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Phila. clout in Harrisburg and D.C. took Election Day hit

Forgive Mayor Nutter if he's caught wearing a Pittsburgh Steelers jersey. After being saddled with a crushing recession that forced him to cut spending and raise taxes, the mayor must find ways to squeeze money from a state government that has less to give - and that will in January be controlled entirely by an opposing political party.

Forgive Mayor Nutter if he's caught wearing a Pittsburgh Steelers jersey.

After being saddled with a crushing recession that forced him to cut spending and raise taxes, the mayor must find ways to squeeze money from a state government that has less to give - and that will in January be controlled entirely by an opposing political party.

Consider the case of Pennsylvania's governor-elect, Tom Corbett. He is not just a Republican but a Westerner whose home is in Allegheny County. As such, he is everything that Gov. Rendell is not - and he's no Eagles fan to boot.

Then there is the Pennsylvania House, which was reclaimed by Republicans, by a majority of at least 111-92, in Tuesday's election, while the state Senate remained in GOP hands.

For years, Philadelphia has had no Republican senators. And now, given the defeat Tuesday of longtime Northeast Rep. John M. Perzel, the city will have just two Republican representatives in the House - John Taylor of Port Richmond and Dennis O'Brien of the Far Northeast - leaving the city with just a small voice among Pennsylvania's new power brokers.

"My job is to remind people around the state of the importance of Philadelphia," said Taylor, who noted that almost every Southeast suburban legislator or a family member either works in Philadelphia, went to school there, or has been to a doctor there.

Also, come January, the city's most influential lawmaker, Democratic Rep. Dwight Evans, will have to cede control of the purse strings at the House Appropriations Committee.

That's not all.

In Washington, the city's clout will likewise take a nosedive. Longtime Sen. Arlen Specter, a Republican-turned-Democrat, is serving his final months after his primary defeat and will be replaced by Republican Pat Toomey - a freshman who will be in that chamber's minority party.

With the U.S. House switching from Democratic to GOP control, the city will have nobody to represent its voice in the majority party, since all three of its House members - Bob Brady, Chaka Fattah, and Allyson Y. Schwartz - are Democrats.

Taken together, all of those Election Day changes, Democratic consultant Larry Ceisler said, make Philadelphia one big loser.

"If you don't have a seat at the table, you don't have the same political leverage," he said. "This is one of the reasons Philadelphia needs a vibrant and competitive Republican Party, for times like this."

By most accounts, Nutter is well-liked and respected in Washington and, especially, Harrisburg, where two summers ago he knocked on the office doors of most lawmakers as he sought a 1-cent increase in the city sales tax.

"Aside from ideology and the positions Mike may advance, they see him as accessible and willing to go there and make the ask," former GOP Gov. Mark Schweiker said.

What is at stake going forward are hundreds of millions of dollars the city receives in federal and state funds.

Generally, the city draws about 15 percent of its operating revenue, which was about $600 million this year, from the state, and 5 percent from the federal government, with most of it paying for human services, public health, and education programs. Considerable aid also comes from other state sources - such as $4.7 million in grants and tax credits that Rendell announced last week for the generic-drug company Teva Pharmaceuticals, which is expanding into Northeast Philadelphia.

There is deep concern that similar economic-development projects may not get much support in the future, given Pennsylvania's nearly $5 billion deficit and Corbett's pledge not to raise taxes.

Nonetheless, Nutter's chief political adviser, former Democratic State Rep. Richard Hayden, said the worry about Philadelphia's weakened position was to some extent exaggerated. For one thing, he said, substantial state dollars flow to the city based on specific funding formulas that typically take into account population and income levels.

Also, Hayden said, "there is a sense the city has gotten its house in order and that the requests that come from the city are not over the top."

Yet the animus among Republicans and some rural Democrats toward Philadelphia is palpable.

"They did lose their personal governor, whose sole purpose, many members felt, was to divert state funding to Philadelphia," said Steve Miskin, longtime spokesman for House Republicans.

Republicans saw Rendell's funding formulas for education as geared toward maximizing Philadelphia's gain, at the expense of other districts. The $786 million Convention Center expansion – which Miskin dubbed the "Rendellosseum" - was funded almost exclusively with revenue from casinos that Rendell championed.

Most glaring, however, was Rendell's authorization of up to $10 million – later scaled back to under $2 million – to build a library named after Specter.

"No one's going to allow Philadelphia to starve," Miskin said. "It's just time to stop the reckless spending and have some accountability."

When Harrisburg was also an all-Republican town under the Ridge administration (from 1995 to 2001), Philadelphia did not necessarily fare badly.

It was at that time, for instance, that the state agreed to contribute $85 million apiece toward the new Phillies and Eagles stadiums. Later, under Schweiker, the state took over the city's public school system through the School Reform Commission, which was hailed as a key step in improving city schools.

Looking ahead to the next year, Hayden said, "Philadelphia will be in the same position, I believe, as other counties in trying to figure out what happens under a Corbett administration."

The impact, however, could hit the city harder because of the sheer number of dollars spent here. Cuts in state spending could result in the city's reducing those programs it is not required to fund, such as social-services-related prevention programs, and those concerning the homeless and housing overall.

Public-relations consultant Bill Miller, a veteran of Philadelphia politics, declared 2011 "the year of the strategist," saying: "This environment is going to force you to think your way through it."

A day after the election, Nutter himself commented that he was still digesting the political realities of the results. "Now is the time for relationship development and building for the future," he said. "I do have some new people I need to meet and get to know." Corbett is among them.

"The campaign is over," the mayor said. "Now we have to figure out how we are going to work together."

Mark Holman, who was Tom Ridge's chief of staff and is now a Washington lobbyist, observed that relations had improved much between the city and state in the last 20 years.

"There is more support for the city around the state than people realize, and more respect for its importance in Pennsylvania," he said.

Besides, Philadelphia also has something the rest of the state does not. "Those of us from Pittsburgh" - himself included, he said - "who have not had a winning baseball team can root for the Phillies."