Posted on 10/20/2003 7:16:38 PM PDT by blam
FBI Probe Deepens Racial Split in Philly
Tuesday October 21, 2003 2:46 AM
By DAVID B. CARUSO
Associated Press Writer
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Mayor John Street gets polite applause when he talks about policy on the campaign trail these days. The big cheers come when he mentions the bug planted in his office by the FBI.
In the two weeks since news broke that Street was a subject of a federal investigation, Philadelphia's second black mayor has sought to cast himself as a man being persecuted because of his race, and the message appears to be resonating with black voters.
Stumping around the city this weekend two weeks ahead of the Nov. 4 election, Street received raucous ovations from supporters, who hollered approval when he said the investigation is nothing more than a Republican dirty trick.
``I think people in this city are enormously fair, and they don't like it when they think an injustice is happening,'' Street explained as he campaigned Sunday at supermarkets and churches. ``People can't figure this out, so therefore they are left to conclude that something funny is probably happening.''
Confounding expectations, a poll suggests that Street's campaign against white Republican businessman Sam Katz has been reinvigorated by the bugging and by a subsequent series of FBI raids on city departments.
A Temple University/CBS3/KYW-AM poll released last week had Street apparently leading Katz, with 48 percent of likely voters to Katz's 41 percent. In the same poll a month ago, Katz had 46 percent to 40 percent.
The survey also exposed the sharp racial divide in the campaign, and how differently black and white voters have reacted to the bugging, which the FBI has yet to explain.
Among blacks, Street's popularity has surged, with 84 percent saying they intended to vote for the mayor, up from 70 percent last month. Among whites, 72 percent said they would vote for Katz, up 1 point from a month ago.
``It is almost as if they are living in two separate cities,'' said Berwood Yost, director of the Floyd Institute's Center for Public Opinion Research at Franklin & Marshall College.
``It doesn't appear to me that these accusations have hurt Street; They've only helped. His greatest weakness going into this was a lack of enthusiasm among his base, which is African Americans and Democrats. The scandal has re-energized that base.''
If that trend continues, it could be bad news for Katz.
Philadelphia's population of 1.5 million is nearly equally divided between blacks and whites, and votes in city elections traditionally split along ethnic lines. During Street's first matchup with Katz, in 1999, neither candidate was able to cross racial lines to muster much support. Street prevailed by fewer than 10,000 votes out of more than 430,000 cast, even though Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 4-to-1.
The chief federal prosecutor in Philadelphia has strongly denied the FBI probe was politically or racially motivated. And Katz has accused the Democrats of trying to exploit the city's racial divisions.
``Philadelphia is in a moment of historic crisis and unfortunately the mayor has fueled the fires with a blatant appeal based on race. That's just wrong,'' Katz said. ``They know this investigation isn't about race. It's about corruption.''
Republicans have rejected the notion that the probe was planned to disrupt the election. The public would have never learned of the investigation, Katz noted, if Street's own security detail had not found the listening devices during a sweep of his office Oct. 7.
But for some Street supporters, those facts have been overshadowed by the investigation's apparent focus on black political figures.
FBI agents hauled away boxes of files last week from the offices of Ronald A. White, a prominent black lawyer and one of the mayor's best fund-raisers. Agents also raided the offices of Shamsud-din Ali, a religious leader at an influential mosque, and served a subpoena on the city's Minority Business Enterprise Council, which helps businesses owned by women and minorities get city contracts.
Black leaders long have alleged that there is a pattern of racial bias within the FBI, and in some cases, voters have listened. Marion Barry was elected to a fourth term as mayor of Washington, D.C., after FBI agents videotaped him smoking crack in a hotel room.
White, who has declined to answer questions about the raid, told a TV news crew that he believed the probe was racially motivated.
``I am a black man in America doing what I think needs to be done, and people resent that,'' White said. ``Black men in America are supposed to be bowing down all the time and not doing (anything) but having babies and not taking care of them.''
Michael Vick comes to mind...
Just wondering why the press weren't wise to what Rush intoned.
Although I would have used Kordell as an example of PC'ers stumbling over themselves for a messiah black QB.
"Slash" TRULY SUCKS.
Is that even possible??? Mayor Street on the way government should be run during a NAACP board member meeting in 2002:
"We're proud of this government," he said, and as he ticked off each important city job he had entrusted to people of color, the sophisticated group applauded more and more enthusiastically. By the time he told them excitedly, "The brothers and sisters are running the city. ... We are in charge! We are in charge!", the audience was on its feet.
You hear something about the investigation that only the FBI or those being investigated would know about. Then a few hours later, you have Street or his minions crying about how the FBI is leaking things to the press.
In my opinion - it's Street that is leaking these things to the press, just so they can play yet another race card for the day.
It's just like Lewinsky - the Clintonoids would leak something to the press, then cry about Ken Starr leaking it. Starr was prohibited from speaking publicly about it, so he couldn't even respond.
Could someone in possession of the facts, please advise as to what this gentleman has done for the City to earn 84% of the black vote --- other than being a black face in the top job?
Semper Fi
The white Democrat gets 52% of the vote and the black Democrat gets the other 52%.
They were wise to it. They knew Rush was making a comment about them, the media, not about race.
So, they changed the subject...and accused him of being racist.
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