Alum Fattah looks to move from statehouse to The Hill

Chaka Fattah says he is ready to save the American city. Whether Philadelphians will give the state senator and University alum the chance will be seen in next month's election to replace former U.S. Rep. William Gray. Gray, the House Majority Whip who stepped down this summer to take the helm of the United Negro College, was sometimes criticized for being out of touch with his district. But Fattah, who announced his candidacy for Gray's seat last week, is focusing his campaign on questions which he feels are more relevant to the diverse Second District he seeks to represent. Despite his efforts, the state senator, who currently represents the district which includes the University, has been hurt by Tuesday's Commonwealth Court ruling which moved the election for the congressional seat to November 5. Other candidates, particularly former City Councilman and mayoral hopeful Lucien Blackwell, have greater name recognition. And Blackwell, who will likely gain the Democratic Party's nomination, will force Fattah to run as an independant. But Fattah has remained undaunted. "There is no set of circumstances that I forsee that I won't be successful in this election," Fattah said Friday. Fattah, who graduated from the Wharton School and later received his Masters in Government Administration from the University, was elected to the state house in 1982 and to the state senate in 1988. As part of his attempt to address the problems of the Second District and of Philadelphia, Fattah's campaign has harped on what he calls a misuse of federal funds. "[American needs] a different set of priorities at the federal level," Fattah said. "[We are making] smart bombs rather than smart kids." At the foundation of Fattah's agenda is an ambitious program to save U.S. cities. His "American Cities Initiative" calls for the federal government to allocate $100 billion to the nation's largest cities each year for rebuilding infrastructure and addressing social problems such as drugs and crime. Fattah said funding for this program can be found in the vast amounts of money spent on defending foreign countries and on expensive weapons systems such as the Stealth bomber, which he deemed a "failure." "[We are] protecting Europe, an economic competitor, who is well situated to pay for their own defense," Fattah said. Instead, he said federal funding should be used to create an extensive network of drug rehabilitation centers. The centers would treat every person arrested, put on parole or on probation who was addicted to drugs. This, in turn, would help alleviate the crime problem, Fattah said. "91 percent of everyone arrested for a crime in Philadelphia are crack addicts. Unless you treat addiction, they continue to pursue the craving for drugs," Fattah said. While many conservatives would criticize the American Cities program for being another Democratic spending program, Fattah's platform on housing is more in line with conservative Housing and Urban Development Secretary Jack Kemp. Fattah, who himself admits the program's similarity with Kemp's initiatives, called for taking poor families who are "warehoused" in high-rise projects and putting them into rehabilitated vacant houses throughout the city. Then local community and civic groups would manage the properties. His emphasis on helping his poorer constituents is not a new one, according to State Senator Vincent Fumo (D-Phila.), who said Monday that Fattah has always been "vocal in representing his district." And 27th Ward Democratic Leader Kevin Vaughan, who was a classmate of Fattah's at the University in graduate school, said Fattah was a dynamic and hard working representative of both his constituents and the city. Specifically, Vaughan credited Fattah for his behind-the-scenes work to get area institutions to prepay their taxes to keep Philadelphia solvent last year. Vaughan added that Fattah put together this plan "without taking personal credit for it." Fattah described his positions as reflecting what Winston Churchill called the "politics of remedy." He said that most politicians and their political parties are "at best, reciting the problems and redefining the problems, not solving them." The Associated Press contributed to this article.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.