Thirty-six years after the late Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo won the Democratic mayoral primary, and turned Philadelphia politics upside down for almost 20 years, his son, Frank Rizzo,Jr., a Republican councilman at large and radio talk show host, is floating the possibility of leaving the Republican Party--to which his father migrated in 1986 after leaving it in 1956--and seeking the Democratic mayoral nomination.
The senior Frank Rizzo became a hero in large part because of adulatory press coverage given by the locally owned and Republican owned Inquirer, Daily News, and Evening Bulletin. He hit a speed bump in 1970 when the Knight newspaper chain (later Knight Ridder) bought the Inquirer and Daily News and proceeded to judge the local hero by unflattering national standards. Now the Knight Ridder chain has been broken up, and the Inquirer and Daily News are again locally owned and Republican owned.
And, once again, crime is becoming a staple of reporting to an even greater extent than before. This may be a tailor made situation for the son of Philadelphia's most famous police commissioner.
But the electorate is rather different from what it was in 1971. In 1971, the Democratic Party was overwhelmingly white, while today it is overwhelming non-white. In 1971, the Democratic Party organization was overwhelmingly pro-Rizzo, while today the Democratic Party chair is himself a potential candidate. In 1971, white voters--like both Rizzos-- had overwhelmingly not attended college, while today college graduation is much more widespread among both blacks and whites.
The Democratic Party primary field already includes six active candidates. Dividing them by race--still the easy reference point for Philadelphia mayoral politics-- there are three black candidates (Congressman Chaka Fattah, former Councilman Michael Nutter, State House Democratic Minority Appropriations Chair Dwight Evans), and three are white candidates (former City Controller Jon Saidel, labor leader and Redevelopment Authority Chair John Dougherty, and multimillionaire former Rendell mayoralty aide Tom Knox.)
Democratic Party Chair and Congressman Robert Brady may well join the race, as may State Senator Anthony Hardy Williams, whose father Hardy Williams was one of the senior Rizzo's opponents in 1971.
As Yogi Berra liked to say, "it's deja vu all over again."
Except for Knox, advised by Joe Trippi, I know this entire field quite well. I also know the obvious fact that no matter how many candidates there are, only one will win.
Can Frank Rizzo triumph over six to eight Democrats and win the Democratic nomination? Yes, he can. He could get many Republicans and independents to switch to the Democratic Party and drive the Republican Party down to a point where it will have even a greater difficulty finding qualified candidates than it does today. He conceivably could get half the white vote and 5% of the black vote and-- if the field was divided enough-- squeak through.
I think though that this is very unlikely to happen. but it is going to be a very interesting primary nevertheless.
Frank Rizzo is far more steady, consistent, diplomatic and politically aware than his father--the quintessential diamond in the rough--was. His father was beloved and adulated by some, and hated and feared by others. Rizzo himself is generally respected by most, without either the negative or positive passions his father aroused.
Why is he not running on the Republican side? Afterall, his three electoral victories were on the Republican ticket and his father won two Republican mayoral nominations, losing narrowly with one in 1987 and dying in the midst of his second Republican general election campaign in 1991. Because he merely won one of two seats guaranteed to the minority party, consistently getting far fewer votes than any Democratic candidate, and he sees no realistic chance of winning as mayor on the Republican ticket in one of the few places in America where John Kerry won by the biggest Democratic margin in local history. The Republican Party last won an open seat Philadelphia mayoral election in 1939.