Pennsylvania's big-city mayors have trouble with the law

[Freddie Stubbs]

Sunday, December 26, 2004

By Bill Toland, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



There's a running bet among politics junkies across the state. Winning it requires a correct answer to this question: Who gets indicted first, Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy or Philadelphia Mayor John Street?

Murphy, who announced last week that he wouldn't seek a fourth mayoral term, is being investigated by a federal grand jury for a no-layoff contract he struck with the city's firefighters union on the eve of the 2001 Democratic primary. Street is at the center of a sprawling, yearlong City Hall corruption probe that has netted several of his friends but hasn't resulted in an indictment bearing Street's name.

The oddsmakers would have been wise to include Erie Mayor Rick Filippi in the bet, but it's too late now. Filippi has been indicted, accused of criminal conspiracy and a boatload of other charges related to a proposed land deal between his business partners and MTR Gaming Group, a racetrack company.

From Erie, the state's fourth-largest city, we move to Allentown, the third-largest. There, first-term Mayor Roy Afflerbach, a Democrat like Murphy, Street and Filippi, announced last week that he wouldn't run again. His "credibility is in tatters," says the city's newspaper, and his stubborn personality, battles with city council and failure to solve the city's budget woes have prompted even longtime supporters to turn on him.

more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04361/432553.stm

I'm glad that Alllerbach did the right thing rather than stubbornly running for reelection. It was possible for him to win renomination in a crowded primary where the anti-Afflerbach vote is split, but Allentown is quite capable of electing a Republican as Mayor (his predecessor was a Republican).

[Lefty48197]

1. I can't believe how corrupt those Democrats are

they make us Republicans look so good in comparison.