Rendell doesn’t want to ‘fix potholes’ again

    Over the weekend Inquirer political sage Tom Fitzgerald reported that Philadelphia real estate leader Allan Domb was trying to talk Ed Rendell into running for mayor again.

    The piece, which notes that some movers and shakers aren’t impressed with the potential field for 2015 and treasure memories of Rendell’s two terms as mayor in the 1990’s, quotes Domb as saying he thought Rendell might be convinced to do it. “He didn’t tell me ‘no,’ ” Domb told Fitzgerald.

    Well I didn’t ask Rendell to run, but he did tell me “no.”

    After a news conference in his office earlier this month, Rendell spent a few minutes with me and Mark Abrams of KYW Newsradio, and I asked Rendell about the next mayor’s race.

    • WHYY thanks our sponsors — become a WHYY sponsor

    I didn’t ask if he’d run, but after sharing some other thoughts, he brought it up.

    “To people who say I should run, I say, `I don’t want to be a 70 year-old guy fixing potholes,'” Rendell said. “If I’m going to do something again, I want it to be the middle east, or national health insurance or something like that.”

    Rendell acknowledged that he hears from people who are dismayed at the current field, and he tells them, “find a candidate.” He said that if the business community went to a candidate and promised financial backing for the campaign and help once he or she gets in office, “maybe they’d convince somebody.”

    Among the potential field for 2015 are State Sen. Anthony Williams, businessman Tom Knox, and City Council members Jim Kenney and Bill Green.

    WHYY is your source for fact-based, in-depth journalism and information. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on financial support from readers like you. Please give today.

    Want a digest of WHYY’s programs, events & stories? Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

    Together we can reach 100% of WHYY’s fiscal year goal