Knox won’t run in mayoral election

Tom Knox, whose 2007 campaign attacks on Michael Nutter invoked the wrath of the city's Board of Ethics, said Tuesday that he had no stomach for the negative campaign it would take to win in 2011, and instead endorsed Nutter for a second term as mayor.

Joining former Gov. Ed Rendell in a Tuesday morning news conference, Knox said his own complaints about Nutter's administration did not warrant a "divisive" campaign disparaging Nutter's first term in office.

"I'm not up for that type of fight," said Knox, 70, the multimillionaire businessman who finished second to Nutter in the five-way 2007 Democratic primary. "This is an honest, hardworking, decent man."

That man was also the target of negative campaigning by Knox and his supporters in 2007, first by the electricians' union, which distributed fliers linking Nutter to strip searches of black men and then another suggesting he abandoned Catholicism for political reasons.

Local 98 of the International Association of Electrical Workers agreed to a $10,000 fine to settle an Ethics Board complaint for failing to properly disclose its funding for those fliers.

"I didn't put those fliers out. We know who did - it wasn't me," Knox said Tuesday. "That wasn't a very pleasant experience."

The Knox campaign later settled another Ethics Board complaint for $15,000, admitting its role in setting up a sham political action committee to fund ads on African American-oriented radio stations accusing Nutter of "disrespecting God" by opposing a church's relocation.

That leaves Nutter with one opponent, T. Milton Street Sr., ex-convict and brother of former Mayor John F. Street. Milton Street has promised to harness a legion of disenfranchised ex-offenders to his cause.

Rendell, who has periodically butted heads with Nutter, officially endorsed the mayor as well - something he did not do in 2007, when he officially refused to endorse any of five candidates in the primary. Rendell in 2007 did let slip his admiration for one candidate, State Rep. Dwight Evans.

Rendell would later give Nutter a no-brainer endorsement for the general election against Republican Al Taubenberger.

On Tuesday, Rendell credited Nutter for steering the city through the financial crisis and being a successful cheerleader for it - two of Rendell's strongest resumé points from his time as mayor from 1992 to 2000.

"When you run against an incumbent, you have to run an almost entirely negative campaign," Rendell said.

"And that's not who I am," Knox said.

Knox and Rendell have history, Knox having spent 17 months in the Rendell administration as the dollar-a-year deputy mayor for management and productivity.

Rendell, whose name has occasionally bobbed to the surface in discussion of potential Nutter opponents, said he would spend his time "earning as much money as I can" to help put tax money into city coffers.

Knox flirted with a challenge to Nutter in the general election as an independent, as his polling numbers said the mayor was beatable in the general election but not in the primary. Knox recently held out the possibility that he would gather signatures for a run in the Democratic primary.

Nutter said he had asked Knox directly for his support. As part of the Tuesday news conference, Nutter announced the creation of the Mayor's Task Force on Facility Management, Utilization and Disposition to look at ways to better use 1,300 city-owned facilities, with Knox as the chairman, an unpaid position.

The task force appointment was not a condition of the endorsement but something he had discussed with Knox previously, before the campaign was on, Nutter said.

Knox said Nutter had heard his concerns.

"He understands the criticism and is willing to listen to the people of Philadelphia," Knox said. "I do believe that Michael can do a better job than I can."

Knox said that he could have attacked Nutter on a number of fronts - "there's always ammunition" - but that many of Nutter's problems came from a battered economy.

"Being mayor of Philadelphia is a tough, tough job," Knox said. "It's made even tougher when you don't have any money."