Kenney’s momentum, last-minute campaigning and more: NinetyNine’s 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 collection of links to stories on our third and final pre-primary election special, which airs twice Friday.

— Poll: Kenney with substantial lead over mayoral-primary foes: Asked “if the Democratic Primary for Mayor of Philadelphia were held today and you had to make a choice, for whom would you vote?,” 42 percent of respondents answered Kenney with Lynne Abraham and Anthony Hardy Williams tied at 15 percent.

— Poll shows Kenney in command in Philly mayor’s race (Off Mic with audio): The survey commissioned by NBC10, The Inquirer and the Daily News found Kenney with 42 percent of likely voters, leading state Sen. Anthony Williams and former District Attorney Lynne Abraham by 27 points. Both were at 15 percent, with 14 percent undecided.

— Urbanism and the mayoral primary: How do the candidates compare? (Plan Philly): We know researching candidates on your own can be time-consuming and laborious, so we created this Mayoral matchup tool we hope will help. In it we’ve distilled what we’ve learned about the candidates’ positions and priorities on a narrow set of 16 issues we think are important to our readers.

— Women voters wield massive power in Philly, so why is Lynne Abraham so far behind?: Former District Attorney Lynne Abraham has already won several citywide races and has huge name recognition. In a city where women voters outnumber men, a win would break the ultimate glass ceiling. Just days away from the primary, though, Abraham trails Jim Kenney by 27 percent in the campaign’s lone independent poll.

— Davies takes a look at who didn’t fund Philly mayoral-race super PACs: If you’ve paying even a modicum of attention to the mayoral-primary race, or take note of political commercials on television, you probably already know that super PACs have had quite a bit of public say lately. But on Monday, WHYY’s Dave Davies took a look at that impact through a different prism: Specifically, he asked “Who didn’t fund Philly’s super PACs?”

— Philly mayoral hopeful Williams talks campaign supporters, being a CEO, and why he’d prefer to walk in a park (Jennifer Lynn): Williams said he is running for mayor now so he will be able to execute his vision, which is a product of his experience as a state legislator, a small business owner and a father of two daughters.

— Katz decides against fourth run for Philly mayor: Lacking what he said was the necessary “burning passion,” Sam Katz notified supporters Tuesday that he would not run for mayor again. “I’ve run three times,” Katz wrote in an email. “I have always wanted to serve as mayor because I felt strongly that I could and would make an important contribution to the future of my city through my leadership, ideas and through collaborations with others. “However, I have concluded that another run is not right for me today.”

— Energy industry invests in Philly mayor’s race (StateImpactPA): Suddenly Philadelphia has made it on to the shale gas map. So whoever ends up in City Hall now matters to those drilling upstate. And energy interests are taking an interest in the race, as shown by campaign finance reports released last week.

— Milton Street hits the campaign trail at Broad and Erie: Sporting a tight red T-shirt that featured his ballot position and “Stop the Violence” mantra, mayoral candidate T. Milton Street Sr. railed against building prisons at a time of meager school funding and canvassed for votes where Broad Street meets Germantown and Erie aves. on Tuesday.

— Who should choose the next mayor — Philadelphia voters or four billionaires? (EssayWorks): Because of the Citizens United decision, there are now no limits on how much money wealthy individuals can contribute to super PACs or that these PACs can spend to influence voters. So Jeff Yass, Joel Greenberg and Arthur Dantchik, who made billions trading options at the Susquehanna International Group, are now overwhelming all other spending in support of Anthony Williams’ campaign for Mayor.

— ‘Globally-Minded Leadership’ mayoral forum addresses Philly’s role in the world: Conflicting schedules and bad traffic on I-95 turned the first hour of Global Philadelphia’s mayoral forum into a polite Monday afternoon Q&A-discussion between candidate Lynne Abraham and stand-ins for two of her competitors. The tenor of the “Globally-Minded Leadership” mayoral forum didn’t much change when Nelson Diaz arrived, apologetically, with a half hour to spare.

— Dem. mayoral candidates make their pitch to East Falls residents: A week and a day before voters decide which Democratic mayoral candidate to send on to the general election, five of them visited Monday night’s East Falls Community Council meeting to explain why they think they should be the one.

— Katz decides against fourth run for Philly mayor: Lacking what he said was the necessary “burning passion,” Sam Katz notified supporters Tuesday that he would not run for mayor again. “I’ve run three times,” Katz wrote in an email. “I have always wanted to serve as mayor because I felt strongly that I could and would make an important contribution to the future of my city through my leadership, ideas and through collaborations with others.

— Davies on Vince Fumo, Sam Katz and super-PAC funding: Spurred on by a Daily News story about disgraced former state Sen. Vince Fumo’s anyone-but-Jim-Kenney stance in the mayoral race, one question occurred to WHYY’s Dave Davies: Is he trying to help or hurt the mayoral candidate?

— Kenney lands Clarke’s endorsement for Philadelphia mayor: It just keeps getting better for Jim Kenney. The day after the first independent poll of the mayor’s race showed the former City Councilman with a big lead, City Council President Darrell Clarke bestowed his highly-valued endorsement on Kenney, his former colleague.

— Incumbents facing a major challenge in Philly’s at-large Council races: While the mayor’s race is garnering most of the attention in Philadelphia, voters also will be picking City Council members this year. Incumbents don’t have the slam-dunk odds of a normal year.

— NinetyNine’s Mayoral Race Quotes-of-the-Day Quiz Vol. 10: Who said what this week? Test your luck!

— The regularly-updated Philadelphia Mayoral-Race Endorsement Tracker: As with the independent poll, Jim Kenney has a sizable lead in this category too.

From elsewhere:

— The Case for Anthony Williams (Citified): A champion of the dispossessed and a persuader of the privileged, Williams is uniquely positioned among his fellow candidates to forge common ground between the underserved and the upper crust of our city.

— The Case for Jim Kenney (Citified): I also have come to know Jim as someone who understands that leadership requires humility in order to move the city forward. I’ve seen someone who cannot tolerate injustice and someone who will outwork anyone for his beloved Philadelphia.

— The Case for Nelson Diaz (Citified): Nelson knows that the opportunities and challenges that face Philadelphia’s citizens are inherently connected. Fixing schools, creating good jobs, and promoting the environment are each interdependent. He knows that people have to do this together.

— The Case for Lynne Abraham (Citified): At her core Lynne Abraham has a true moral compass and the courage to speak truth to power. Her record, her devotion to her native city and, most important, her commitment to no more business as usual, make Lynne the most qualified and compelling choice to be our next Mayor.

— The Case for Doug Oliver (Citified): We want a leader who can break through the silos of past years and empower a new generation of leadership that will take our city to the next level. Doug Oliver will do this. His plan is sophisticated, but simple. He wants to make Philadelphia an easier place to live, work and play.

— What voters in Inquirer poll are saying (The Next Mayor/Inquirer): They’re not altogether wild about the choice of Philadelphia mayoral candidates on Tuesday’s Democratic ballot. They’re glad for a lack of “mudslinging” so far, as one put it. Some are wary of candidates’ ties to unions, donors, or City Hall. And some just haven’t decided.

— Why political polls are becoming rarer (The Next Mayor): Why was there only one this time around? Blame cell phones.

— Bunch: Does it matter if Ramsey remains top cop? (Daily News): Why would Ramsey want to stick around for long, when after a long career here and in D.C. and as chief of President Obama’s task force on “21st Century Policing” (the politically correct term for not killing so many unarmed black youths), he could write his own ticket in the private sector? Or retire (he’s 65-ish). Either way, I’d have to think the last thing he wants is four more years of this (bleep), with a new boss no less.

— Ferrick: Kenney’s personality whizzed him past Williams (The Next Mayor): If the results of the vote on Tuesday mirror the findings of the independent poll released today, then Anthony Hardy Williams will have gone from front-runner to loser in just a few months. Despite the $1.3 million he spent, and the $6 million invested by the SuperPAC American Cities, it’s likely that Williams will lose to Jim Kenney by double-digits, perhaps as much as 20 points. That isn’t a defeat, that is a debacle.

— The art of the shadow endorsement (The Next Mayor/Inquirer): The race breaks down to a final sprint between former City Councilman James F. Kenney and State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams. Kenney has the lead, according to pro-Kenney polls. Williams, if he has any polls showing him good news, isn’t sharing. So endorsements matter. But this election season also features a more curious form of support. Call it the shadow endorsement.

— Anthony H. Williams: a long political record, faces toughest race yet (The Next Mayor/Inquirer): A political trifecta — a well-known name, diligent constituent service, deft political gamesmanship — has made him unbeatable in West Philadelphia. Now he’ll learn whether those strengths play citywide and in a rare contest for Williams: one in which he has a true electoral fight on his hands.

— Democratic mayoral candidates not talking about DROP (The Next Mayor): Would the next mayor even want to take down DROP?

— Philadelphia Declaration: Local Election Updates (Spirit Newspapers): The biggest ace-in-the-hole for Oliver may be the hundreds of thousands of Philadelphians who are registered to vote but whose opinion no one asks and who most predict won’t be out on election day, a tragically self-fulfilling prophecy. Millennials and marginalized groups like minorities don’t typically vote because they are convinced that money buys political offices.

— We asked all the mayoral candidates for op-eds (Al Dia): And here’s the link to that page.

— Mayoral Hopefuls Reach out to Jewish Voters (Jewish Exponent): In most elections — particularly a Democratic primary — outreach to the Jews is important because of the community’s disproportionately high voter turnout, the majority of which tend to vote Democratic. Even so, voter turnout is expected to be especially low this time around, thanks to the limited number of other races on the ballot. Accordingly, it is unclear how many Jews will vote and how much their vote will matter in determining the results of the mayoral race.

— A new but possibly terrible idea to fight crime and fix Philly (Al Dia): Stop the violence. That’s been Milton Street’s hallmark phrase in the mayoral race. Say what you will about the man himself — and his absence of written policy proposals — he has attended umpteen mayoral forums and been vocally consistent about one thing he’d do as mayor: Implement a new municipal department of police-community liaisons.

— Nelson Diaz releases a comprehensive social justice policy agenda (Al Dia): While the other mayoral candidates have released piecemeal policies on some of the issues contained here — stop-and-frisk, women’s rights, LGBT equality, et. al — Diaz has drafted an all-inclusive vision of a “just city” through a judge’s lens.

— Philly mayoral candidates don’t agree on charter schools (Watchdog.org): Six Democrats are vying for a run at City Hall, and their positions on improving city schools vary widely — from Sen. Anthony Williams’s pro-choice background to Milton Street’s reluctance to create new charter schools.

— Anthony Williams’ comments on police commissioner may prove foolhardy (The Next Mayor): The Williams campaign has decided to do this by attempting to tap into the anger of black voters over “stop and frisk” and the police in general. No need to go into the specifics. The words Baltimore and Ferguson will do.

— The Mayoral Candidates on the Issues (University City Review): The Center City Residents Association shares its thoughts on the mayoral candidates’ stances on various issues.

— America’s Deadliest Prosecutors (Slate): Lynne Abraham secured 45 death sentences as the Philadelphia district attorney. Since she retired in 2010, the new district attorney has obtained only three death sentences.

— Charles Ramsey 101: Why Philly’s mayoral election is all about a top cop and stop and frisk (Billy Penn): This was supposed to be an election about public education. And yet the Philadelphia mayor’s race has suddenly veered into the topic of policing.