The Larry Kane Report

What a week!

The Daily News endorsement today of Michael Nutter is a significant moment in this Mayor’s race. No, it does not automatically mean victory, but here’s a rarely discussed fact: The Daily News is the number one circulation daily in the city limits of Philadelphia. Although the Inquirer endorsement is filled with prestige, the Daily News blessing will have much more impact in the neighborhoods.

Daily News Editorial Board chief Sandra Shea tells me, “Our endorsent of Nutter was a look at his combination of genuine character and innovative ideas to solve the city’s problems.”

Now Nutter has the daily double – the Inky and the Daily News.

ON A DIFFERENT FRONT: Channels 6 and 10 have rejected a commercial created by Ken Smukler, the well-known political consultant. The spots were pulled after Paul Rosen, the Knox attorney, fired off a threatening letter to the stations. The spot can be seen on You Tube. It is very hard hitting in its attack on Knox’s payday loan record as a businessman.

Sources tell us that Knox made a personal appeal to the General Manager of Channel Ten, also known as NBC Ten, to pull the commercials.

This leads me to wonder if the attorney was overzealous, and how it looks to the voters that Knox, who has bought millions of ads, was trying to stop an ad purchased against him by a 527 political organization.

The problem with this strategy is that it puts more focus on the spots, and makes people wonder what they were missing.  If I were advising Knox, I would have told him to bite the bullet and NOT put up a fight.

Now, the commercial will get more press and more attention. It will become a major story in the newspapers, providing an issue for the electorate to chew on for a few days.

I am also surprised that Tom publicly annointed Councilwoman Blackwell as his choice for Council President. He should have been more discreet. It made him look like a real political insider.

My guess is that the candidate is not listening to his advisers, some of whom are very talented.

Also on the media front: There are three live debates in the next four days. This is the moment of truth for the fab five. Composure under fire, that sense of command, is what people are looking for.

Comments(1)

I’ve really enjoyed chatting everyday with the people who work in all the Mayor’s candidates camps. There are some brilliant strategists, and some are doing the usual out of the box things to advance their causes.

Tom Knox’s campaign manager is Josh Morrow. Up until this week, Morrow has been a master at damage control. Earlier in the week, the Knox folks were thrilled when Ken Smukler, this town’s brilliant political operative, quit the Brady campaign after charges that he helped out one of those 527 groups that can raise money independently.

No doubt that the Knox team was thrilled. But you have to be careful what you ask for in a Mayor’s race.
Smukler, a giant in local and national politics, is now free to be whatever he wants to be. Since he left the Brady campaign, he personally crafted a devastating anti-Knox ad that he posted on You Tube, and that will be aired by a 527 group on prime time Thursday and Friday nights.

I SEE KEN SMUKLER AS THE “SIXTH MAN” IN THE MAYOR’S RACE.

He is feared and respected, and here’s the impactful part of this story. Forces in the Brady, Nutter, Fattah and Evans campaigns, are thrilled that the Smukler spot is running. WHY NOT? They get the benefit of the area’s most creative political mechanic, while at the same time distancing themselves from his work.

As far as the Knox campaign: They apparently engineered the charges that led to his resignation, along with Frank Keel, an aide to electrical union chief John Dougherty.

Respect and hate run deep in the background of local politics. If Smukler’s powerful ad helps sink Knox, he will have exacted revenge for the still unproven charges that he helped organize one of those independent 527 groups.

As of this writing, Tom Knox is the man to beat. Michael Nutter is closing in. Bob Brady is campaigning harder than ever, and Dwight Evans stays principled to his anti-crime and pro education message. Chaka Fattah is the question mark here?

What will HE DO in the final 12 days to close a big gap??

And what will Ken Smukler do as an encore to his knock Knox ad?

As Frank Rizzo once said, “Smukler is always watching, always thinking. He is like a tiger in the grass, waiting to strike.”

Can this tiger stop the Knox juggernaut? Or will the man who has taken control of this election as the proclaimed outsider, edge his way to victory?