Posted on Dec 08, 2006
Saidel dropout:
Was it Brady . . . or a bank job?
Staff writers Dave Davies and Gar Joseph contributed to this report.
WHY WOULD Jonathan Saidel, with more than $1 million in the bank, drop out of the mayor's race less than a week after opening his campaign headquarters?
One theory is that supporters of U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, who's considering a mayoral run, were discouraging Saidel's contributors.
Here's another: An investor in a Saidel family bank that collapsed in the 1990s threatened to go public with dirty dealings.
This would not be good for a candidate who planned to make ethics and reform key campaign issues.
Isadore Schuman, a founding shareholder in the Saidel family's Metrobank, said this week that he was prepared to speak publicly about what he claimed had been improprieties on Saidel's part and that he began making calls on the subject two days before Saidel withdrew.
"When I read in the paper that [Saidel] said he was going to stand for ethics in government, I was infuriated," Schuman said. "So I dropped a dime several places I knew would get back to him. "
Schuman declined to say whom he called, but said his calls included "several politicians" and one media organization.
Saidel said through spokesman Dan Fee that he'd heard nothing about Metrobank in recent days and that it hadn't entered into his decision to withdraw.
Metrobank is one of a few untidy parts of Saidel's past that opponents could have mined in the mayor's race, although it and other missteps already have been reported in the media. Fee said Saidel had never expressed a serious concern about them in his discussions about the campaign.
Irish rebellion
Bob Gessler, past president of the local board of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, e-mailed friends last week urging them to support mayoral hopeful John Dougherty.
No, it wasn't a fundraiser; it was an attempt to stuff the ballot box in a Philadelphia magazine Web poll, which asked whether readers thought the FBI search of Dougherty's home would harm his mayoral chances.
"Philly mag is no fan of the Irish and no fan of John's," Gessler wrote.
Gessler's plea got results. Editor Larry Platt said that starting in the afternoon of Nov. 30 (soon after Gessler's e-mail went out), more than 6,000 votes were cast over the next 27 hours.
"In the previous 13 days, we'd gotten 200 votes," Platt said.
The obvious ballot-stuffing prompted Platt to pull the plug on the poll.
"Sometimes the votes were coming in at a rate of more than one per second," Platt said. "If they'd only cast a few hundred, I would never have noticed. "
Hey, any ward leader knows that.
Christmas gift: Zoo-perb
No need to shop - Clout is offering a beautiful red and gold Salvatore Ferragamo tie with elephants and camels on it to the first reader who contacts us with proof of a donation to the Philadelphia Zoo.
The tie costs $139, so we'll set a minimum donation of $150. Plus it's tax-deductible!
Brady: Will the upgrade sell?
If 1999 mayoral candidate Marty Weinberg was the beta version, doesn't that make Bob Brady version 1.0?
They fixed the glitch where the candidate didn't sell in African-American neighborhoods.
They removed the reminders of Frank Rizzo.
And this version comes with a full favor bank and without a bunch of mansions in the suburbs.
Plus he gets stuff done.
If Brady enters the race, it won't impact Clout at all. He can't out-cynic us, he can't out-freeload us and he can't out-blog us (at least so far. )
Brady on Bradley
Speaking of Brady, we love it when politicians honor journalists.
It's fun to see someone feed the hand that bites them.
There was Brady on the House floor Wednesday speaking in support of his bill to honor fellow West Philly native (and St. Tommy More student) Ed Bradley, the veteran CBS newsman who died last month at 65.
"He had the ability to tell complex and sometimes unsettling stories almost effortlessly," Brady said, "His reports were both fireside chats and teaching moments. "
TV tout I: MMM on 20/20
Ed Mezvinsky and Marjorie Margolies Mezvinsky were Pennsylvania's power couple of the 1980s.
He was a former congressman, head of the state Democratic Party. She was a congresswoman, the first Democrat to win her suburban Montgomery County district in nearly 100 years.
He was rich, she was charismatic. They were Main Line elite.
Then, in 1990, as Marjorie embarked on a U.S. Senate campaign, it all came crashing down. She withdrew, he declared bankruptcy and weeks later a grand jury indicted him for fraud.
Now he's in jail and his wife's political career is ruined - in part, because of his involvement in crazy Nigerian scams. At 10 p.m. tonight on ABC's "20/20" (WPVI, Channel 6), investigative correspondent Brian Ross takes a look at the Nigerian scam-artist culture and why these high rollers are rarely caught.
TV tout II : Flavia on Montel
Clout-created celebrity Flavia Colgan is the main guest on Montel Williams' show at 2 p.m. this afternoon (WPHL, Channel 17). The topic: Urban violence and community attitudes toward the police.
Blogging Pa. Society
Clout is promoting all kinds of stuff today. It must be the season. Most of Philly's mayoral candidates will be in New York today and tomorrow for the annual Pennsylvania Society bash in which our state's rich and powerful wine and dine with - each other!
Columnist John M. Baer and reporters Dave Davies and Catherine Lucey will be live-blogging from this political gabfest at thenextmayor.com Web site, the go-to site for mayoral news.
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