Philly mayoral candidates meet for only debate

Democrat Michael Nutter and Republican Karen Brown will face off Tuesday in the only planned debate of the Philadelphia mayoral campaign.

Brown had asked Nutter to join her in a series of town hall meetings, but Nutter has agreed to just this one debate, being held at Channel 29.

Brown faces an uphill climb in the campaign. She began the year as a Democrat. Now she’s a Republican, running as an unknown against a well-known and well-funded incumbent.

In their last campaign filings, Nutter had $936,000 in his war chest. Brown’s was empty.

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Brown said she’s preparing for the debate by talking with citizens, especially victims of crime.

“If I’m going to attack him it has to be real,” Brown said. “It can’t be policy and procedure, and it can’t be all these facts that he gets from computers and all these college students…until you live in the neighborhood, and experience what these people are experiencing, it’s all just a bunch of words on a piece of paper.”

Mayor Nutter’s spokeswoman Sheila Simmons said he’ll be ready to defend his record on crime, education, and the city budget. Channel 29 is taping the face-off Tuesday for a broadcast Friday night.

Nutter appears for an hour this morning at 10 a.m. on Radio Times with Marty Moss Coane. Brown will be on the show Oct. 10.

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