Candidates woo voters on the last Saturday before Tuesday mayoral primary
Frozen yogurt, a basketball clinic, handshakes with military veterans. The six candidates for the Democratic nomination for mayor criss-crossed the city on the last Saturday before Tuesday's primary election.
Frozen yogurt, a basketball clinic, handshakes with military veterans. The six candidates for the Democratic nomination for mayor criss-crossed the city on the last Saturday before Tuesday's primary election.
For some voters, there was apparently still plenty of time to decide.
"It's competitive," said Charles Benjamin Clarke, a Vietnam vet who was honored at an American Legion event in Southwest Philadelphia. "I probably won't make up my mind until going into the home stretch."
Clad in black vest and silver-buckled leather boots, Clarke rode his cobalt-blue Harley-Davidson motorcycle in a short parade before State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams and others addressed the crowd.
Williams, one of six candidates for the Democratic nomination, thanked Vietnam veterans for their service, noting that some college students had been able to obtain draft deferments.
"Unfortunately, many working-class Americans who did not go to college lost their lives," Williams said. He pledged to help simplify the the process for homeless vets to get housing.
Farther east, Councilman Jim Kenney struck up conversations with voters at the Italian Market and at Plazapalooza, a festival in the Graduate Hospital neighborhood.
Told that the first issue out of many voters' mouths was education, he said he was not surprised but painted it in broader strokes.
"The number one issue is poverty, which relates to schools," Kenney said, vowing to improve the city's economy and reduce the number of people in jail.
He did his own part to boost commerce at the neighborhood festival, cooling off with a big cup of mango-strawberry yogurt from a cool-sounding store called the Igloo, on Grays Ferry Avenue.
Lynne Abraham, Doug Oliver, Nelson Diaz, and T. Milton Street also were on the move.
Like Kenney, Abraham paid a visit to the Italian Market, among other stops.
On an 84-degree afternoon in the city, one thing all six coped with was heat. At the Graduate Hospital festival, Kenney dipped his hands in a fountain and splashed water on his face.
Then it was on to meet more voters. Three days to go.
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@TomAvril1