But will NATO support him?

It might be a bit of a reach to compare Philadelphia’s Democratic and Republican leaders to Moammar Gadhafi, but mayoral hopeful John Featherman is swinging for the fence in a new web commercial.

At nearly four minutes, it’s not likely to appear on any TV screens any time soon, but it’s clever. It features a perky real estate agent in a video conference with Gadhafi, explaining that he’ll feel right at home in Philadelphia, where Democrats rule, Republican leaders cuts deals rather than take them on, and corruption is everywhere.

Featherman is a self-described libertarian who’s running for the Republican mayoral nomination in the May 17th primary, and for a long time he was the only candidate seeking the GOP nomination.

Desperate to find an alternative to Featherman, Republican leaders recruited Karen Brown, a Democratic committeewoman from South Philadelphia to switch parties and accept the GOP machine’s endorsement for mayor.

Featherman tells me he hopes to run a 30 or45-second version of the commercial on TV if he can raise the money.

He might need a NATO air strike to beat the Republican organization on its home turf. The last candidate to do that in a mayoral primary was Frank Rizzo, who beat the party’s endorsed candidate Ron Castille in 1991.

You can watch Featherman’s ad here.