Darrell Clarke, still mum on 2015, is using N.Y. consultant

CLOUT DOESN'T know if City Council President Darrell Clarke will enter the 2015 mayor's race.

But we're pretty confident that Clarke doesn't need an out-of-town media strategist to help him seek a fifth term on Council next year if he rules out a run for mayor.

Consider that while we tell you that Clarke is getting advice from Hank Sheinkopf, a New York-based Democratic consultant with Philadelphia experience.

Sheinkopf said he met with Clarke for lunch six weeks ago.

"The Council president asked me to hang around to give him some guidance," Sheinkopf said. "He loves the city. He's an extraordinary Philadelphian."

Sheinkopf worked on Marty Weinberg's 1999 Democratic primary campaign for mayor and also for state Sen. Tina Tartaglione and former City Controller Jonathan Saidel.

Sheinkopf came up with the attention-grabbing first negative television commercial in 1999.

In what became known as the "shove ad," then-City Councilman John Street was shown pushing to the ground a TV reporter in City Hall in 1981.

The ad's tagline: John Street for mayor? You decide.

Street, Clarke's former boss and political mentor, won the primary and general elections, then served two terms as mayor.

Now Weinberg is backing state Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, who announced his candidacy for mayor last week.

Weinberg yesterday called his former consultant "a very competent media person" and predicted an interesting 2015 primary.

Sheinkopf acknowledged that Clarke, by taking no action so far, has partially frozen the field.

City Controller Alan Butkovitz, long considered a likely candidate, decided last week to stay out of the race because Clarke would not say if he will run.

And several labor unions are holding off on backing a candidate until Clarke makes a move.

"It tells you a lot about what people think of him and how they regard him," Sheinkopf said of Clarke. "As to what he decides to do, that's his decision."

Charles Gibbs, chairman of Clarke's political-action committee, declined to say what office Clarke would seek next year.

"We're working with him, along with a number of people, getting ready for 2015," Gibbs said of Sheinkopf. "There will be an appropriate announcement at an appropriate time."

Former District Attorney Lynne Abraham is touting an internal campaign poll that shows her with a "significant lead over current and potential opponents" in the mayoral primary, but she is still trailing "undecided."

Abraham, who jumped into the race last week, emailed a summary of the poll to reporters.

It shows her with 31 percent support from Democratic voters, while Clarke has 12 percent and Williams has 9 percent.

Undecided was at 36 percent.

Abraham's poll showed her running strongest in Northeast Philly and in the city's river wards.

State Rep. Dwight Evans also has a new poll, but he's not sharing it with the media just yet.

An Evans aide told the Inquirer last week that his poll shows him trailing only Abraham if he enters the race for mayor.

He told us yesterday that the poll showed him "6 or 7 points" behind Abraham. Evans said that he, Abraham and Clarke were all in "double-digits" in the poll.

As in Abraham's poll, undecided held the lead.

Evans first told us in January 2013 that he was considering a third run for mayor.

He has had disappointing showings in the past, taking less than 5 percent of the primary vote in 1999 and 7 percent in 2007.

"Obviously I have a clear vision of what I would think it would take," Evans said of next year.

Phone: 215-854-5973