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Bugging Bombshell: 10 years later

The political players look back on the 2003 race for mayor and the discovery of an FBI bug in the mayor's office.

On the eve of the 2003 mayoral election, an FBI bug was discovered in Mayor John F. Street’s office, unmasking a federal pay-to-play corruption probe of City Hall. The investigation resulted in two dozen convictions, including that of former City Treasurer Corey Kemp, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison. It also exposed through dozens of wiretaps how city contracts were routinely exchanged for campaign contributions. The lead defendant, Street fund-raiser Ronald A. White, died before trial, and while Street’s second term was tarnished, the mayor was never charged with a crime. (YONG KIM / Staff Photographer)
On the eve of the 2003 mayoral election, an FBI bug was discovered in Mayor John F. Street’s office, unmasking a federal pay-to-play corruption probe of City Hall. The investigation resulted in two dozen convictions, including that of former City Treasurer Corey Kemp, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison. It also exposed through dozens of wiretaps how city contracts were routinely exchanged for campaign contributions. The lead defendant, Street fund-raiser Ronald A. White, died before trial, and while Street’s second term was tarnished, the mayor was never charged with a crime. (YONG KIM / Staff Photographer)Read more
    by Chris Brennan | Columnist
    Published 

CITY HALL staffers and elected officials should take a moment Monday to look at their office ceilings and ponder a question: Is someone listening in on all this?

Monday marks the 10th anniversary of the discovery of a FBI listening device in the ceiling of then-Mayor John Street's City Hall office, right above his desk.

If that seems like a long time ago, think of what it must feel like for Corey Kemp.

Kemp, the city treasurer appointed by Street and eventually convicted on corruption charges in the probe, won't be released from prison until next May.

Kemp wasn't the only person to go to jail, just the guy with the stiffest sentence. The federal investigations also snared a fast-food franchise owner from Detroit, two bankers, an imam, a City Council staffer and the "paramour" of a politically connected lawyer with ties to Street.

The lawyer, Ron White, died after being indicted in 2004.

The discovery of the "bug," one month before the general election, at first created pandemonium in Street's bid for a second term against Republican challenger Sam Katz. But the Democrats quickly settled on a strategy: Blame then-President George W. Bush for political trickery.

It worked.

Katz could not keep up with the conspiracy theory, which drowned out any criticism he had of Street, who won easily.

The investigations led to trials that showed federal agents, working a drug case unrelated to City Hall, came across Imam Shamsud-din Ali. A wiretap on Ali led to White. Which led to Street.

So no trickery. Just plain old federal footwork on crime.

We asked some of the players in the 2003 election to look back. Here's what they had to say:

* Frank Keel had a front-row seat as part of Street's campaign team. The political consultant is the father of the Bush-did-it defense, which suggested the president wanted a Republican to win Philadelphia's mayoral office to help him win Pennsylvania in the 2004 presidential race.

"The fact of the matter is, at the time, nobody knew anything, including me," Keel said of the early days of the bug. "But I was savvy enough to put together a lot of circumstantial evidence."

* U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, the city's Democratic chairman, had to rally a stunned party in the days after the bug to support Street.

He accused the feds of "meddling in the election," but now dials back that claim a bit to complain about the timing of the bug placement.

"They were fishing," Brady said of the feds. "And to fish in that pond at that particular time was a bad place to go. They could have done it after the election."

* John Dougherty, head of the politically influential Electricians Union and a staunch Street ally, is still proud that he and Keel were quick out of the gate with the Bush conspiracy theory.

"In the last 10 years, I haven't thought about the bug ever since the man got re-elected," he said. "You know, at the time we were in election mode and wondering what the heck is going on, what's going to happen?"

* Mayor Nutter, a City Councilman with a frosty relationship with Street in 2003, was "astounded" by the bug, which he said cast "a cloud over all of us in public service, especially elected officials."

Nutter is probably the bug's biggest beneficiary. He ran for mayor in 2007, promising to reform City Hall's pay-to-play culture.

"I think people were fed up," Nutter said. "They were tired of the nonsense. They were embarrassed by what happened."

* Sam Katz, inadvertently steamrollered by the bug, seems the most at peace with it. Maybe that's because he later became friends with Street.

Katz said the Democrats who "subverted the truth in their pursuit of the retention of power" did a good political job for Street.

"The idea that there was some larger political strategy behind that was completely ridiculous," Katz said. "I always thought, right up until the end, that people would come to their senses and realize that this issue didn't occupy the minds of anyone in Washington."

* John Street said he didn't have time to answer questions this week about the bug. Instead, he issued a statement that he is "proud of the legacy that reflects the efforts of my administration," including a budget surplus, two new sports stadiums and two contracts for municipal workers.

"History has proven that my administration was honest and hardworking," his statement read.

Phone: 215-854-5973

On Twitter: @ChrisBrennanDN

Blog: ph.ly/phillyclout