Fishing for votes in the projects

DANNY ALVAREZ is the fisherman; he's fishing for votes.

He's the Republican candidate for district attorney. Captain Ahab had a better chance of bagging Moby Dick than Alvarez has of unseating Democratic incumbent Seth Williams.

Unlike Ahab, drowned when pulled under the waves by the white whale, Alvarez will survive to fish another day. (See Clout, Page 10.)

Tuesday the voters get their say, but for many months Alvarez has been having his say with voters, such as Wednesday in the Norman Blumberg Apartments in Sharswood, a few blocks north of Girard College.

I spent a few hours canvassing with him on that gray day. The sky is squeezing out a few drops, perhaps a metaphor for Alvarez, a former assistant D.A. who left after eight years to go into private practice. He's a Republican trying to squeeze enough votes to eke out a victory over Williams in a blue lake where Democrats hold a 6.7-to-1 registration edge over the GOP.

He's fishing for votes in a public-housing project? A Republican?

Alvarez isn't that kind of Republican. Born in Virginia, the son of a janitor, midway though his education at the Virginia Military Institute (perhaps because of it), Alvarez developed notions about self-reliance and personal responsibility, but also charity. He is a regular churchgoer far more likely to say "God bless" at the end of a conversation than "goodbye."

I get to Blumberg first and Alvarez, 35, in a green fleece windbreaker and tan slacks, walks up with Republican 29th Ward Leader Adam Lang and Alvarez's senior adviser, Brian McCann. A product of the Northeast, McCann talks about how Democrats have the "cool factor" and Republicans need to glom that to attract young(er) voters.

Uncool is going to the top floor of each tower, knocking on the door of every registered voter, shaking hands and asking for votes. McCann estimates Alvarez has knocked on more than 30,000 doors while canvassing, the drudge work of one-on-one retail politics.

Each hallway has a distinct odor, McCann notes, some good, some not. The staircases we use to get down, floor by floor, from the 18th story, are littered with plastic drug bags. "This is ridiculous," says Alvarez. "People shouldn't have to live like this."

At each door, Lang knocks and introduces himself - always through a closed door - and says he wants to present Danny Alvarez for D.A. to talk about the election. All doors open, except for one. The tenants, almost all African-American, are courteous. I'm guessing they rarely see white guys in these halls who aren't carrying badges and guns.

Alvarez's standard opening is, "I came to talk to you out of respect and concern and the other guy doesn't." He speaks briefly, hands them his literature and heads for the next apartment, trailing Lang.

"A good quarter of what I do is knocking on doors so they can see my face," says Alvarez, who, if elected, would become Philadelphia's highest-ranking elected Hispanic.

While the odds are long, I remember when a Republican took a citywide seat - Ron Castille won the D.A.'s office in 1985. But he was running for a vacant seat and the Democratic nonentity who opposed him barely campaigned. That was a low-turnout election. This one will be too, with Lang estimating 10 percent.

That means the underdog has a chance if he can turn out a strong vote and his opponent doesn't. Lightning does strike, sometimes.

Alvarez campaigns every day, starting with train stops in the morning, canvassing in the afternoon and civic associations and fundraising in the evening.

"He takes it seriously, like he has a good version of OCD," says McCann. Not many people want to spend all day knocking on doors and begging strangers for their vote.

Alvarez doesn't enjoy spending so much time away from his wife and two kids, but he made a commitment to do something, part of a philosophy that began coalescing at VMI.

"You only live once and if you believe in something, you go for it. You got to have guts," he says.

He has guts, but he is fishing in a lake that is very big and very blue.

Phone: 215-854-5977

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