Five Philly mayoral candidates are in a TV ad war that’s getting nastier by the day

Five Philadelphia mayoral candidates and groups supporting them are blanketing the city’s airwaves with television advertising in the final days of the neck-and-neck race, and the messaging is getting more negative by the day.

For weeks, each of the top five contenders have been running positive commercials about themselves and their accomplishments. A couple even feature their kids.

But now, four candidates are the subject of attack ads, and cease-and-desist letters are flying.

» READ MORE: Philly mayoral candidate Helen Gym facing attack ads for 2019 pharmaceutical bill vote

This week, a political group largely funded by labor unions that is supporting Cherelle Parker for mayor began running ads against three of her opponents. One targets Rebecca Rhynhart for her work on Wall Street and in City Hall, and another portrays both Jeff Brown and Allan Domb as millionaires “trying to buy the mayor’s office.”

Those commercials come just days after a new political-action committee whose donors aren’t yet known started running attack ads about Helen Gym.

With less than two weeks until the May 16 primary election, Parker is now the only candidate among the top tier of contenders to not be specifically targeted by negative advertising on television.

» READ MORE: The Philadelphia mayor’s race is essentially a five-way tie, poll shows

A large swath of the city’s Democrats in a recent poll were undecided, meaning they could be swayed by a last-minute ad blitz. With as many as five candidates within striking distance, the nominee could win by a small margin — and is likely to prevail in November given the city’s strong Democratic leaning.

The mayoral candidates and interest groups supporting their bids have already spent about $18 million on advertising alone, the vast majority on television, according to media-tracking firm Ad Impact.

More than $8 million of that was spent by Domb, a real estate magnate and former City Council member who has poured at least $7 million of his own money into his campaign.

» READ MORE: Which Philly mayoral candidate do you align with the most? Take our test and find out.

Attack ads solely targeting Rhynhart and Gym could reflect how political opponents perceive their position in the race as campaigning comes to a close. Both campaigns have asked stations to pull the ads, saying they make false claims — to no avail.

New commercials targeting Rhynhart, Brown, and Domb are paid for by a pro-Parker super PAC called Philadelphians For Our Future, which is largely funded by building trades unions. The group has poured nearly $2 million into advertising.

The ad focused on Rhynhart refers to her as a “Wall Street banker.” She was a credit analyst and then a managing director at Bear Stearns, an investment bank she left in 2008 just weeks before it collapsed amid the financial crisis.

Rhynhart joined former Mayor Michael Nutter’s administration in 2008 as city treasurer and was largely focused on managing the city’s debt. The ad says that while Rhynhart managed Philadelphia’s finances “the city failed to pay vendors on time” and “closed pools and libraries.”

The city in 2009 stopped paying some vendors amid a massive budget hole following the financial crisis. Around the same time, Nutter proposed closing pools and libraries, but his plan to close libraries was rejected. Rhynhart was later Nutter’s budget director, beginning in 2010.

Jeff Sheridan, a consultant for the super PAC running the ads, said Rhynhart, who has made much of her campaign about her time as budget director, “can’t have it both ways.”

“She can’t boast about her time in the Nutter administration on one hand,” he said, “and pretend like she wasn’t the architect of decisions to not pay small businesses and close schools, pools, and libraries on the other.”

» READ MORE: Rebecca Rhynhart once defended Nutter-era budget cuts. But she says she wasn’t responsible for them.

Rhynhart has said she was carrying out Nutter’s vision. Kellan White, her campaign manager, said the ads are a “false, desperate smear campaign” and that Parker should “call on her own super PAC to pull this ad down immediately.”

A spokesperson for Parker’s campaign said, “We have no more standing to ask a super PAC to take down an ad than we do to ask the Rhynhart campaign to take down their current ads.”

The pro-Parker super PAC is also running a new ad that attacks Brown and Domb, saying they both made contributions that helped “anti-choice Republican politicians.”

Brown has contributed more than half a million dollars to political candidates and causes over the last 15 years, the vast majority aligned with Democrats, records show. In 2013, he donated $1,500 to former U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, and he has contributed to a PAC run by the Wakefern Food Corp., which has given to Democrats and Republicans.

Brown’s campaign said in a statement they are “focused on sharing Jeff’s vision for improving the lives of Philadelphians” and would “let others waste their time and resources trying to tear down other candidates.” They have said the donation to Toomey was made after the former senator pressed for expanded background checks for gun purchasers.

Domb has made contributions to a PAC run by the National Association of Realtors. That PAC gave to both Democrats and Republicans.

Jared Leopold, a spokesperson for Domb’s campaign, called the attack “silly” and pointed out that the Realtors’ PAC has also donated to two members of Congress supporting Parker’s candidacy.

» READ MORE: Super PACs have already spent more than $5M to influence the Philly mayor’s race

Philadelphians For Our Future is the only outside group spending big on television right now. Another super PAC that supports Gym and is largely funded by the city and national teachers’ union is also expected to run ads in the final stretch of the campaign.

A third super PAC that was backing Brown had put more than $3 million into the race but stopped spending money meant to influence the outcome of the election after it was accused in a lawsuit filed by the city’s Board of Ethics of illegally coordinating with Brown.

Super PACs can spend unlimited amounts of money if they do not coordinate with the campaigns they support. The group, called For A Better Philadelphia, has denied wrongdoing, and a lawsuit against them is pending.

Brown’s campaign has tried to claw its way back with viewers, pouring nearly $1 million into commercials over the last three weeks, according to Ad Impact. Several polls have showed that Brown, a grocer and first-time political candidate, had appeared to have lost some ground with voters over the last few months.

The campaign this week had to change an ad after a complaint by Drexel University. The commercial touted that Brown is supported by “local police” including “Drexel and Penn Police.” But Brown was endorsed by the unions that represent those police — not the departments themselves.

A spokesperson for Drexel said the university is a nonprofit and prohibited from endorsing political candidates, and asked that Brown’s campaign make a distinction between the police departments and the unions that represent officers.

The campaign revised the ads.

Inquirer data journalist Aseem Shukla contributed to this article.