April 8–15, 1999

political notebook

Political Notebook

by Mary Frangipanni

Gays Help Street

Has the gay and lesbian community handed the Democratic mayoral primary to John Street? This was the main topic of conversation Tuesday night at Toto's restaurant, site of the Greater Philadelphia Professional Network, a gay and lesbian organization dedicated to career advancement and business expansion.

Network president Thom Cardwell and Deputy City Commissioner John Herzins hosted the event—a meet-and-greet for Police Inspector James Tiano—the new police liaison to the gay and lesbian community.

The buzz that night concerned how, despite the efforts of Mark Segal, Philadelphia Gay News publisher and president of Pride of Philadelphia Election Committee (POPEC) to promote Democratic mayoral candidate Marty Weinberg, Weinberg lost the Victory 99 endorsement to mayoral candidate John White Jr.

The POPEC-led confab had just concluded its endorsements prior to Cardwell's event and the talk lingered at Toto's.

Some questioned the White endorsement, because nearly all polls show a two-plane dogfight with Street leading Weinberg and the rest off the radar screen. Including White.

A vast majority of the gay and lesbian community does not support John Street because of his opposition to domestic partnership.

Why was White endorsed and not Weinberg? A lot of guests said it was the influence of Liberty City Lesbian and Gay Democratic Club (scheduled to endorse Wed., April 7, after press time). The word is that the group—whose co-chair, Denise Kulp, works for White—will endorse White.

Some Liberty City-ers felt it was Weinberg's ties to former Mayor Frank Rizzo, a noted homophobe.

Others said it was because of Weinberg's ties to State Sen. Vincent Fumo, whose power makes them nervous.

Ultimately, all of this leaves Republican Sam Katz.

The Toto totallers discussed doing the previously unthinkable and voting Republican.

Clearly, we're not in Kansas anymore.

The Big Change-Over

Northeast Philadelphia has its own agenda for this year's election, and one thing that's going on is a big change-over in registrations that will benefit Democrats in the primary, such as mayoral candidate Marty Weinberg and City Council at-large candidate Michael Stack III.

The Northeast is almost split between Democratic and Republican residents, with slightly more Republican registrations.

The process is for Republican voters to switch over to the Democratic side for the primary and then go back to Republican for the general election.

Stack thinks it's a good idea.

"It helps Democrats in the primary, and the Republicans are unopposed, so it doesn't matter to them because they vote their party in the general election," he said.

Stack, whose father, Michael Stack Jr., is a Northeast ward leader, said that there have been more than 17,000 change-overs already.

He said his campaign focus is similar to Weinberg's in his approach to neighborhood issues.

"We are a big city," he said. "Why should people in the Northeast have to go downtown to City Hall? There should be regional City Halls."

Stack said he supports Commissioner John Timoney in his efforts for neighborhood crime watches and getting police more involved in the community. "The crime problems are growing in the Northeast," he said.

Stack has just appointed Northeast activist Mary Jane Hazel as his campaign manager and said that he is concentrating on campaigning in the Northeast only.

An area to which he is no stranger since he ran against Republican State Sen. Frank "Hank" Salvatore in 1988 and 1992.

"An at-large candidate can stretch himself too far," said Stack. "I am running where I am the strongest."

Stack became the only Council at-large candidate running from the Northeast when John Sabatina dropped out to run for the 7th District seat.

Stack's ally is State Rep. Michael McGeehan, whose Northeast support is entrenched.

Even though his father is a ward leader, Stack was not endorsed by Democratic Party Chairman and U.S. Rep. Bob Brady.

Brady endorsed incumbent Councilmen David Cohen, Jim Kenney and Angel Ortiz and two non-incumbents, ward leader Carol Campbell and SEPTA union man Steve Brookens. Both of the latter are African-American and were endorsed partly because of the diversity issue.

On other matters, Stack put to rest rumors that his law firm's building is up for sale.

Stack and Stack is located at 16th and Locust and is prime real estate.

There were rumors that the Stacks were selling it for millions.

"Not true," said Stack. "We are only renting space to other attorneys."

There was also talk that Neil Oxman and the Campaign Group were moving out of Stack's building.

"Definitely not true," said Stack. "Neil is one of our best tenants."

Oxman is involved with Republican mayoral candidate Sam Katz's campaign.