Clout: Mo' money, mo' candidates in Fattah's district

OUR COVER STORY in Wednesday's Daily News about Crowdpac, the Silicon Valley startup that's recruiting candidates to run against U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, continued to make waves yesterday, from Northwest Philly to Palo Alto.

"Now this is interesting," Daily Kos political director David Nir wrote about Crowdpac's new website, which features 18 potential Fattah challengers.

Voters can pledge money before candidacies are announced. The money is only dispersed if a candidate decides to run, but Crowdpac will soon be sending out usernames and passwords so potential candidates can login and see if they have any support.

"It's often so hard to recruit people to run against incumbents in primaries, but Fattah is very much the kind of guy we need fewer of," Nir wrote on the Daily Kos site yesterday. "So if Crowdpac can help generate interest in a real challenge to him, that would be awesome."

"Awesome" is probably not the first adjective that comes to mind for Fattah, a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee who has been dogged by an eight-year federal investigation. He denies any wrongdoing. Regardless, Crowdpac's plan to, in the words of one staffer, "stir s--- up," appears to be working.

"It got us talking around here, that's for sure," said state Rep. Brian Sims, who said he was flattered to be listed as a potential candidate but is too tied up in the Harrisburg budget grind to even think about running for Congress.

We hear people are already pledging money through Crowdpac to people like Sims, former Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority director Terry Gillen, 9th Ward leader Dan Muroff, District Attorney Seth Williams, Dare to Imagine Church Pastor Kevin Johnson and former PGW executive Doug Oliver.

Sims, the first openly gay person elected to the state Legislature, was leading the online straw poll yesterday, and Crowdpac intends to add more candidates next week, including Councilman Kenyatta Johnson and Isaiah Thomas, a young teacher who ran unsuccessfully for an at-large City Council seat this year.

Reality check: These could be signs that Fattah is actually going to get primaried next year - especially if an indictment is unsealed - or it could be just a bunch of political types pointing at their screens in a check-out-this-new-Web-thingy kind of way.

But, come on, this is fun, Chaka . . . right? Chaka?

The Inquirer reported last week that former Councilman Frank DiCicco was being considered for a top slot in Jim Kenney's mayoral administration, such as managing director or chief of staff.

Not so fast, says the (future) Kenney administration.

Several high-level campaign staffers of the (likely) mayor-to-be say that Kenney talking to DiCicco was more about professional courtesy than anything else. The two came up together in the Vince Fumo organization and have long been friends.

"I think he is telling folks he's flattered, but he's 69 and has no interest in the 70-hour workweeks that would come with the job," a source said.

DiCicco didn't return calls for comment yesterday. But another Kenney staffer was even more blunt, saying that the last thing the (nearly) mayor-elect needed to do was inaugurate his time in City Hall by appointing old Fumo World buddies to senior offices.

Now, Johnny Doc, who funded a big chunk of Kenney's bid for mayor - his cronies are another story.

Kenney told us outside the Palm the day after the primary that he'd consider asking outgoing at-large Councilman Ed Neilson, who lost his seat in the primary, if he'd be interested in serving in his administration. (Even though, we have to add, Neilson allegedly stole Kenney's office couch, as Clout readers will recall.)

But then we heard Neilson might be interested in returning to the state House, where he served before moving to Council. He said yesterday that he's "exploring" all options. But, "I think it's a little premature to be talking about it."

"I love public service," he said by phone. "I love serving the people."

At which point, we assume, Neilson then stretched his legs out on Kenney's old couch and pondered the vastness of the cosmos.

We caught up with Judah-Lev Dickstein yesterday after getting word that he's directing a documentary about the wet 'n' wild 2nd District Council race between Councilman Kenyatta Johnson and ornery developer Ori Feibush.

"I felt like there were a lot of people who had strong opinions about both candidates," Dickstein said.

You don't say.

Between the hit piece Johnson released of Feibush shirtless in a hot tub and the fake debate that Feibush staged to make Johnson look like a slouch, Dickstein's gotta have plenty of footage.

"It won't be a disappointment," he said.

Dickstein has previously worked as an editor on the documentaries "The Art of the Steal" and "Shut Up and Sing." The Johnson-Feibush documentary, preliminarily set to be released next summer, is as yet untitled.

So, Clout readers, what should it be called? Send suggestions to benderw@phillynews.com. Maybe we'll run the best ones in next week's column.

Daily News reporter and Clout contributor Dave Gambacorta has the first suggestion: "Thrilla in South Phila."

- Daily News staff writers

William Bender, Wendy Ruderman,

David Gambacorta, Mensah M. Dean and Philly.com's Ryan Briggs

contributed to this report.

Phone: 215-854-5255