D‚j… vu: Street trumps Katz

Mayor John Street put an emphatic punctuation mark on the end of the 2003 mayoral campaign yesterday, beating his Republican challenger Sam Katz by an enormous margin.

In an election that many analysts predicted would go right down to the wire, Street walked away with 58 percent of the total electorate, to Katz's 42 percent, with 95 percent of the precincts reporting.

"I pledge to you that in the next four years we are going to make you and this city proud," Street said to his supporters following his victory declaration.

Throughout the campaign, which officially began following the May primaries, both camps accused the other of doing everything possible to win, using both legal and illegal tactics. All told, the candidates raised more than $20 million combined. The major issue that confronted the candidates in the last month, however, was the discovery of a Federal Bureau of Investigation probe in which Street and some of his major contributors are subjects.

Polls leading up to Election Day showed the race to be tight, and analysts said that the vote would be dependent on whichever candidate's base voters turned out more strongly. Virtually no one expected the election to be this disparate, not even Street himself.

Though The Associated Press had called the election for Street around 10 p.m., Street did not declare his victory until after Katz had formally conceded the race.

Street took the stage in the Wyndham Hotel ballroom at around 11:30 p.m. and greeted the crowd in his customary manner, by simply saying, "I'm having a great day." Standing with his wife, Naomi Post, Governor Ed Rendell and others, Street touted the impressiveness of his victory.

When he began his campaign, he said to the cheering crowd, even he "would not have expected to win by this margin."

Street declared the victory a mandate for his programs in the city, and pledged to continue with many of the initiatives he has already begun in his first term. Additionally, he promised to continue working towards improving Philadelphia by facing head-on the concerns of minorities and women, and addressing issues that affect the lives of children.

"The most important thing we can do in our city is improve the quality of education in our school districts and work on behalf of our children," he said.

In his speech, Street made no mention of Katz, who he had attacked in media statements and paid advertisements that intensified over the course of the campaign.

Supporters showed up at the Wyndham even before the polls closed at 8 p.m., many dressed in a variety of T-shirts and sweatshirts with slogans that ranged from the simple "Re-elect John Street" to "Vote Democrat Press #1" to "Don't let Republicans hijack this election."

The crowd was energized from the start, as early returns showed Street ahead by a large margin -- one that never significantly decreased. Early in the evening, with only 17 percent of the total precincts reporting, Street held a 62 percent to 37 percent lead.

Throughout the night, and during Street's speech, the crowd broke out into a repeated chant of "four more years."

Among the other Democrats in attendance at the celebration were U.S. Congressmen from Philadelphia Chaka Fattah and Joe Hoeffel, City District Attorney Lynne Abraham and City Controller Jonathan Saidel.

"John Street, tonight, has gotten his reward," Fattah said in remarks before Street took the stage. "This mayor is able to walk and chew gum all at the same time."

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