Newt the environmentalist, and your questions for City Council

A few weeks back, Newt Gingrich teased us with the idea that he would announce his presidential campaign at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. It’s now clear he’ll announce later today in a more conventional way- through social media.

In any case, here’s an interesting piece from Darren Samuelsohn in Politico about Gingrich’s advocacy on the issue of climate change. Unlike some Republican candidates, Samuelsohn writes, Gingrich isn’t apologizing or running from his record, saying as recently as May he’d do a commercial with Al Gore. Samuelsohn also notes Gingrich has a mixed record on Congressional action to address the issue.

And Tom Fitzgerald reports on Pennsylvania U.S. Senator Rick Santorum’s latest campaign trip to South Carolina, where he won a straw poll (Donald Trump finished fourth).

In Philadelphia, you’ll get a chance to meet Democratic and Republican candidates for City Council at-large tomorrow night at a debate hosted by me and Irv Randolph of the Philadelphia Tribune.

Council at-large candidates should be conversant on citywide policy issues. If you have a question you’d like to hear them address, send me an email or post it as a comment. I’m looking for good ideas.

And if you come, say hello and tell me what you like or don’t about the blog, or what you’d like to see more or less of.

The event is sponsored by the League of Women Voters and the Committee of Seventy. It begins at 7 p.m. at the WHYY stuidos,150 N. 6th St. We’ll do Democrats first, then Republicans, so it will last until 9:45 or so.

Finally, have you noticed how quiet Milton Street has been in the mayor’s race? I expected one outrageous stunt after another, aimed at embarrassing Mayor Nutter and drawing some media attention.

We’re now six days from the primary, and Nutter has managed to avoid facing Milton in a debate.

But our friend Chris Brennan of the Daily News’ PhillyClout blog tells us that Nutter and Street did appear consecutively on NBC10’s @Issue program, hosted by Steve Highsmith. Highsmith is a smooth and savvy broadcast reporter who’s been doing great work since I knew him as a radio anchor in the 80’s.

Milton Street tells Highsmith he’s “a conceptualizer, a facilitator, and one who can mobilize people and address their issues.” You can watch it here.