Sunday Inquirer: Endorsement of Sam Katz for mayor

Republican mayoral nominee Sam Katz's carefully crafted campaign strategy has brought him into a dead heat with Democrat John F. Street, who is better known and has a bigger war chest and a much larger political party behind him.

His strategy is that of a severely outmanned army whose best chance is to mount an attack that relies on camouflage and agility. So, Katz is quietly juicing up his base of Republicans while he is disarming Democrats. He is doing this because he needs every Democratic vote he can get and he needs the Republicans to do their share by turning out the base.

Republicans have not held the Philadelphia mayor's office since 1951 in a city that has become increasingly Democratic since then. The latest voter registration figures show there are 736,692 Democrats and 191,742 Republicans.

"I've never seen a strategy where the critical element is not to engage," said Ken Smuckler, a Democratic political adviser who worked for Marty Weinberg's campaign in the mayoral primary. "What Sam Katz wants is for the white votes to be energized and the black votes to be lulled into a kind of false sense of security that John Street will ultimately win. So the key is not to engage."

That means Katz doesn't hold a lot of news conferences. When he comes out with an issues paper, whether on tax cuts or economic development, it's vague.

And most of his public campaign is being waged with paid television and radio advertising, which began 14 weeks before Election Day because Katz was not nearly as well-known among voters as Street. Katz also talks about his plans for the schools, public safety and reversing the population loss in rich detail in the intimate settings of neighborhood forums and civic association meetings.

On Wednesday night, when four civic associations drew more than 150 people to the Fox Chase Elementary School, Katz had the stage to himself. Street could not make it because of a scheduling conflict but invited attendees to join him at a neighborhood rally and small meeting later this month.

Katz's eyes sparkled as he said through a smile: "Thank you for giving me the opportunity to clearly win this debate. Mr. Street and I have had a lot of debates. I like this format best." The wisecrack was met with affectionate laughter.

Katz doesn't call himself a Republican in public appearances. He avoids his party bigwigs. When Elizabeth Dole came here in May and George W. Bush, the front-runner in the GOP presidential primary, came to town in June, Katz wasn't on hand.

But those non-appearances and Katz's practice of keeping the word Republican out of this race aren't stopping Street loyalists from calling Katz on his Republicanism.

"He is trying not to be a Republican. That's not going to work," said Tommie St. Hill, a Street insider. "People know the difference between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party."

In case they don't, the Street campaign for weeks has been trying to characterize Katz as a wild-eyed, radical Republican in advertising, Street's speeches and comments. Despite those efforts, a poll of 450 likely voters commissioned by the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce showed last week that the candidates were dead even - 43 percent for Katz, 43 percent for Street, and the rest undecided.

This turn of events has stirred up the heretofore unmentionable hope among Republicans that they can do this. After years of losing city races, they are thinking that maybe they won't have to settle for the crumbs offered to the minority party by the City Home Rule Charter: two City Council at-large seats and one of the three City Commissioner seats. Or the crumbs offered to them through deals with the Democrats: a few judges here and there and some patronage at Traffic Court, the Parking Authority, and City Council.

Maybe they can have the whole enchilada.

"The Republicans are like a team that hasn't won in a long time and has to be taught to win," said LaSalle University political scientist Ed Turzanski. "My sense is it's a new experience for them."

James Baumbach, Katz's campaign manager, said the Republican party began to smell victory in the spring when Katz ran nasty ads attacking two of the Democratic primary candidates so he could weaken them - and face what he considered a vulnerable Street in the fall.

Katz attended a Republican reception the day after the ads started.

"That was when they knew they had a real candidate," Baumbach said. "You could feel the electricity."

Michael Meehan, general counsel to the party, said he had about 2,000 volunteers ready to knock on doors and make phone calls to voters, as well as staff voting divisions around the city. Kevin Pasquay, leader of the 45th Ward in the Port Richmond area, said Republicans would be strong in their own areas of Northeast Philadelphia, the river wards, Fox Chase, Roxborough, and parts of South Philadelphia. They will be complemented by at least 1,200 Katz volunteers, said Bob Barnett, Katz's campaign director.

They will be more visible than they have been in years in Center City and northwestern neighborhoods such as Chestnut Hill, said Pasquay, who is coordinating the Republican Party's Election Day operation for Katz. The campaign has hired Jerry Cousins, a longtime African American Democratic operative, and Howard Cain, field general to Democratic state Sen. Vincent Fumo, who worked for John White Jr. in the Democratic primary. Cousins is working in black neighborhoods. Cain, who specializes in winning elections in swing areas, is overseeing the entire Katz field operation.

The party brass insists that Republicans are ready for the challenge.

"You've got a charged-up populace. These people have been through the mill with losses," said Republican Chairman Vito Canuso. Besides his own people, Canuso said several Democratic committeemen have offered to help the Katz campaign.

While gearing up Republicans, Katz has disarmed Democrats by aggressively seeking their support and being affable on the campaign trail. He has given comfort to blacks by participating in forums in their neighborhoods since the winter; by advertising on Black Entertainment Television, a cable channel; and by telling them he will fight for their issues if he becomes mayor. He has worked the white Democratic neighborhoods along the Delaware River, in the Northeast. He needs their votes to win and has turned this general election into a sort of second Democratic primary by heralding endorsements from traditional Democratic groups, such as gays and lesbians, and two former Democratic elected officials: former Council members and mayoral candidates Happy Fernandez and John White Jr.

Katz's chief strategists are Democrats. Neil Oxman, his advertising consultant, has worked for every winning Democratic mayor since Bill Green (1980-84). Barnett, his campaign director, is a former Democratic State Committee executive director.

Liberal Democrats, many of whom voted for Street in their primary, are now the swing voters in this general election. They are sorting through a multitude of conflicting signals from their leaders.

Besides the support of White and Fernandez, Katz has a group called Democrats for Katz, which held a fund-raiser for him Friday.

Other liberal Democrats are in the Street camp: U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, State Sens. Allyson Schwartz and Anthony Williams, Councilwomen Augusta Clark and Donna Miller, and State Rep. Dwight Evans.

Involvement in the Street campaign by other progressive Democrats - Council members Marian Tasco, Michael Nutter, Angel Ortiz and David Cohen - is noticeably low-key.

One of Katz's strongest weapons is his ability to convert rivals into loyalists.

In July 1998, Republican leaders met and decided they were not going to suffer a primary. Severely outnumbered by Democrats, they felt they had no choice but to stand behind one candidate for the duration. That was Katz, who proved he could raise money - one thing lacking in Republican general election mayoral challenges for years. One by one, he worked party leaders and brought them onto his team.

But he had a problem: George Bochetto, the state boxing commissioner and Center City lawyer, decided he was staying in the race no matter whom the party leaders backed. So Katz called him. Bochetto accepted the call. Katz called him again, and again Bochetto talked to him. Later, Bochetto would say his biggest problem in the primary was that he kept on taking Katz's calls.

In the fall of 1998, Katz invited Bochetto and his wife, Paula, out to dinner with him and his wife, Connie, at a quiet Italian restaurant in Roxborough. Bochetto said they talked about how Katz would treat the Republican party, whether he would bring gays and lesbians into the party and keep John F. Timoney as police commissioner, and whether he would support Bochetto when it was Bochetto's turn to run for mayor.

Katz gave all the right answers.

In a city where Republicans are 4-1 underdogs in registration, "you can't go into the general [election] weakened and bruised and bloodied. One of us had to blink," said Bochetto. "I would not have blinked if I thought Sam couldn't do it or wouldn't support the Republican Party."

After clearing the field in the GOP primary and using the spring to make inroads with Republicans and Democrats, as well as raise money, Katz had a new problem waiting for him in the general election campaign: John White Jr. He was the target of Katz's attack ads in late May, credited with stopping White's bump in the polls. Having White as a sworn enemy could have harmed Katz with liberal Democratic swing voters, who are fond of White.

Katz began diffusing White's anger hours after his ads hit on Friday, May 7. The next morning, White opened a note from Katz, "essentially saying that he knows that I'm upset," recalled White. The note went on to say that running the ads was a difficult decision for Katz, but a purely political one, and that he wanted the chance to explain it to White after the primary.

White didn't meet with Katz until mid-June. They arranged to meet at White's home in Wynnefield at 8:30 p.m. White was running two hours late and called Katz's campaign to reschedule. Katz wouldn't reschedule; he sat in his Jeep and waited for White. Eventually, they talked about the ads, the campaign and the issues.

White endorsed Katz on Sept. 14, and Katz made a television ad based on his support.

Whether this stealth strategy will work is unknown in a race too close to call at this point.

Whatever the outcome, said LaSalle's Turzanski, "you have to congratulate Katz and his people for running a very good campaign."