Job: Former chief executive officer of UnitedHealthcare

So far in the race: Knox began the race by making a point about gun violence - he delivered a stack of petitions to Harrisburg in support of the city's effort to establish its own gun laws - and by telling his story: he grew up in public housing, enjoyed success in business and served as deputy mayor. But he caught the city's attention not for his issues, but when he engineered one of the biggest surprises of the mayor's race: Knox surged from 1 percent of the vote in July 2006 to the lead by January, 2007. Knox , who is not subject to campaign finance limits because he is a self-funded candidate, poured money into television advertising, paying as much as $750,000 and more per week in the final days of the primary campaign. His hold on the lead led other candiates - and independent groups - to launch attack ads at the end of the race. In the final days of the campaign, he publicly endorsed City Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell for Council president. Knox has not picked up many significant endorsements, though he was endorsed by El Hispano, the bilingual weekly newspaper.

Campaign cash on hand: Knox raised a total of $9,038,784 for his mayoral campaign, including $8 million from himself. As of April 30, Knox had $871,620 left to spend.

Marital status: Married with two grown sons.

Bragging rights: The savvy self-made businessman - with an estimated multimillion-dollar fortune - served as a deputy mayor for management and productivity under Ed Rendell. Knox was credited with saving the city millions, but infuriating some city officials along the way.

Downsides: His past businesses include companies that made high-interest "payday" loans and a Maryland HMO that was fined for telling patients they had to get a doctor's permission to go to the emergency room, a violation of state law. Does not have a wide network of political allies, and did we mention the "infuriating"?

Friends and enemies: Rendell and power-lawyer Tom Leonard are old friends. Jannie Blackwell is now in his camp. But his front-runner status has drawn attacks, particularly from rival Dwight Evans and from other candidates' backers.

 

-- Catherine Lucey and staff reports

 

Contact the campaign:

Campaign Web site

E-mail

Knox for Philly
1717 Arch Street
Suite 3240
Philadelphia, PA 19103

Phone: 215-636-0660

 

Learn more about Knox:

His MySpace page

His Wikipedia entry

His YouTube account

His Flickr account

In their own words: Knox

(Click on the link to hear audio, see video, or read about sightings of the candidates on the campaign trail.)

 

 

From our Affiliated Content Partners

The Philadelphia Business Journal

 

 

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