Rizzo rejoins Democrats, eyes mayor's office

PHILADELPHIA Former City Councilman Frank Rizzo, son of the legendary Philadelphia mayor, officially changed his party registration to Democratic on Monday in hope of running in the party's 2015 mayoral primary.

Since losing his Council seat in 2011 - in part because of his participation in the controversial early retirement program known as DROP - Rizzo, who served on Council as a Republican, had been registered as an independent. He had maintained a low profile of late.

But on Monday he raised that profile, appearing with the city Democratic chairman, U.S. Rep. Robert Brady, to rejoin the party.

"It's obvious that there's a mayor's race, and I'm considering entering that race as a Democrat," Rizzo said after signing his registration form in the party's headquarters at Third and Spring Garden Streets.

Rizzo said he would make a candidacy decision after the holidays.

With a handshake and smile, Brady welcomed Rizzo "back home" to the party he had embraced in the 1970s and early '80s.

But Brady also made it clear that he was not endorsing Rizzo for mayor, that it was too early to endorse anyone, and that he was just supporting a friend.

"He's been my personal friend for 20 years. We socialize together. We are in a car club together. We talk all the time together, and not all the time politics," Brady said.

Rizzo, 70, was a Republican member of Council from 1996 through 2011, winning one of two at-large seats reserved for the minority party. He ran into conflict with the GOP when he refused to back the redistricting plan of a fellow Republican, veteran Councilman Brian J. O'Neill.

"I've been talking to Frank Rizzo for eight or 10 years, telling him he belongs in the Democratic Party," Brady said Monday. Asked why Rizzo belonged there, Brady deferred to his guest.

"I was a Democrat for many years, but when my dad changed . . . I switched my party to be supportive of him," Rizzo said. "But even my governing, my politics, I thought more like a Democrat than a Republican, and that got me in trouble."

Rizzo's father, Frank L. Rizzo, was a former police commissioner who served as Philadelphia's Democratic mayor from 1972 through 1979 and ran for mayor in 1987 as a Republican. Rizzo sought the post one more time, but died of a heart attack in July 1991 after winning the Republican primary that year.

The younger Rizzo joins several other Democrats considering running for mayor in 2015, including State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, City Controller Alan Butkovitz, and Council President Darrell L. Clarke.

Millionaire businessman Tom Knox, who sought the Democratic nomination in 2007, announced Friday that he would not run in 2015 despite having e-mailed invitations to a candidacy announcement. He cited his family as his reason for not running.