Philly Dems wanted $340G in 'street money' - Wolf said no

It's a Philadelphia tradition: Democratic candidates for governor and even president are asked to give hundreds of thousands of dollars in "street money" to the party's ward leaders to finance get-out-the-vote operations in the city on Election Day. They usually say yes.

Tom Wolf, asked for $340,000, said no.

The Democratic gubernatorial nominee declined to reach into his campaign fund for the money, saying he wanted to win by appealing to voters on issues and offering the chance to defeat Gov. Corbett, who remains unpopular in the city.

"I'm not one to do that," Wolf, a York businessman whose run for governor is his first, told The Inquirer last week. "I think I'm trying to appeal to people's best instincts to vote. I don't want them to vote or bring people out or do something because I'm paying them - I want them to do it because they actually think their lives might be better. It might sound naive . . . if it takes some cash to do that, then I've failed as a politician."

This fall, many Democrats have been fretting about turnout in the city, the linchpin of their statewide victories, noting the risk of complacency bred by Wolf's continuous lead over Corbett in the polls, along with the tendency of the party's core constituencies to vote in much lower numbers than during presidential years compared with Republicans.

Wolf has "probably spent all his money on TV [advertising] already," said U.S. Rep. Bob Brady (D., Pa.) who also is the longtime chairman of the Democratic City Committee.

And it's not that money won't be there: Wolf has allowed supporters to contribute to the city party for turnout purposes, but he won't use his campaign funds, Brady said. Plus, a familiar figure has stepped in to help: Brady said former Gov. Ed Rendell - a gifted raiser of campaign money - had put together $100,000 to use as street money.

"It's a work in progress," Brady said last week, figuring he would eventually get enough to cover most of Tuesday's citywide efforts.

He declined to name any donors who might have helped, saying, "You'll have to wait for the [campaign-finance] reports."

The party chief said he calculated the need for about $340,000 by figuring on $200 for each of the 1,700 or so voting divisions in the city. Street money is distributed to the 69 Democratic ward leaders, who in turn parcel it out to their committee people for poll-watching, door-knocking, leafletting, giving rides to the polls, and the like - all the tasks involved in getting out the vote.

The practice is entirely legal if the raising and spending of the money, like other campaign expenses, is reported. But chicanery has often ensued when some ward leaders and ward-level political consultants failed to account for the cash.

"The thing that's troubling about street money is that it's difficult to account for," said Ellen Mattleman Kaplan, interim president of the watchdog group Committee of Seventy - especially, she said, "if cash is given out," as is often the case.

Candidates have usually kicked in the money, with the top of the ticket paying most. There's been some resistance in recent years: President Obama declined to put up street money here for either of his races, relying instead on his own organization - and his historic appeal - to bring out voters in the city.

Bringing them out on Tuesday is Brady's current concern.

"I'm worried about turnout, honestly," he said. "A lot of people think it's over, and I'm trying to juice turnout."

The well-funded Wolf campaign has built its own field organization and is getting get-out-the-vote help from union and other sources, such as State Rep. Dwight Evans' political operation in Northwest Philadelphia.

Wolf said he didn't know whether his refusal to put up campaign money would end up hurting him. He didn't think so, he said, because Democrats were on the same page and motivated.

"I want to win the right way," he said.

Evans predicted any lack of street money would not be decisive. Wolf won 65 of 69 Democratic wards in the spring primary, "and he didn't have the ward leaders with him," Evans said. "This election is too important for the city and state. Look at what's going on in the Philadelphia school system - that's motivation enough."

Issues don't always trump cash, though. Ward leaders tell a story from 1980, when Ted Kennedy was battling President Jimmy Carter for the nomination, and Vice President Walter F. Mondale, meeting with the ward leaders ahead of the Pennsylvania primary, gave a speech about their shared Democratic values.

"That's all very good, Mr. Vice President," said Sam Grillo, a ward leader in Kensington. "But what about the street money?"

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the leadership of Northeast Philadelphia's 50th ward. City Councilwoman Marian Tasco is ward leader of the 50th.

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