Clout: Darby's Paula Brown is baaack

If you know anything about Delaware County politics, you've heard of Paula Brown.

And if you've heard of Paula Brown, chances are you've heard a lot.

Now, the waitress turned politician is making another run for Darby Borough mayor – as a Democrat running on the Republican ticket – after more than a decade out of office.

If nothing else, a win by Brown would undoubtedly give Clout something to write about for the next four years.

Why? Well …

Brown was first elected to the council in Darby, a scrappy town hugging the Southwest Philly border, in 1988, when she was 26. The following year, she was handcuffed and arrested by the police chief when she refused to shut up during a council meeting.

That was just the beginning.

In 2000, as mayor, Brown made national headlines when she parked her 1980 Dodge Diplomat on the CSX railroad tracks to protest train derailments and malfunctioning crossing gates. She disrupted freight from Maine to Florida. How Diplomatic.

Then, in 2004, Brown locked herself in her office – for several days, we don't recall how many, they all ran together – during what she claimed was a coup attempt by her political foes, who wanted to move her office out of the police station.

Clout is painting in broad strokes here, but you get the idea. We like to think of Brown as the Tasmanian Devil of Delco politics.

She lost by a handful of votes in May's Democratic mayoral primary. But she recently found out that she received enough write-in votes to be the Republican candidate for mayor in the November general election.

"Whoop there it is!!!! OFFICIAL NOTICE FROM THE DELAWARE COUNTY ELECTION BUREAU" Brown announced on Facebook over the weekend.

Clout caught up with Brown on Thursday. She said she hadn't initially planned to run for mayor again because she was enjoying her "no drama" life and spending time with her grandchildren.

"But people kept saying, 'Please come back,' " Brown said.

"I have to live here in the town and I can't just sit here and not get involved," she added.

Brown was uncharacteristically reserved when we spoke. We're guessing it's some sort of ruse. She must be plotting something.

"Time to get back in," she said.

You might've read that Mayor Kenney didn't travel alone to Iceland last week to celebrate Icelandair's new direct route between Philadelphia and Reykjavik. He was joined by girlfriend Letitia "Letty" Santarelli.

That's cool. Clout is generally not interested in writing about the love lives of Philadelphia politicians. Or even thinking about them, to be quite honest. The concept itself makes us uncomfortable.

But Santarelli, an executive assistant for Bellevue Communications Group, had previously landed a job – with Kenney's recommendation – as an office manager with the Philadelphia 2016 Host Committee for the Democratic National Convention.

This made us mildly interested in the relationship.

Kenney later admitted he "shouldn't have recommended" Santarelli for the job. And Ed Rendell, who chaired the host committee, went just a smidge overboard in describing how Santarelli was worth every penny.

"To say she is a receptionist is like saying Michelangelo is a house painter," Rendell told Alison Burdo of Philadelphia Business Journal.

But we would be remiss not to mention here that a previous, uh, acquaintance of Kenney's also received some political work this year.

In February, Kenney selected Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney as the lobbyist to represent the city in Harrisburg. The team includes lobbyist Mollie McEnteer.

We hear Kenney and McEnteer used to be an item. Hmmm.

"They were not dating at the time Buchanan applied for or were awarded the contract," Kenney spokeswoman Lauren Hitt said Thursday. "And their relationship had no influence on the award."

Hitt said nine firms applied for the contract and Buchanan was selected because of its experience.

Fair enough.

While we're here, though, Clout cannot help but mention that Kenney's estranged wife, Maureen, landed a job last year as an executive secretary in the Office of Judicial Records within the First Judicial District.

But Kenney apparently put the kibosh on that job three days in, right around the time we began asking questions. By the time we caught up with the mayor last May, he said, "Yeah, she's no longer working there."

His explanation?

"It just didn't look right," Kenney said.

Much love going out to former Philly.com scribe Brian X. McCrone, who was cruelly and unusually banned from covering the Bill Cosby trial after he got busted sending a text message from inside the courtroom. McCrone, now at NBC10, had his media credentials revoked.

Meanwhile, attorney Gloria Allred's cellphone rang during accuser Andrea Constand's testimony. But Allred only got a warning and returned to the trial.

Sounds like a double standard to us.

Hang in there, McCrone! If they throw you in jail, Clout will try to break you out.

Staff writers William Bender and Claudia Vargas contributed to this column. Tips: clout@philly.com