Miscellaneous political news

1. As expected by many, Ginny Schraeder has made official her intent to run for Congress in 2006 in a rematch (contested primary allowing) against 8th district rep. Michael Fitzpatrick. Her stated agenda includes health care, national security, and accountability in the Iraq war, and she intends to eschew PAC money in favor of small grassroots funds.
   
   
2. An Inquirer article follows up on yesterday's editorial by looking into the effectiveness of Philadelphia's newly activated Ethics Board:

   After almost a year of guiding city employees on what's right and what's wrong, Mayor Street's Board of Ethics still struggles against criticism that it is beholden to his works and wishes

   Street hasn't even kept all the seats on the board filled, but he claims that this group is only a fill-in until an independent oversight board can be written into the City Charter.
   
   
3. Two pieces make much of the return of a former Street aide as a private-sector consultant, specifically working with the region's black business association.

   As of Monday, Christmas' new title will be president of the African American Chamber of Commerce, an organization with 750 members in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.

   Apparently the group has been without a head for several years.
   
   
4. Columnist Mark Hughes peers ahead at possible issues in the 2007 mayoral race, and about the degree to which issues (as opposed to connections, race, and other bellweathers) even determine outcomes in Philadelphia.

   If I could impose one rule on the coming chatter about mayoral issues, I'd demand that candidates tell us about the choices, most of them difficult, they'd make in office. It doesn't help us as voters to know that candidates are against blight and violence and taxes and corruption. We don't need an abstract position on an abstract issue.
   
   INSTEAD, WE NEED candidates to answer real questions. Who are you going to blame for violence, and what do you choose to do about it? That's as real as it gets.
   . . .
   Being mayor isn't about being smart enough to solve problems. It's about solving problems by making decisions under conditions of permanent uncertainly and limited power.

   Hard to disagree with that last bit, but I suspect many would take issue with his approach to the former. Interesting mullings, anyway.