Jim Kenney was always going to take some 2023 heat. He just made it so much hotter.

Candidates for mayor in Philadelphia know one time-tested tactic: If the current mayor is term-limited, make the Democratic primary as much about attacking him as it is about defeating any challengers on the ballot.

Mayor Jim Kenney just had a very bad week for saying in public what was already clear: He is anxious for his second term to end so he can leave City Hall behind.

But there are 18 months between now and the next mayor. And, given the penchant to pummel the outgoing mayor, Kenney just ensured that he will take that beating from a very crowded field of 2023 candidates.

There are few exceptions to this rule, with a history that hails back more than four decades.

Bill Green III won the mayor’s office in 1979 by vowing to be different than the controversial outgoing mayor, Frank Rizzo, who a year earlier lost a legal bid to undo the city’s limit of two terms for mayors.

Ed Rendell won the office in 1991 by promising reform and order after the tumultuous administration run by Green’s successor, W. Wilson Goode Sr.

Rendell is also a notable exception to this rule. He left office so popular that the Democratic and Republican nominees, John Street and Sam Katz, both ran on continuing his vision for the city.

Mike Nutter catapulted from dead last in the polling to winning the 2007 primary by hammering away at Street, whose administration had been mired in a federal corruption probe. It didn’t matter that Street was never charged. The city wanted a new direction.

Nutter had troubles of his own, including a horrible economy, a fractious relationship with City Council, and long fights with municipal unions. Kenney had evolved by 2015 from a friend and ally of Nutter, his former Council colleague, to a fierce critic. That helped Kenney win office in 2015.

Kenney has spent the week apologizing for saying, after bullets struck two officers, that he will “be happy” when his time in office ends in January 2024.

Likely candidates for mayor lined up on social media and in person, knocking Kenney as sounding “asinine,” defeated, and “irresponsible.” Some called for his resignation. They all said the city deserves better.

Those attacks were always on the horizon, even before Kenney’s confession.

Now his lethargy is part of the city’s lexicon. That’s the shorthand we use to speak to each other about each other. Democrats running to replace Kenney will speak that language. It is an inescapable part of his legacy.

State Sen. Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor, has legislation sitting on Gov. Tom Wolf’s desk that would achieve what Donald Trump and the Pennsylvania Republican Party could not when Trump was running for president in 2016 and 2020.

Mastriano’s bill would allow any Pennsylvania voter to serve as a poll watcher anywhere in the state. Trump called for that in 2016. The state party sued for it in federal court and lost that year. Trump tried again in court in 2020 and a judge said no.

Say you live in Erie County and hear some politician — Trump or Mastriano, for instance — falsely claim Philly’s polling places are rife with voter fraud. You could drive 400 miles to the city to serve as a poll watcher, if Mastriano has his way.

Will he? Wolf won’t say.

The Pennsylvania Election Code, since 1937, has required that poll watchers appointed by candidates and political parties serve in the county where they are registered to vote.

Mastriano’s bill was approved by the Republican-controlled Senate and House last week. Wolf has until Saturday to sign it into law, veto it, or allow it to become law without his signature.

Wolf spokesperson Elizabeth Rementer told Clout he “strongly opposes” the bill and sees it as an attempt “to encourage voter intimidation,” but she repeatedly refused to say what he would do about it.

Mastriano last week told a conservative radio show host he hopes Wolf lets it become law without his signature.

Trump, who endorsed Mastriano, praised the bill last week and called on Republicans to tie it to passage of the state budget, now a week overdue.

It’s no secret that Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, is recovering from a stroke he suffered just before the May primary and hopes to be back on the campaign trail this month.

That didn’t stop the National Republican Senatorial Campaign from issuing a pair of news releases this week, asking why Fetterman was not out campaigning, complete with a mocked-up “missing person poster.” The NRSC did not mention the stroke.

That’s a favor for the Republican nominee, Mehmet Oz, who is not only a celebrity TV doctor but also an actual physician. Imagine a doctor asking that question.

Fetterman’s campaign has been fund-raising this week, calling Oz “Doc Hollywood” for attending “star-studded parties” and rubbing elbows with the fabulously rich in the Hamptons during the July 4th weekend.

Fetterman also noted on Twitter on Thursday that a campaign video Oz tweeted to criticize Kenney appeared to have been filmed in the doctor’s New Jersey mansion and longtime home, piling on the claim that Oz is a carpetbagger politician who just moved to Pennsylvania for the Senate race.

Clout provides often irreverent news and analysis about people, power, and politics.