Fattah's in the ring for mayor in '07 race

Chaka Fattah has officially declared his candidacy for Philadelphia mayor, barely two weeks after cruising to re-election to Congress.

Fattah, who is the U.S. representative for Penn's district, announced his intentions Saturday outside the West Philadelphia High School of the Future before a crowd of over 500.

He has long been rumored to be considering such a move, and alluded to a potential run in a speech at Penn earlier this semester when he named education as an issue in the city that he would addresss as a possible candidate.

The Fattah for Mayor campaign fund will kick off fundraising today, though Fattah has not yet revealed details of his campaigning strategies or fundraising policies.

Prior to announcing his candidacy, Fattah had already formed an exploratory committee to research the potential success of a mayoral run.

Money raised through this committee, however, was not officially subject to the city's recently passed campaign-finance laws - which prohibit candidates from accepting donations of more than $2,500 from individuals or $10,000 from political committees - because the laws do not specify exactly what constitutes a "candidate."

There has been controversy in the city over whether those suspected of running should abide by these guidelines regardless of whether they have officially announced candidacies.

Other likely candidates include union leader John Dougherty, city controller Jonathan Saidel and businessman Tom Knox. Former City Councilman Michael Nutter is also running, and is the only other person to have officially declared his candidacy.

Nutter has said that he has been abiding by the city's campaign finance reform laws even before he officially declared his candidacy over the summer.

Fattah has represented the second congressional district of Pennsylvania, including North and West Philadelphia, since 1994.

Prior to this, he served as a representative in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and as a state senator. He took classes at the Wharton School and has a degree from the Fels Institute of Government at Penn.

He is currently on the Appropriations Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives.

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