Street slides by competition in Dem. primary

John Street defeated rival Marty Weinberg in tight Dem. mayoral primary. They were singing and dancing the night away at the downtown Wyndham Franklin Plaza Hotel Tuesday night as former City Council President John Street captured the Democratic mayoral nomination, edging out lifelong politico Marty Weinberg by a mere four percentage points. Street garnered 35.4 percent of the vote, while Weinberg took home 31.3 percent. John White, former head of the Philadelphia Housing Authority, had emerged in recent weeks as a formidable challenger to Street and Weinberg, but only earned a disappointing 21.7 percent of the vote. Former City Council member Happy Fernandez placed fourth overall with 6.3 percent and State Rep. Dwight Evans followed at 4.7 percent. Fringe candidate Queena Bass received less than one percent of the general vote. In total, Street received 100,902 votes; Weinberg 89,041; White 61,816; Fernandez 17,952; Evans 13,290; Bass 1,690. Because of the relative closeness of the race, Weinberg -- who trailed by several points throughout the night -- waited until nearly every number was in before conceding, subsequently delaying a seemingly inevitable Street victory celebration until the wee hours of Wednesday morning. But at about 1 a.m., with over 97 percent of the city's voting precincts reporting, Weinberg delivered his concession speech, and Street finally addressed the crowd of about 500 loyal supporters, stressing the quality of his campaign and the need to continue focusing on issues that face the city of Philadelphia. "We have communicated a message of hope," Street said. "People are concerned about [the issues]. That was the real campaign and that's why we're here today, celebrating." Street was joined on stage by Mayor Ed Rendell -- barred from seeking a third term by the city charter -- who pledged his full support for Street's candidacy in February when it was first announced. During his concession speech at the Warwick Hotel near Rittenhouse Square, Weinberg offered congratulations to Street and sent a message of hope to friends and supporters. "First of all, I would like to congratulate John Street," Weinberg began. "John Street ran a good campaign, as did the other three candidates. And I believe we ran a very good campaign as well." Weinberg explained that although "we almost pulled it off," he was happy with what his campaign brought to the table in this year's election. "I'm very proud of all of you," Weinberg said of his still-upbeat supporters. "I'm proud of what we tried to accomplish with the Unity '99 campaign, bringing people together." Weinberg's speech was broadcast live on two large television screens at Street's headquarters and the lively crowd erupted in cheers and applause as the one-time aide to Mayor Frank Rizzo raised the white flag. In a bitter campaign frequently marred by record levels of spending and negative advertising, Street saw himself as the target of several Weinberg attack commercials -- a political tactic that Street alluded to as something "with which I take serious question," but one that he was able to overcome. "I'm a veteran of politics in this city and I know what people want," Street said. "And I will tell you that it was my responsibility to rise above the negative and I think in the end, that is what helped me with this great victory." White -- who experienced a considerable rise in the polls during the weeks leading up to the election -- finished a distant third, but said that all Philadelphians will benefit from his efforts in this year's primary. "The numbers might say that someone else has won, but I say to you that the people who have really won? are those who have fought so hard and so long for the good of the city," White said during his concession speech, shortly before midnight at the DoubleTree Hotel. Several hundred White supporters chanted "2003" -- the year of Philadelphia's next mayoral campaign -- in hopes that their candidate will consider running for the city's highest office again. Fernandez and Evans offered their concession speeches around 11 p.m. Basking in the television lights and the light of his own victory, Street said afterwards he always knew that he would be the one man left standing on Tuesday. "I can't tell you that I was surprised," Street said. "If you had been in the streets with me? you would have known there was a reservoir of support for me that the typical political expert wasn't about to focus on. I think sometimes we underestimate the sophistication of voters in this city." Street now prepares to face off with Republican in Sam Katz, who ran unopposed on Tuesday and is looking to become Philadelphia's first Republican mayor since the early 1950s. During the last few weeks of the primary campaign, Katz released a series of negative television commercials aimed at Weinberg and White -- an almost unheard of move that many political experts claimed was Katz's attempt at picking Street as an opponent in the general election. During his victory speech, Street emphasized that although this year's primary was a "long and hard-fought" contest, he would make a strong effort to energize the Democratic party before the November 2 election. "You know Democrats are always willing to have a good fight, a primary fight," Street noted. "You know that, but we Democrats have always had the capacity at the end of that fight to pull ourselves together.? I want the city to know that we are about unifying our party, coming together." In an interview, Street said he would not speculate about Katz's potential strategy, but was confident that his own campaign path would be issues-oriented. "I have no idea what Sam Katz is going to do in the general election," Street said. "I have a fairly clear idea of what I'm going to do. I'm going to speak to the hopes and aspiration of the people in this city and I think we'll win." Street was elected by a margin of roughly 12,000 votes. With slightly more than 284,000 total votes cast, the primary matched experts' predictions of relatively low voter turnout and a small margin of victory. Lacking one dominant candidate and one major issue in this year's election, analysts had suspected that voters would be hesitant and many would not vote at all -- a fact that was shown by the over 20 percent of voters still undecided in a poll taken just days before the primary -- making the demographics of voter turnout especially significant. Thus far, the extent of the damage to Philadelphia Democratic ticket in the wake of a such a heated political primary -- one that was covered in the national media during its final weeks -- remains unclear, but Street offered a would-be olive branch to his opponents, asking them to join him for a "unity lunch" at The Palm restaurant yesterday afternoon. Though a restaurant employee said that only Evans joined Street and Rendell -- whom Street said would pay for the meal -- "a lot of people affiliated with the other campaigns" did show up. Nonetheless, following his victory on Wednesday morning, Street explained that uniting people is something he has done in the past and something he will continue to do as mayor of Philadelphia. "A part of my major strength as a leader in this city has been to harmonize the differences between very significant, important and independent people," Street noted. "And I think that is one of my major responsibilities now." Summer Pennsylvanian staff writers Binyamin Appelbaum and Karlene Hanko contributed to this article.