“…He is going to need all the support he can get because it has to be believed especially
among African Americans that he caters to Caucasians and not to African Americans.”
-Fourth District Councilwoman Carol Ann Campbell on Democratic Mayoral candidate Michael Nutter

Democratic mayoral nominee Michael Nutter needs all the help he can get in his campaign against Republican opponent Al Taubenberger, Philadelphia Councilwoman Carol Campbell has said.

In an exclusive interview with The Philadelphia Tribune, Campbell said Nutter needs assistance simply because he does not have the networking skills a future mayor would need.

“Michael needs help,” said Campbell, who represents the city’s Fourth District. “Michael doesn’t have a strong following in Council. He doesn’t have a strong following in the House. When John Street went in, he had been in Council. He had his bonds. He had his relationships. Michael doesn’t have that kind of base in Council, nor does he have it in the House, so he is going to need all the support he can get because it has to be believed especially among African Americans that he caters to Caucasians and not to African Americans.”

Campbell was recently interviewed for a Tribune editorial meeting where she initially spoke of her upcoming legislation.

One of the significant bills that she is trying to get more funding for is for her Basic Systems Repair program, which helps her constituents with “quality of life issues.”

Campbell was trying to fund $1.3 million back into the program, after what she said was an overwhelming response of need from her constituents for issues such as roof repairs.

Campbell said the money has been available for her to use to help her constituents, because she said that Nutter, while he was the district’s councilman did not use it properly.

“Some of the problems it’s just … let me just say this, all of this money that I am spending in the BSR, if Michael did what he was supposed to do, I wouldn’t have that money,” she said. “Money would have been spent on the people. I am able to spend it because it was there. I won’t make that mistake when I leave, I am going to spend everything on people, trust me.”

Campbell added that money was available to her district under Mayor Street’s Neighborhood Transformation Initiative (NTI) when Nutter was the councilman.

She also said that a lot of money under Nutter’s watch was going to specific areas such as Roxborough.

She noted one of Nutter’s faults during the May primary was his television ads in which he criticized Street.

“You have to realize that there is a lot of resentment now,” Campbell said. “I don’t think Black men should do that. I don’t like that. That wasn’t necessary. There was a time when Michael and John were inseparable. They were real close until John couldn’t make him majority leader. Black men go through things others don’t have to go through. It’s different. A lot of people resented that. I meant, you can get your story across without ridiculing Street. You don’t have to do that. I don’t think Street is right on everything but no one is, OK.”

Campbell said despite their personal opinions of each other, Nutter will need Street’s friendship if he does become mayor, because of Street’s expertise. But, she said it is up in the air whether Nutter will seek that help if he does become mayor.

“I think that Michael is a loner, I know, because I was very close to him one time. Michael is a loner,” Campbell said.

“He doesn’t bond. In politics, sometimes you get things done [by] ‘you scratch my back, I scratch yours,’ or ‘I am there for you, if you are there for me.’ He doesn’t have that kind of camaraderie. He just doesn’t. Maybe it’ll come in time, but I don’t think it’s what he thinks it is. I think he is going to have to find out that when change will come, everyone else will find out about him. When they find out he’s not going to be able to deliver what they think he can, then the other thing he can do is try to fall back on his natural constituency, which he doesn’t have in the first place.”

Nutter gave a statement in response through his spokeswoman Melanie Johnson.

“I have had the pleasure of knowing Councilwoman Campbell for a long period of time of working together on numerous projects on behalf of constituents of the Fourth Councilmanic District and specifically in the fourth ward,” Nutter said in the statement. “I deeply respect her service and commitment to the citizens of this city and I look forward to working with her in any capacity to help improve the lives of people in Philadelphia.”

Street’s spokesman, Joe Grace said the mayor has made an effort to reach out to Nutter.

“The mayor and Michael Nutter have had one meeting not that long after the primary,” he said. “They have had casual contact in events they are both attending. The same goes for Al Taubenberger in that the mayor has seen him at events and they chat.”

Grace said that right now the mayor is focused on his last months in his term and is planning a transition process for the next mayor.

Campbell is in her last term as councilwoman for the fourth district. In May, she her party’s nomination by a small margin to Curtis Jones Jr.