Hey, this City Controller race in Philadelphia is really something to watch. This is the final weekend for the three Democratic candidates to get their message out before Tuesday’s primary election eliminates two of them. I was thinking about how feisty this race has been since watching the Northeast Philadelphia debate last week. Then I saw Dave Davies’ story, Controller race becomes mud-slinging contest, which notes the strong campaign Brett Mandel is waging against incumbent Alan Butkovitz.

The controller dismissed any suggestion that Mandel is posing a threat, saying, “I’ve always been aggressive as a campaigner, and I always run scared.” I guess that explains the incumbent’s full-page ad in Tuesday’s Philadelphia Inquirer that reprints a letter from Mandel’s former boss, City Controller Jonathan Saidel. In it, Saidel blasts Mandel’s contention that the city controller is somehow not doing his job of auditing every city department.

Saidel: It’s a sad commentary on Mendel that he would resort to cheap political trickery in order to deceive the public for his own personal advantage.

It has been a great race to watch. If you haven’t had time to catch one of the many candidate gatherings, I’ve excerpted a portion from last week’s Northeast Philly/WHYY debate. The video shows moderator Chris Satullo asking the three Democratic candidates what they would do to get people to boost the city controller’s influence over fiscal spending. It’s the Controller’s job to audit city departments, identify government waste or fraud, and make recommendations to fix the problem. The candidates are Alan Butkovitz on the far left of the screen, John Braxton next to him, and Brett Mandel. At the far right is Satullo, WHYY’s executive director for news and civic dialogue.

If you want to see the whole debate, you can check it out here.