Nutter wins primary

"Nutter Butters" sure had a good reason to get their groove on Tuesday night - even if their dance moves were a little awkward.

Before a screaming crowd of around 300 of them at the Radisson Plaza-Warwick Hotel in Center City, former Councilman Michael Nutter declared victory in a contentious five-way Democratic primary that virtually guarantees him a spot as Philadelphia's next mayor.

According to The Associated Press, Nutter had netted 37 percent of the vote with 97 percent of precincts reporting with businessman Tom Knox following in second place with 25 percent.

Chaka Fattah, Bob Brady and Dwight Evans trailed behind, with Fattah and Brady each garnering 15 percent, and Evans coming in last with 8 percent.

A victorious Nutter, however, was quick to reach out to his competitors, devoting most of his victory speech to the importance of building bridges between various factions in the city's Democratic Party.

"I can't do this by myself - so I need their help and support," he said to quiet boos from the crowd at his mention of the other candidates. "They are honorable men."

Nutter also stressed what have become his signature themes in this campaign: lowering the city's rising murder rate, improving the public school system and ending corruption in City Hall.

"We have to change the direction of this city," he said, adding that Philadelphians must "clean this city up - literally and figuratively."

This supposed new approach to governing was what seemed to draw many supporters to Nutter in the first place.

"This kind of governing style if going to be such a change" from the status quo, said Mark Alan Hughes, a Daily News columnist who worked to develop Nutter's policy proposals, citing Nutter's personal discipline as essential to changing a political culture that is widely perceived as corrupt. "I think people like smart people."

Melanie Fortino, a campaign worker from Passyunk Square in South Philadelphia, echoed this theme, saying that "this [election] is too important to stay at home."

Knox, a successful businessman who pumped nearly $10 million of his own money into the race to catapult him from obscurity to front-runner status, tried to put a good face on events last night.

Before a subdued crowd of supporters at the Loews Hotel in the old PSFS building, Knox claimed that he had always said that Nutter would have been a good second choice for mayor because of his record as a reformer.

"Let's support the next mayor of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter," Knox said.

Fattah, seen as an early front-runner because of the name recognition he received as congressman, was less conciliatory, complaining that his ideas for lifting Philadelphians out of poverty caused the difficulty he had in raising money late in the campaign.

"It's difficult to raise money from the most powerful when you said you want to help the least powerful," Fattah said, adding that though he "may not have a majority in numbers [at the polls] . a majority of people in this city know we are right."

Though Nutter will face Republican Al Taubenberger in November, no Republican has been Philadelphia's mayor in nearly 60 years.

- Senior staff writer Alanna Kaufman and contributing writers Erik Hickman and Brooke Prashker contributed reporting for this article.

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