter has scheduled around the city to talk about the budget. Nutter was joined by more than a dozen top city officials, including Managing Director Camille Barnett, Chief of Staff Clay Armbrister and Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey.
“These were not easy circumstances and they were not easy decisions,” Nutter said told the crowd of about five hundred in the school auditorium. “They were very heartfelt, in many cases they went against the grain of what I have promoted as a public official for 15 years.”
Chris Brennan
Check out the latest video conversation from the City Hall bureaus of the Philadelphia Daily News and the Philadelphia Inquirer, where we discuss the anticipated reception for Mayor Nutter as he begins eight town hall meetings around the city to explain his budget cuts.
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David Gambacorta spent a small eternity writing about cops, drug dealers and serial killers. Now he’s writing about power and politics – which sometimes reminds him of the old crime beat. He joined the Daily News in 2005. And yes, he knows you’re not quite sure how to pronounce his last name. E-mail tips to gambacd@phillynews.com
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Jan Ransom, a native New Yorker, joined the Daily News in 2010 after graduating from Howard University. She has since written about the difficulty of filing police complaints, tax deadbeats and life after violent home invasions. She joined the Daily News City Hall Bureau in 2011 and has plunged headfirst into reporting on administration budget battles and City Council shenanigans. E-mail tips to ransomj@phillynews.com
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Sean Collins Walsh is from Bucks County and went to Northwestern University. He joined the Daily News copy desk in 2012 and now covers the Nutter administration. Before that, he interned at papers including The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News and The Seattle Times. E-mail tips to walshSE@phillynews.com
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