Editorial | Good for him, not the city

Less than two weeks after winning re-elected to Pennsylvania's Second Congressional District, Chaka Fattah has declared his candidacy for mayor.

Few are surprised by the move, but most of us should be extremely disappointed by Fattah's actions.

Fattah certainly must have been planning to announce his candidacy for some time. He's had an exploratory committee for months, and running for mayor of the country's fifth-largest city isn't a decision most people decide to do on a whim. Especially not Fattah, a long-time political veteran.

Yet, despite a mayoral run in the works, Fattah did not remove his name from the Nov. 7 ballot. No matter how you look at it, it was a decision calculated solely based on what was best for Rep. Fattah, not what was best for the city.

Running for mayor of a 135-square mile city is a grueling, time-intensive process. It will keep Fattah away from Washington, where he should be busy representing the city and using his political power (especially with his party now holding the majority in both houses) to bring federal dollars to Philadelphia. Furthermore, Democrats are promising to put education at the forefront of the next Congress' agenda, and a strong presence from Fattah would have helped to ensure Philadelphia schools' (especially Penn's) interests were protected.

Fattah knowingly ran for a position despite the fact that he will now be running for another position that - if he wins the mayor's race - he will be forced to vacate in less than a year. And Fattah's record of doing his job while campaigning is far from strong: In the last 15 months, while he focused on returning to Congress, Fattah authored only two bills (and both were purely ceremonial).

Not withdrawing his name from this month's midterm election was a shady move that voters should remember when voting for mayoral candidates this spring. Fellow mayoral candidate Michael Nutter even resigned his post as city councilman - which is much more related to city business - when he announced his candidacy this summer. He could've waited to declare his candidacy and held onto his Council seat longer, but he didn't.

Voters should punish Fattah for his actions by not casting a vote for him; it's one way to make sure he does his job in Congress - it will be his only job.

Philadelphia deserves a full-time congressman.

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