With longshot rival and poor economy, Nutter fund-raising down

With Mayor Nutter facing only longshot opponent T. Milton Street Sr., there's no question that this year's Democratic mayoral primary is considerably different from the heated five-way battle fought in 2007.

Just how different became clearer Friday with the release of new campaign-finance data.

Consider: In the four months leading up to the 2007 primary, Nutter pulled in nearly $1.7 million - double what he collected in the same period this year.

Four years ago in the same period, Nutter had also spent $2.5 million, most on an aggressive television ad campaign that helped him surge into first place. By contrast, this time he has spent about $800,000 - and none of it on TV.

Lacking a serious challenger and with economic conditions still tenuous, political consultants and others say, the fund-raising environment has been challenging.

"It is a completely different economy than there was in 2007," acknowledged Nutter's campaign-finance director, Scott Freda. "But we are very grateful for the amount of support the mayor has received in these difficult times, which shows that residents of the city do believe he has been doing everything he can to help see the city through difficult financial times, and believe he is the right person for the job."

In all, the mayor has raised more than $2 million, with a bit less than $1.3 million in the bank going into the May 17 primary.

Among the major expenses incurred by his campaign were donations of $10,600 apiece - the maximum allowed under the city's campaign-contribution caps - to several City Council candidates.

The recipient group included incumbents Blondell Reynolds Brown, James Kenney, and Maria Quiñones Sánchez, along with Mark Squilla, who faces three rivals in the First District Council; Cindy Bass, who is in a seven-way race for the Eighth District seat; and Marty Bednarek, who is running for the Sixth District seat.

Nutter also donated $10,600 to the campaign of Councilman Frank DiCicco one month before DiCicco announced he would not seek reelection.

Among other expenses, Nutter paid $35,000 to Neil Oxman's Campaign Group, the Rittenhouse Square media firm that in 2007 helped turn around Nutter's campaign after producing a charming TV ad that featured the prospective mayor's then-12-year-old daughter.

The campaign also paid from $10,000 to $15,000 a month to a few full-time campaign aides - and nearly $30,000 in legal costs to a firm, Bowman Kavulich, that led an unsuccessful effort to remove Street from the primary ballot.

Street did not report raising or spending any money. His T. Milton Street for Mayor campaign committee did receive more than $5,000 in in-kind contributions from four individuals.

Among them was tow-company titan Lew Blum, whose family has been in the business since the 1930s.

Blum, angry at legislation sponsored by Kenney that he believes makes it harder to operate his towing business, has allowed Street to open a campaign office on the second floor of his company headquarters, near Girard Avenue and 40th Street.

Of Nutter, Blum said, "Our mayor wants to take care of Wachovia, of Commerce Bank, of the big businesses." He said Street was "very good for the small people."

Of the two Republican candidates, John Featherman reported raising $6,441. Campaign reports were not immediately available for Karen Brown.