Milton Street gets to run, judge rules

    Milton Street, the brother of former Philadelphia Mayor John Street, will be on the May 17 primary ballot for mayor, a Common Pleas Court judge ruled Monday.

    Amid whoops of joy from Street supporters, Judge James Lynn dismissed a challenge to Street’s candidacy backed by Mayor Michael Nutter.

    The city charter requires mayoral candidates to have been city residents for three years before the election, and lawyers for the Nutter campaign argued Street was in prison from 2008 to 2010, and living in New Jersey before that.

    Street said he’d had a “love interest” at the Moorestown, N.J., address in question, but that he never lived there.

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    “I didn’t have clothes there, I didn’t have a dog there, I didn’t get mail there,” Street said during a hearing.

    Street was able to show he had a voting address in Philadelphia for the past several years, and Lynn decided that was enough to keep him on the ballot. Earlier Monday, Nutter’s attorneys withdrew a challenge to signatures on Street’s nominating petitions.

    Street told reporters after the hearing he’s ready to rumble with the mayor.

    “I’m going to be at every political forum, and I look forward with great anticipation to the day, the night we debate. I want to debate him so bad,” Street said.

    “I’ll crush him,” he added later.

    Nutter campaign spokeswoman Sheila Simmons said the mayor looks forward to talking to voters about his accomplishments and explaining his vision for the city.

    The campaign is considering an appeal of Monday’s ruling, she said.

     

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