By Tom Infield
and Peter Nicholas
INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS
The stunning move by John White Jr. yesterday to endorse Sam Katz for mayor could provide Katz a big boost in his bid to become the city's first Republican chief executive in a half-century.
Endorsements don't always mean a lot - but to endorse Katz, White had to cross lines of party, race and friendship.
Polls have identified liberal whites, along with a percentage of middle-class blacks, as swing voters who could decide a close Nov. 2 election.
These were the blocs who voted for White in his failed Democratic primary run for mayor, and White's endorsement could send a signal that it is neither racist nor disloyal to vote for a white Republican over a black Democrat, John F. Street.
Standing at Katz's side yesterday morning on the 28th floor of a Center City office tower, White pronounced the decision he had agonized over for weeks: "I believe that Sam Katz is the best choice for Philadelphia."
A smattering of Katz partisans, along with Katz's wife and three of his four children, burst into applause.
Four hours later, at a news conference on a school basketball court in North Philadelphia, Street contended that Katz must have cut a secret bargain with White.
"They did a deal," Street said. "They did a deal. It's the kind of back-room commitment that won't solve a single problem. . . . I'm telling you, it had to be some kind of deal."
Street noted that he and White had been friends since the 1970s. They had served together on City Council and in oversight of the Philadelphia Housing Authority.
While not saying directly that White had sold out, Street commented that he, for one, had not promised anyone a job or a business deal in exchange for their support.
City Councilman Michael Nutter, a White supporter who has also been courted by Katz, last night denounced Street's contention. He said it smacked of McCarthyism.
"That kind of statement reflects the most cynical view of what public service and politics is all about," Nutter said. "Unless there's some hard evidence, it reminds me of films I've seen of allegations made by McCarthy."
White, at Katz's news conference yesterday, said he did not want any job in a Katz administration.
But last night, in an interview, he said Katz had invited him to play a role in city economic development. That, he said, "accomplishes what I want to do."
White also conceded that he asked Street for a plum. During endorsement discussions, he said, he said he had asked Street to make him an unpaid member of the board of the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. and the Redevelopment Authority.
Street, he said, changed the subject and asked about White's children.
Asked at a news conference if White had ever asked him for a position in his administration, Street said that he had made "no deal" with White.
For all the dynamite that was contained in White's and Street's comments, both were decidedly low key in talking to the media.
White leaned on a lectern at Katz's campaign headquarters and said his decision had nothing to do with scars left over from the Democratic primary, in which he had finished third, behind Street and Marty Weinberg.
In fact, it was Katz, not Street, who had attacked him in the primary. Katz had injected himself into the Democratic spat with TV and radio ads that made White out to be an incompetent manager when he headed the Housing Authority and the state Welfare Department.
"This is about neighborhoods," White said. "It is about a solid commitment to improving the quality of life for people who live in this city. To me, it's about improving public education to the point where our children, when they graduate, will continue their formal academic careers. . . ."
Street said that talk puzzled him.
Wasn't this the same John White, he asked, who opposed school vouchers? Street opposes vouchers, too. But Katz is for them.
Wasn't this the same John White, he asked, who supported the city's current plan to marginally lower the city wage tax? Street is for the plan, too. But Katz wants steeper cuts, which Democrats have said may force service cuts.
Wasn't this the same John White, Street asked, who opposed further privatization of services that are now performed by city workers? Street opposes that. But Katz has not ruled it out.
Indeed, more than policy questions appeared to have been at work in White's decision.
He hinted at that yesterday when he said: "In the end, it's about governance. It's about the willingness to form . . . coalitions."
Many of White's key supporters in the primary had complained that Street seemed to take for granted that, as Democrats, they had to back him. They decided to remain together as a group and meet with both Street and Katz to talk about endorsements.
White said yesterday that whenever he talked personally with Katz, it was always about issues. When he talked with Street, he said, all Street wanted to know was: "When are you going to endorse me?"
Recent weeks have brought a growing sense that despite representing a party with only one-quarter as many registered voters as the Democrats, Katz stands a reasonable chance in the election.
The group of 35 to 45 White supporters met for at least the fourth time on Monday morning at a Center City law firm. White said then that he was still torn which way to go.
It remains unclear how many others in this group will now join White at Katz's side. One member said some would be for Katz, some would be for Street, and some would sit out the election.
White runs a big personal risk with his endorsement. Already yesterday, he was being attacked by some callers on WHAT-AM, a African American-oriented talk station. "John White is a good man," said one elderly woman, "but he's weak."
Thaddeus Mathis, a professor of social administration at Temple University who has been a close observer of mayoral politics, said White could find himself vilified in some sections of the black community if Street lost the election.
In its three-century history, Philadelphia has had only one black mayor: W. Wilson Goode, who served from 1984 through 1991.
Of the four Democrats who opposed Street in the May primary, White's endorsement attracted the most interest. His dithering all summer with his group became a kind of soap opera, but it also elevated the decision to drama.
White, in defeat, may have actually grown in stature. Local NAACP president J. Whyatt Mondesire, publisher of the Philadelphia Sunday Sun, wrote this week that the primary "oddly . . . elevated him to almost statesman-like status."
Among the other primary contenders, only State Rep. Dwight Evans attended a "unity luncheon" called by Street the day after the primary. Evans said of White's move yesterday: "It's very hypocritical. . . . All those things he said in the primary - did it not mean anything?"
Another contender, Happy Fernandez, is now a college president and has dropped out of politics.
Until yesterday, Weinberg had been alone in attending an endorsement press conference. He backed Street in June.
Political analysts suspect that a large majority of rowhouse votes - in both black and white neighborhoods - are probably locked in, along racial lines. But many liberal whites and middle-class blacks in Wynnefield, Chestnut Hill, Mount Airy, Fairmount and Center City may be up for grabs.
Goode, in 1983, got about 18 percent of the white vote. Mayor Rendell, in a 1991 primary with two strong black candidates, got almost 20 percent of the black vote. Those two elections represent the high-water mark of cross-racial voting in Philadelphia.
It is almost certain that Street will attempt to portray Katz as a loyalist in a party often seen as anti-urban and anti-minority.
But Katz, formerly a Democrat, started his political career as 1976 campaign manager to William H. Gray 3d, an icon in Philadelphia politics. Gray lost that election but went on to become the budget chairman of the U.S. House, the only African American to hold such a post.
Inquirer staff writer Cynthia Burton contributed to this article.
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