There's no doubt you're largely right about both race and TV, Sharrieff. But I do see signs the latter factor is weakening as a vote-driver in 2007.
It's not clear who's supporting Nutter now, after his TV blitz, but his early grassroots support base was largely white. Knox has clearly nibbled away a chunk of man-on-the-street Black voters. At the level of peers in the political process, Fattah has picked up endorsements from a few majority-white unions and professional groups. Evans has rock-solid support from most fellow state legislators, regardless of race. Brady enjoys real (as opposed to titular) backing from half the city's African American ward leaders, I'd say, and his massive union base is far from being the lily-white bastion it was 20 years ago. And Knox just picked up a most interesting ally in West Philadelphia's Blackwell clan. When it's one white guy against one Black guy, then yeah, everybody roots for the home team. But a five-man race starts to break that down. It is pleasant to see this. When the numbers turn into concrete on May 15, we'll want to see how far deracializing actually went. As for the TV -- no such progress on that front. Increasingly, people vote for what they see on the tube. -- Tony West From: S. Sharrieff Ali Well.what I am hearing is the voters are looking at race and not qualifications or agenda, and yeah-buddy it pretty much has worked that way on both sides for quite some time! Most voters couldn't tell you anything about the candidates other than what they have heard on a TV commercial. I made a few hundred calls for Chaka Fattah in a few wards and many voters were undecided, couldn't name all the candidates, hadn't done any research, and if they picked a candidate..they had a superficial reason for doing so. What does that say about the process? The mayor's election is a popularity contest among a bunch of uninformed voters driven by TV ads and race (color). AOL.com.
