Milton motors on

It was an eventful week in the Philadelphia mayor’s race. As millionaire candidate Tom Knox dropped out, the ever-alert Catherine Lucey of the Daily News noticed that

T. Milton Street, the just-out-of-jail brother of the former mayor appeared before Democratic ward leaders Tuesday to make a pitch for his mayoral bid.

The Democratic City Committee was interviewing candidates for citywide office, so Milton decided to take his shot.

“He did well,” Party Chairman and U.S. Rep. Bob Brady told Lucey. “He gave us a lot of facts and statistics.”

There’s no doubt the party will endorse incumbent Michael Nutter for re-election, but Milton’s appearance further demonstrates that he intends to take this mayoral thing as far as it will go. He plans a rally in Kensington Saturday, the Metro reports.

The really interesting question is whether the Nutter campaign will challenge Street’s nominating petitions. He has to get 1,000 signatures from registered Democrats, which isn’t as easy as it might sound.

If you turn in less than 3,000 signatures you invite a challenge, because when you collect names you’ll inevitably get some who aren’t really on the voter rolls.

If Nutter has his volunteers and lawyers comb over Milton’s petitions and file a challenge, he risks looking like a bully, somebody who’s afraid of a spunky challenger running on nothing but heart (oh, and mouth – a lotta mouth).

If he doesn’t challenge and Milton is on the ballot, it means the colorful Street will get media attention while he needles the mayor right up to May 17th.