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For Jim Kenney, no rest for the weary

Kenney attends environmental event, sounding, though not acting, like the city’s next mayor.

Democratic mayoral pick Jim Kenney fields questions from a reporter after a press conference to promote clean water with Lauren Hitt, his campaign spokeswoman, at his arm. ( Wendy Ruderman / Daily News Staff )
Democratic mayoral pick Jim Kenney fields questions from a reporter after a press conference to promote clean water with Lauren Hitt, his campaign spokeswoman, at his arm. ( Wendy Ruderman / Daily News Staff )Read more
    by Wendy Ruderman, <em> Daily News Staff Writer </em>
    Published 

IT'S SUNDAY about 7 p.m., a time when most people try to wring out that last drip of relaxation before the start of another workweek. Nope. Not the high-octane "Jim Kenney for Mayor" team.

Instead of kicking back, Kenney's campaign spokeswoman, Lauren Hitt, was at her computer, alerting the media to a clean-water advocacy event: "Kenney joins representatives from the EPA, Philadelphia Water Department and PennEnvironment to discuss new, historic clean water protections for Philadelphia."

Wait, isn't the primary election over?

Kenney, who slam-dunked the May 19 Democratic mayoral primary with more than 50 percent of the roughly 230,000 votes cast, said yesterday that he doesn't plan to take his win for granted, even though registered Democrats outnumber Republicans in this town by about 7-to-1 and the city hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1948.

"We certainly have an election to run and a very good candidate running on the Republican ticket. She's smart and works hard," Kenney said, referring to his opponent for November's general election, Melissa Murray Bailey. "We're going to respect the process and respect that candidate."

"We're going to keep a healthy public schedule," Hitt interjected.

Kenney said he was invited to speak yesterday by leaders of Penn Environment, a statewide environmental advocacy group, which he's worked with while in City Council.

When asked why Kenney - and not Mayor Nutter - was invited to speak, PennEnvironment's field director, Adam Garber, needed a moment to think.

"Why choose Jim - well, Jim is . . . " said Garber, pausing. "Jim has been a strong supporter for water for years. He helped found the committee on environment at City Council and helped vote for a resolution in support of it so we thought it was important for him to be here to talk about what this means for protecting our drinking water. It has nothing to do with - we didn't disinvite or anything, Mayor Nutter, obviously."

Kenney seemed to go out of his way to make sure he didn't come off like a mayor-elect. "I'm just a civilian here," he said.

The PennEnvironment-organized event was held under the Water Works gazebo, overlooking Boathouse Row and the Fairmount Dam on the Schuylkill. During the press conference, environmental advocates praised a new rule, announced last week by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers, which increases the scope of the Clean Water Act to include tributaries and "adjacent" waters, such as neighboring wetlands or ponds. The rule could still face a congressional or legal court challenge.