As he strolled down 18th Street to a recent lunchtime speaking engagement, Sam Katz easily could have been back on the campaign trail. Passersby knew his face and called out to Katz -- who lost the 1999 Philadelphia mayoral race to John Street by a single point -- and he stopped to greet them. Shop windows suddenly came alive with waving hands, all aimed at the former Republican candidate. Katz was on his way to speak before the Harvard-Radcliffe Club, but he didn't need to prepare his speech -- by now, this life-long Philadelphian knows his vision for the city by heart. At the talk, he laid out his plan for a Philadelphia founded on knowledge workers and regional cooperation. Katz knows how the city is, and he knows how he would like it to be. "If you have a vision, if you have an idea, you really can't spend a whole lot of time listening to other people telling you why you can't do it," he told the audience of about 50 people. And even after three failed attempts to secure public office, Katz still has a vision.
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These days, he also has three jobs, the most prominent being his position as head of Greater Philadelphia First, an association of the region's top chief executive officers. Since taking over GPF last summer, Katz has traversed the region seeking out Philadelphia-area business leaders. He used their input to craft GPF's mission statement, which rests on increasing the number of "smart workers," making government more entrepreneurial, building the proper infrastructure and remaking Philadelphia's image. "People always talk about the vacuum that exists in Philadelphia," Katz said. "But there's no vacuum in terms of power in Philadelphia -- what the private sector has left on the table, the political sector has vacuumed up and taken complete control of." GPF's first steps in restoring power to the business community include a partnership with the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Association, whose mission is to strengthen the region as a center for the life sciences. "What new leadership -- and particularly Sam's leadership -- brings is a chance to reinvigorate the voice of the largest corporations in the region," said Mark Hughes, senior scholar at Penn's Fox Leadership Program. Katz first made a name for himself heading up Public Financial Management, from 1979 to 1994, which he turned into the nation's preeminent public financing organization. In fact, when Philadelphia was rocked by massive budget deficits in the early 1990s, former Mayor Ed Rendell called Public Financial Management to bail the city out. "I think that Sam's biggest contribution to the city has not been in his political endeavors, but in the role that he served as financial advisor to the city," Rendell said, calling the early 1990s Philadelphia's "darkest hour."
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Katz still brims with the focused, intense energy that enabled him to pick through complex financial statements. After hearing a Philadelphia technical school director request GPF's help in raising funds for a new communications lab, Katz showed this spirit by pressing the hard questions. "Why aren't companies paying you to do this?" he asked, followed by "What happened to your enrollment? Why did it fall off so sharply?" According to Ellen Mattleman Kaplan, who has known Katz since they were children, that is simply Katz's style. "He has an uncanny ability, better than anybody I've seen, to get to the heart of an issue, said Kaplan, who is GPF's director of public policy and communication. "Sometimes, he can be blunt in a way that can take somebody aback.... He's not afraid to deliver the message that people might not want to hear." What also sets Katz apart -- especially on the campaign trail -- is his dedication to the issues. Although he came to be known as a "policy wonk," friends insist that there is more to Katz than his intellect. "Someone who would seem outwardly at the very beginning to be a straightforward businessman... was one of the funniest campaigners around," said 2000 Penn alumnus Patrick Ruffini, who was the deputy finance director for Katz's 1999 mayoral campaign. And as if to prove his sense of humor, Katz can sing. At a 1999 campaign stop at a senior center, Katz joined the sing-a-long in progress with his rendition of "Me and My Gal." "He made all the older ladies swoon," said Linda Morrison, Katz's policy director in 1999. Not a slave to his jobs -- which also include leading both a sports complex development company and a technology investment company -- Katz is dedicated to Connie, his wife of 29 years, and his four children. "If you were going to do a story on the ideal father, it would need to be on Sam," said Ruth Pinkenson-Feldman, another life-long friend of Katz.
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Even though Katz ran for governor in 1994 and mayor in both 1991 and 1999, don't call him a politician. "It's not like he's spent the last 20 years moving from political job to political job," said Liz Preate, whose father ran against Katz in 1994, and who served as Katz's 1999 deputy campaign manager. "I think his real love is to be mayor of Philadelphia -- not necessarily politics." Even growing up, he always showed signs of being a leader, serving as president of his elementary school class and ultimately his senior class in high school. He also served as captain of the basketball team at Johns Hopkins University. "If you didn't know of the category of most likely to succeed, you would have made it up when you met Sam," Pinkenson-Feldman said. "But people weren't jealous of him. You'd always hear that people were proud to be his friend." His first foray into politics -- the 1991 mayoral race -- ended after he lost the primary to Frank Rizzo, who was mayor from 1972 to 1980. Later that year, Rizzo passed away and the Republican Party gave its nod to Joe Egan, who was subsequently trounced by Rendell. "Had I won the primary, I think that I would have won the election against Rendell," Katz said. "He wasn't yet this popular guy that he turned out to be. In fact, there were a lot of people who had doubts about him back then." Katz lost the 1999 mayoral race as well, but by less than 1 percent of the vote, a notable accomplishment considering that Philadelphia has not elected a Republican mayor in 50 years. Katz even managed to build a strong support base at Penn, usually considered to be a largely Democratic campus. "We had two kinds of buttons: 'Sam Katz for Mayor' and 'Democrats for Katz,'" said College senior Cam Winton, a former member of Penn for Katz. One obstacle for Katz in 1999 was Rendell, who supported former City Council President Street in the mayoral race, much to the dismay of Katz. "He and I were friends for a long time and then there was an election in 1999 -- he was on the other side of that election," Katz said of Rendell. "I would say that there probably are some hard feelings." Rendell insisted that he had no other alternative. "I told Sam in 1998 when he came to see me -- I said, 'Look, I have to support John Street. He was my partner. Without his leadership as City Council president, I never would have turned the city around.'" Katz says he has moved on from his political losses, and that presently he's "very content." He added that he will not run for governor in 2002. "I don't have the fire in my belly right now for that kind of a race," Katz said. As for 2003 mayoral campaign, Katz remains focused on the task at hand for now. "I have no plans to do anything. I'm just going to my job every day and doing my work."
