Mayoral deluge

• Nutter got a deluge today
  
  
  
  • The CityPaper endorses Nutter, making it their cover story for this week's issue. This central piece weighs the pros and cons of each candidate on their way to the final decision.

    Nutter hasn't just thought about how to answer questions on the campaign trail; he's considered what it would be like to actually be mayor and deal with the city's problems. In accounting honestly for those problems and proposing doable solutions, he seems more likely than his opponents to solve some of them.

    They also provide links to the mp3's of their chats with each, for those who'd like to get a direct impression.
    
    
  • Related pieces in the CP include Bruce Schimmel on gut-checking his admiration for Nutter and finding it holds up (especially over commitment to transparency), the editor describes the intense decision process behind the endorsement (and denies charges at YPP that media looks out for its own business interests in such choices), and a final related piece summarizes Johnny Doc's take on the race, including a sputtering dislike of Nutter (mark that one as another check in the pro-Nutter column for me!).
    
    
  • More surprising to me was that the Northeast Times endorsed Nutter. Perhaps they're responding to the same range of qualities (or "middle-class appeal") that has impressed others, but it seems good that he's getting some support from a part of the city not known for its progressive outlook.
  
  
• Evans complains about his coverage, and rightfully so -- the uniform chant of "no chance" has impacted many people's decisions already, and can easily create a feedback loop that guarantees that very outcome. However, I was intrigued by the discussion of this point in the top CityPaper piece, where they argue that Evans' failure as a public speaker is a genuine failing related to his possible effectiveness as mayor...
  
  
• Rendell gives Evans half an endorsement.
  
  
• Mary Patel at the CP profiles Bob Brady, the last of a series ("now that he's on the ballot"). [Also a note here about a fundraiser for Supreme Court candidate C. Darnell Jones.]
  
  
• Update: two PACs that have given money to Brady are being investigated to see whether they, in essence, offered unions a way around campaign donation limits. More here.
  
  
• Info
  
  
  
  1. The CityPaper provides a round-up of their Bottom Line feature (pdf warning), summarizing the positions of the five candidates on several major issues. Don't miss the disembodied heads.
     
     
  2. Radio Times is running a series of hour-long interviews with the candidates this week, and you can listen to each of them online at the show's website (currently collected on the front page linked above). The collection should be complete by lunch tomorrow.
  
  
• The CP's "Insider" expresses relief that negative advertising and attacks have gotten underway, so that some real contrasts will be drawn among the previously amiable field.