He jumped into the fray after collecting nominating petitions for a second challenge to Center City State Rep. Babette Josephs. The last time around, he lost the primary by 193 votes.

His Senate race opponents - John J. Dougherty and Anne Dicker - would like voters to think Farnese joined at the behest of Fumo, who is resigning after 30 years in office to deal with an upcoming federal corruption trial.

Not so, Farnese has said time and time again.

Yesterday morning, while greeting potential voters at the subway station at Broad Street and Oregon Avenue, he said decided to run to prevent Dougherty - and Fumo, who was still a candidate at the time - from winning.

Dicker, a grassroots activist, had already entered the race, but Farnese said he saw she had only $6,000 in campaign funds.

"I didn't think she was in a position to run a strong reform campaign to get out the message that needed to get out," he said.

Farnese said he felt he had a good base in Center City, where he lives, that would help him mount a credible challenge.

Then Fumo dropped out of the race.

Farnese's prospects soared after that, not only because the incumbent was no longer a factor but also because so-called Fumocrats, to whom Dougherty is anathema, rallied around the 39-year-old Center City lawyer.

Since then, most of the brass-knuckle attacks in the campaign have involved Dougherty and Farnese, whose late grandfather was a school board president tied to Fumo.

Dougherty went all the way to the state Supreme Court to get Farnese's name off the ballot because of irregularities in his nominating petitions, and he often draws attention to the Fumo camp's support for Farnese, including behind-the-scenes lobbying by the senator himself.

Farnese has highlighted an FBI search of Dougherty's house, the union leader's reputation for hard-nosed tactics, and his past support for Republicans, including former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum.

In an appearance before the Democratic City Committee last week, he said of Dougherty: "He's a thug that has tried to intimidate my staff, supporters and volunteers - including some people in this room - making veiled physical threats, promising legal action and every time acting like the bully that he is."

The committee ended up endorsing Dougherty.

For Farnese, who has family roots in South Philadelphia but grew up in Drexel Hill, campaigning has been marked by a daily series of press-the-flesh events, fund-raising calls, and candidate forums.

He said that most days between 7:30 and 9 a.m., he does what he did yesterday: hand out campaign literature to commuters with his boyish smile and a quick "Larry Farnese. Democrat for state Senate."

"We reach a couple hundred people each morning," Farnese said. "Monday mornings are hard. People are not happy. Fridays are good."

On the stump, Farnese portrays himself as a reformer with a realist's eyes.

For example, on casinos - a key issue in a district where both of Philadelphia's slots parlors are to be built - Farnese said it probably would not be possible to stop gambling.

What he said he supported is moving them from the Delaware River waterfront. "Fight to re-site," he said.

On other issues, he supports abortion rights and gay marriage, and he wants to change state law to allow Philadelphia to write its own gun-control laws, and to end the reliance on property taxes to fund education.

One issue that has come up during the campaign is that Farnese, a commercial litigator at Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney, was registered as a Republican until 1999, when he changed parties.

"When I was younger, I was impressionable," he said in a debate on WHYY's Radio Times. "As I got older, I realized my values, my beliefs were with the Democratic Party . . . just like many, many young people."

Patty Byrnes, who works in the government-relations practice group at Buchanan, said that while Farnese was not in her department, she had relied on him for his political insights and legal knowledge, including campaign financing regulations.

"He's very easy to work with and he's very team-oriented," said Byrnes.

Farnese, who is single, lists a number of political and neighborhood associations to which he belongs, including Casa Farnese, a subsidized senior housing facility in South Philadelphia founded by his grandfather Andrew.

Still, Josephs said Farnese seemed to come out of nowhere when he ran against her in 2006.

Noting that he had originally planned to run against her again this year, she said, "I think it's super that he believes that John Dougherty is easier to beat than Babette Josephs."