POLITICS

Politics

>> SINS AND WINS OF THE FATHER

The furor over Mayor John Street's assertion that "the brothers and sisters are running the city" has made Street the target of much criticism over the past couple weeks. But Robert Brown, campaign manager for the mayor's son, Sharif Street, who is challenging state Rep. Frank Oliver for his 195th District seat, says the campaign hasn't suffered. Brown, who is conducting a door-to-door campaign in neighborhoods throughout the district, says, "I thought there'd be a greater backlash in the white community," adding that, "People in the black community were excited that the mayor was standing up for the black community." Brown says many of the white voters he has talked to on the campaign trail attributed Street's comments to racial pride and nothing more. In black neighborhoods the mayor's comments were well received, Brown says. "Given the history of Frank Rizzo and some of the other elected officials in the city, to have him say African-Americans are not excluded from top positions in the city, in North Philly and West Philly, it's been real helpful. African-Americans took it in that light and felt real good about it." Frank Oliver, for his part, isn't concerned with the mayor's effect on the campaign. "We're not running against Mayor Street," says Oliver spokesperson Marilyn Jewett. "We're running against Sharif Street. What the voters think, that's something different. But as far as we're concerned, we're running against Sharif, not the mayor." (S.J.)

>> SITE SPECIFICS

As the primary races get back on track for May 21, signs for state Rep. Babette Josephs (182nd District) are popping up in Center City. The signs, which read "ED RENDELL FOR GOVERNOR" on top and "BABETTE JOSEPHS FOR STATE REP" underneath, plug both candidates' websites. Or do they? Though the signs say you can find Rendell at www.rendell.com, there's actually no such site. (The correct URL is www.rendellforgovernor.com.) The URL for Josephs' website, www.babette.org, is correct. But unlike, say, state Sen. Vince Fumo's website--which offers state budget analyses and the like--Josephs' website is awash in, shall we say, less political content. There are links to live webcams, for instance, like the "Amazing CowCam," which offers an opportunity to "Check out tomorrow's dinner, T-Bone and Fillet, grazing somewhere in New Jersey." PETA will be happy to know that particular link is broken, as is the link to the "Crime Cam," which shows "The county lockup of Phoenix, AZ." Archives of past "Sites of the Week" include Heartless Bitches International: "Do you want to SMACK women who play 'helpless' just to gain male attention and stroke male egos?" The "Gays and Lesbians" page has links to ACT-UP and the League of Gay and Lesbian Voters. But if you click on "Au Courant," you won't get archives of the now-defunct GLBT newspaper. Instead you'll be connected to gayphilly.com, which offers "Tight Anal Sluts," "Just Asian Teens," "Soldier of Cock," etc. The site also opens a smaller window that shows a photo of a girl on the toilet with the words, "Sssshhhh!! She Doesn't Know You're There!" Many pages of the site--like the Shopping page--have been updated as recently as March 26. In explaining the diversity of content on her site, Josephs writes, "I have tried to take all politics out of Babette.org, because we did not want this website to be like other politician's web pages which are full of partisan rhetoric and self-serving personal and political information ... We wanted a web page that all people regardless of political persuasion would enjoy and come back to visit." (L.S.)