Philly’s building trades unions set to endorse for mayor. Clout hears Cherelle Parker gets the nod.

Clout spies a spark on the horizon for Cherelle Parker’s campaign for mayor, as the Philadelphia Building & Construction Trades Council prepares to issue an endorsement next week in the Democratic primary.

We hear Parker will get that nod, though maybe not a unanimous vote from the 30 unions that make up the council.

This comes at a critical time for Parker, as rivals Jeff Brown and Allan Domb flash their cash with television commercials while Brown and Helen Gym pick up endorsements from other unions.

Parker trailed those three and Rebecca Rhynhart in 2022 campaign donations reported two weeks ago in the nine-candidate primary.

But super PACs, which can ignore the city’s campaign finance limits if they don’t coordinate with a campaign, were always expected to raise and spend more money than the candidates.

The building trades, which have been in flux this year about the race for mayor, were key financiers early on for super PACs that helped Mayor Jim Kenney win in 2015 and 2019.

Ryan Boyer, who leads the trades council, confirmed for Clout that his group will announce its pick on Wednesday morning.

“We have coalesced behind one person, who I won’t name right now,” Boyer told us Thursday.

Parker’s camp stepped carefully around the portending good fortune.

“I can tell you officially we are very respectful of the building trades process and would never want to get ahead of them or their press conference,” said Aren Platt, a senior adviser to Parker’s campaign.

The building trades learned a tough lesson in the 2007 primary for mayor, splitting between unsuccessful candidates as Michael Nutter took advantage and the win.

The trades unified four years later, at first hoping to back City Council President Darrell Clarke for mayor until he declined to run. The trades then became one of three super PACs that spent more than $4 million to back Kenney in the 2015 primary.

The building trades came back in 2019 and spent more than $550,000 to air ads backing Kenney, despite the three-way primary that year never looking competitive.

Clout ponders a mayoral mystery today: Why is a top national Republican opposition researcher bombarding Philadelphia agencies with Right-to-Know requests regarding four Democrats running for mayor?

The researcher, Allan Blutstein, apparently doesn’t want to explain what he’s up to. The senior vice president of America Rising LLC in Arlington, Va., did not respond to Clout’s detailed hails.

What we know: In the last few weeks, Blutstein has sent RTKs — as they’re known — to the city’s School District, Fire Department, Police Department, Sheriff’s Office, Commerce Department, City Controller’s Office, Mayor’s Office, Commission on Human Resources, and Office of Supportive Housing.

Blutstein wants copies of emails sent by people at those agencies that mention the candidates — Brown, Gym, Parker, and Rhynhart.

So far, he’s not getting them.

The state’s Right-to-Know Law gives public agencies five business days to respond to a request for information. Those agencies can then invoke a 30-day extension if they cite certain reasons why the information can’t be immediately produced. They almost always take the 30 days.

While Blutstein waits, Clout came up with three likely motives:

We can rule out one scenario: Republican mayoral candidate David Oh, who quit City Council this week to join the race, says he did not put Blutstein on the case and does not know who did.

Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal made it official this week, entering the Democratic primary as she seeks a second four-year term.

Her two expected challengers told Clout they will make their candidacies official next week.

Michael Untermeyer, a real estate investor who has served as an assistant district attorney and deputy state attorney general, last ran for office in 2017, when he spent $1.3 million of his own money in a failed bid for district attorney in a Democratic primary won by Larry Krasner.

Untermeyer also ran for City Council in 2011 as a Republican, for district attorney in 2009 as a Republican, and for sheriff in 2007 as a Democrat.

Jacque Whaumbush, a former acting chief deputy in the Sheriff’s Office during a previous administration, ran as a Democrat for register of wills in 2019 and for sheriff in 2011 and 2007.

Whaumbush said he is going to focus his campaign on his experience in the office.

Untermeyer told Clout he will drill down on how “the Sheriff’s Office has been disgraced with scandals, financial improprieties and corruption for decades,” with a promise to put an end to all that.

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