Pumping up the ire before mayor's speech

Mayor Nutter's budget address Thursday was a raucous affair, with a gallery full of agitated city workers chanting, booing, and shouting slightly menacing phrases like "Get your hand out of my pocket!"

The city's blue- and white-collar workers have gone nearly three years without a new contract and four without a pay raise.

They got pumped up even before the mayor entered Council chambers, thanks to a resolution introduced by Councilman Wilson Goode Jr. urging Nutter "to end the . . . stalemate and demands for contract concessions."

It was an unusual move.

"While Council has not historically inserted itself into contract matters, historically we've never gone four years without a contract," Goode said Friday.

He said he was not advocating that the mayor take a certain position in negotiations, just that he should change his tone toward the unions.

"It doesn't mean he can't ask for concessions, but demanding them doesn't take into account the sacrifices that have been made," Goode said.

- Troy Graham
And the nominees are . . .

Former State Rep. Harold James and Democratic ward leader Gary Williams are odds-on favorites to become state House members in late April or early May - but their tenures in Harrisburg figure to be short, just seven or eight months each.

Each has secured the backing of Democratic ward leaders to run in special elections scheduled for April 24, in heavily Democratic districts - in James' case, to finish the term of new City Councilman Kenyatta Johnson, and in Williams', to complete the term of city Sheriff Jewell Williams (no relation).

But neither of the new candidates is running in the simultaneous primary election to continue into the next legislative term, which begins in January.

Gary Williams, 57, a former aide to Councilman Darrell Clarke and State Rep. Michelle Brownlee, was knocked off the primary ballot by a petition challenge, and James, 70, a former policeman who served in the House from 1989 through 2008, signed papers last week seeking to withdraw from the primary (though he told The Inquirer he hadn't made up his mind).

Republican ward leaders have picked Steven Crum, 50, an actor living in Tioga, to run against Williams, and Barbara Hankinson to oppose James. Former State Sen. Milton Street is talking about running on behalf of a new political party, but it's unclear whether this stratagem will pass muster with state election officials.

In a third special election in the Far Northeast, to fill the House seat formerly held by Councilman Denny O'Brien, the Democratic candidate is Ed Neilson, 48, a former political director for the electricians' union who worked in Gov. Ed Rendell's administration. The Republican candidate is David Kralle, 25, who has been working for O'Brien since high school.

- Bob Warner