Ballot position, challenges and endorsements: NinetyNine’s mayoral campaign-coverage week in review

At high noon each Friday during Philadelphia’s mayoral-primary season, NinetyNine will post a roundup of noteworthy stories from the previous week. Miss a couple days of coverage, or just want to catch up over the weekend? We’ve got you covered.

From NinetyNine and NewsWorks:

— Leading Questions: A City Election Special. A recap of our election special (which just ended, but airs again at 11 p.m. Friday).

— Clout of the coffee can? Recent Philly elections suggest ballot position not that vital: The mayoral-primary ballot order was set this week: Anthony Williams, Milton Street, Jim Kenney, Doug Oliver, Nelson Diaz and Lynne Abraham. Recent elections suggest it doesn’t matter where they fall in order, though.

— Introducing the Philadelphia Mayoral-Race Endorsement Tracker [regularly updated]: It’s been a good week for Jim Kenney as it comes to receiving endorsements from teachers, laborers and police officers.

— Ask the mayoral candidates: How will you implement the ‘Vision Zero’ initiative?: The mayoral candidates let NinetyNine know how they feel about the with the ‘Vision Zero’ policy which has an eventual goal of zero roadway deaths. Related story: Bicycle Coalition director on how next mayor can make Philly bike-friendlier.

— Milton Street won’t run as independent in Nov. if ejected from Dem. mayoral primary: The mayoral candidate is facing a challenge questioning whether he’s registered as a Democrat and Philadelphia resident.

— Street, Blackwell among Philly candidates facing nomination petition challenges: Philadelphia mayoral hopeful Milton Street is among those now at risk of being knocked off the May primary ballot after Tuesday’s deadline to file legal challenges to candidates’ nominating petitions.

— Even the best of political reforms sits on shaky ground (Centre Square): Philadelphia has some of the strictest campaign finance laws in the land. They led to a great campaign in 2007, and set up Michael Nutter to run a pretty darn ethical administration. Now, cue in the “harbinger of doom” music. The backsliding has begun.

— Tony Williams responds to Jon Stewart’s ‘Philadelphia is awful’ quip: The host of “The Daily Show” said something mean about Philly. Again. But this time, a mayoral candidate decided to respond via YouTube.

From elsewhere:

— Education top issue for city, poll finds (Philadelphia Public School Notebook): A poll from the Pew Charitable Trusts has found that residents rank education as the top issue facing Philadelphia, outpacing crime and the economy. Opinion on the quality of the public schools has sunk over the past several years, the poll showed, but views on charter schools were mixed.

— Candidate Williams’ grade as school founder: incomplete (The Next Mayor): Anthony Williams, a candidate for mayor who has made a name for himself and reaped millions in campaign cash as a staunch backer of education reforms – like charter schools – may now be asked to explain on the campaign trail why the results of his charter experiment were less than stellar.

— Diaz offers plan on Philly school funding (The Next Mayor/Inquirer): Democratic mayoral candidate Nelson A. Diaz is staking his campaign on city schools. Abolish the School Reform Commission, Diaz says. Establish a local school board and universal prekindergarten. Connect needy students with social services.

— Carpenters fined for contributions to Williams (Inquirer): The city’s Board of Ethics has fined the Carpenters Union $1,000 for donating $21,500 – $10,000 over the limit – to State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams’ mayoral campaign, and the union has agreed to pay. Whether Williams’ campaign will have to return the extra $10,000 was not clear Thursday.

— Black leaders plan summit on issues in mayor’s race (The Next Mayor/Inquirer): With an eye toward keeping African American interests at the forefront of the current mayoral campaign, a group of black civic leaders Wednesday outlined plans for a two-day “black political summit” April 11-12. The summit, to be held at Dobbins High School, will allow the group to draft an issues agenda for all mayoral and City Council candidates in the May 19 primary. The candidates will be asked to sign off on positions presented.

— Who’s afraid of Darrell Clarke? (Citified): City Council President Darrell Clarke — and by extension City Council as a whole — is showing in both words and deeds that Council intends to play a huge, perhaps dominant, role in city government now and in the future, no matter who is elected mayor.

— Dougherty plans $1 million spending spree to unseat Council incumbent, source says (The Next Mayor/Daily News): A high-level source said Monday that labor leader John Dougherty reportedly approached Second District City Councilman Kenyatta Johnson at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade and allegedly promised to “do everything he can to defeat him,” including putting $1 million into the campaign to defeat him.

— How will the next mayor fight crime? (The Next Mayor): Crime-fighting the last eight years appears on paper to be a success for Mayor Nutter. But community policing, officer-involved shootings, and rising costs linger.

— The myth of the mayoral Millennial voter (Philly Voice): The question, being posed up and down Philadelphia’s simmering mayoral blogosphere: Will the young, professional, trend-driving people flooding into the city finally rise up and vote? Do they represent, as the enthusiastic head of a political action committee aimed at young voters told the Inquirer recently, “a sleeping giant of a population?” Maybe, but the emphasis, perhaps, should be on “sleeping.”