Brady 1st in Pa.'s 1st District

Like the other two congressional races in Philadelphia, U.S. Rep. Robert Brady's victory yesterday seemed certain well before the numbers were final. In a room decorated with banners and red, white and blue balloons at the Democratic City Committee headquarters at 14th and Walnut streets, more than 100 Brady supporters gathered last night to celebrate his election to his first full term representing Pennsylvania's 1st District. In an blowout victory, the longtime city Democratic chairperson took 81 percent of the vote to Republican candidate William Harrison's 17 percent, with 98 percent of precincts reporting in the heavily Democratic district -- which includes most of South Philadelphia and Center City. An instructor in the Organizational Dynamics program at Penn, Brady, 53, has been representing the district since May, when he won a special election to serve the last seven months of Thomas Foglietta's term. Foglietta left office to become ambassador to Italy. Supporters snacked on a buffet including vegetables and dip, meatballs and roast beef as they waited for the official results, confident of victory even before numbers were available. Campaign manager Jonathan Saidel, the city controller, said Brady's overwhelming victory was "justly deserved," adding that the most important thing was that people came out to vote. And Brady supporter and South Philadelphia resident Harry Palumbo said the election was just a formality -- he anticipated a "landslide victory," the slogan that mayor's office executive and Brady fan John Rifkin was busy plastering on Brady for Congress signs. But when Brady finally arrived, he responded to the crowd's applause and whistles with "almost, almost, not yet, not yet," since, despite the lack of suspense in the room, the final results were not in yet. After Brady was informed that he had taken 90 percent of the 60 percent of votes that had been counted, he made his "victory" speech. Surrounded by his family and campaign manager, he explained that in this election, the Democrats "showed a backlash to a lot of the mean-spirited Republicans for what they have done" to President Clinton. "We have business to take care of in Washington," he said, "and it's not this business of embarrassing our President." Instead, he said, the people voted for him to take care of Social Security, education problems and a patient's bill of rights. Longtime Democrat Diane Weiss said the congressman "represents a constituency of people, particularly the labor force, that always wanted representation." It is significant, she said, that these people now have "one of their own" -- Brady was once leader of a carpenter's union -- to represent them. Harrison said last night that Brady ran a "clean campaign." "It was my first time running, and it was overwhelming," he said. "It's very exhausting."