will it be a slam bunk or a come from behind win? philadelphia voters will have the final say. this morning, you will hear from both candidates as they make a final push to win your vote. good morning. i'm jim rosenfield for nbc 10@issue. most if not everyone expecting an easy win for democrat kenny. a low voter turnout could benefit murray-bailey as she works to rally republicans who are expected to turn out. this morning based on a coin

toss we begin with candidate kenney. you are in the home stretch. must feel good. >> yes, sir. it has been -- it's a process. you have to go through it. it's the democratic process. it's not always pretty. the general is not as hectic as the primary. there are more candidates. i got in late. so it was 110 days before the primary. so it was a bit of a sprint. this was a little better pace. but still, you have to raise the money, do the events. do what you have do. it's getting to the end now. >> how important is it for voters to turn out not just to elect the next mayor but the impact across the state? >> i am the least important -- i'm one of the least important races on that ticket. pennsylvania supreme court is without a doubt the most important race on that ticket. i want people to vote for me, obviously. but we have three openings in state supreme court. first time since william penn. none sitting there live east of harrisburg. it's important we get -- i'm a democrat, the democratic candidates for the supreme court elected but the turnout needs to

happen. people need to respect the sacrifices that people made over our history both in foreign wars and civil rights achievement. people in birmingham and -- all you have to do is go to your rec center to vote. >> a lot of people are complacent. give us an example of why it's important for people to turn out to vote. >> for the supreme court -- the serves for ten to 15 years. >> you are a longtime city council member, longtime politician, career politician if you will. some see that as a negative. >> it's a profession. >> i respect that. will it be business as usual if you are elected as mayor? how will you shake things up after having been at city hall so long? >> the most important thing for me is that if you try to hit a

home run every time at bat, more than likely you are striking out. even if you hit a home run, you can still lose 2-1. the important thing is to hit singles. we're working on hitting singles every day starting january 2016 to improve our situation in our city and our schools. opportunities for jobs, pre-k. dealing with issues coming back from incarceration to make them productive citizens, help them get the dignity of a job and raising kids and taking care of our communities. >> what about the city wage tax? how much can we cut it by? >> the issue with the city wage tax say balancing act. actually, we have been reducing the wage and business taxes since 1998. they have been small amounts, but they're going down. they're not going up as in past years. michael nutter had to suspend the cuts during the recession, which was understood -- understandable. now we're going back and doing it again. as we can balance service level needs with tax cutting, we will

do it. we're not interested in raising taxes. i'm interested in having service levels that are appropriate to live in the city of philadelphia. you can come in and talk about cutting the wage tax by a point, but do you fund the fire department, libraries, which people want in their lives? i think it's a balancing act. we will look to cost cutting measures, to budgeting differently to save money. we need to fund our schools. if you are a big tax cutter, you better be a big service cutter, too. >> when it comes to schools, you are a proponent of universal pre-k. >> part of the dropout rate issue is related to pre-k. when a child gets to kindergarten or first grade, they are not prepared to socialize, knowing their letters and numbers, being prepared. they start dropping behind by third grade. by seventh and eighth they're dropping out. they're getting in trouble or

killed. we have to take care of the front end of the education process. then the kids that we're not asking -- the other kids we're not asking to wait. we have to engage them in training and other things that make -- are an interest to them. we have to talk to the chamber of commerce to try to figure out what the hiring needs are going to be. people can actually gain a certification or degree that will enhance their opportunity to get a real job. >> you talked about incarceration. let's talk about crime. we obviously have a new police commissioner. do you see the need for a national search? are you sticking by the fact that there's plenty of talent? >> i'm a big fan of chuck ramsey. he's a terrific human being in addition to being a terrific police commissioner. we have no need to go outside our department. >> an internal candidate? >> yes, sir. i'm not at liberty -- i choose

not to say a name, because i've not been elected or i've been -- the election is coming november 3rd. i want to give commissioner ramsey the respect he deserves. we will stay within the department. >> there are things you think the next commissioner needs to focus on? >> our community policing? we need to focus on the feeling among many of our citizens that the police aren't fair to them. we respect what our police do. they put their lives on the line for us and are willing to do so. it's a tough job. it's a hard job because you have to make decisions split secondly. but we need to make sure that the people in our communities make sure -- understand that the police are there to protect and serve them. it's the police department's motto, protect and serve. the situation now, we're not exactly baltimore ferguson, but any instance can happen can change that quickly. we're going to make sure we do everything to change the dynamics between our community

and police. it's one of the reasons we decriminalized the possession of marijua marijuana. handcuffed, transported, finger printed and a criminal record. 83% were african-american or latino. that's not fair policing. that creates the animosity within the community that we're only -- we are choosing to discipline or lock up people of color. i think that dynamic and narrative needs to change for us to be a peaceful, safe society with citizens that trust the police enough to give them information to get the bad guy off the street. >> you ccan you give me an examf how the police commissioner creates trust? >> when things go bad between the community and the police, it has to do with the initial contact, the initial mouth, conversation. if it's respectful and goes that way, it ends up respectful and decent. it winds up in trouble the other way. >> what do we do about illegal

guns, getting them off the street? >> look, harrisburg won't allow us to require the reporting of a stolen gun. so a guy gets out of jail, gets a friend or girlfriend to buy the gun and it's used in the commission of a crime and traced back, and nothing happens. i think that alone is something that harrisburg could do for us. the other issue is background checks, gun shows, people unstable can't buy a gun at a gun show. there's lots -- i understand people is a gun state the largest holiday of the season -- of the year is opening day the deer season. i respect that, because they do it safely. they train their children in firearm safety. the problem is the illegal flow of handguns into philadelphia is what makes that dynamic different than living in centre county and deer hunting. >> you will hear from republican candidate melissa murray-bailey when we come back.

welcome back to nbc 10@issue. this morning we are hearing from the two front-runners in the race for mayor of philadelphia. jim kenney plans to take a slow and steady approach, satisfied with one single after another until he makes it home. now we hear from republican melissa murray bailey about how she intends to lead. philadelphia, let's face it, has not had a republican mayor since the '40s and '50s. would you acknowledge this is a long shot? >> it's a long shot. but i think when the city gets to a point, people get upset, they get angry, they have a call to action to do something differently. before there was this long run of democratic mayors, there was a long run of republican mayors.

any time a one party rules for too long, you start to see things not going the way they should be going. it's time for something new. >> why do you specifically think you are the person to take that on? why do you want to be mayor? >> i think it's because i come from a place where i'm a listener. so i've been spending the whole entire summer sitting in people's living rooms, in their backyards, talking to them and their neighbors about what they need to see from the city. so the policies and positions i have are not just solely my own. they are the collaboration of me and the citizens of philadelphia. and i think very few politicians want and are able to be a megaphone for the people. and that's really what i want to be. >> how would you as a republican be able to work with a democratic governor like tom wolf if you were to be elected mayor? >> i think that the background that i bring of being able to

negotiate with government in singapore, here and -- >> you are talking about your business background? >> yeah. and also the collaboration with boards of directors. every single company thneeds to report to their shareholders how they are doing. i plan do that as mayor. the people of philadelphia are our shareholders. we need to let them know how we're doing. but we also need to engage all stakeholders. the fact that i don't have any springs attached to me, i don't have any special interests that i am beholden to, is going to allow me to have a clear mind in who i am actually serving, which is the people. and when we talk about working with harrisburg, in the city we have had to pay a lot of money to lobbyists to lobby on behalf of philadelphia. i think being a republican but also being a transparent person will allow me to help build the trust back with harrisburg, with the republican legislature. >> we know now that there will be a new police commissioner. charles ramsey announced he is

going to beery ti retiring at t of mayor nutter's term. they feel there's in-house talent. do you feel the same, that you need to launch a nationwide search? do you have someone in mind specifically? you mentioned some names in the past. >> yeah, i have mentioned names in the past. now that it's real, i don't feel super comfortable talking about that. that's people's lives. they really are putting their hand up for the job at this point. >> you had said you would install first deputy commissioner ross in the past. >> i said i would look to people like first deputy commissioner ross. i think the path that ramsey was on really embracing community policing is something that i feel very strongly about. so i would want a commissioner who has been on that path as well and really wants to embrace it and really think about how we can alleviate police officers from some of the administrative things they have had to do so they can do what they do best, what they love to do.

serve the community and the people in it. >> do you think it needs to be someone from within the police department itself? is there value in looking outside of city? >> i think there's always value in looking at all alternatives. i think it was great that we went outside the city to get commissioner ramsey. i think he brought so many great new practices into the city. but i think you don't always have to go outside. i think this is probably an example where we probably have a great person right here under our noses. >> you talked at a recent debate about creating a surge, if you will, using really a military term that we have been hearing of late, of 500 police officers, new police officers on the streets. how would that be paid for? >> well, we have lots of opportunity within our current budget to find deficiencies. look at just the amount of paper that we're using. that's over $100 million that we could get. if we were to look at our procurement process, another $100 million.

making sure we're better at collecting revenues that the city is due. so we don't have to raise taxes. we don't have to cut many services in order to fund the things we need. we just have to look at modernization so we can gain efficiency and save quite a bit of taxpayer money. >> you mentioned you felt commissioner ramsey brought a lot of great policies, policing policies to the city of philadelphia. stop and frisk is one that's been controversial. jim kenney says it needs to end. where do you stand? >> we need to amend it. it needs to be in every police officer's bag. we need to make sure of people's constitutional rights aren't violated. if we are able to have the more police officers and do community policing, then we will be able to get ahead of a lot of things that happen. the police officers will know more about who are the good guys, who are the bad guys in the community. they will also be working with community leaders and understanding when things are percolating under the surface so

they can have more preventative measures. >> you want to see police doing some community service work, a certain number of hours per month even. how would that work? >> yes. it's not necessarily community service. it's more community engagement within their job. i'm not asking the police officers to go over and above and what they are giving. just change how they're spending some of their time. so how i see it is giving police officers the autonomy to have eight hours a month that they can spend in any community activity of their choosing. we want the police officers to be part of the community they serve, to have a chance to play in the softball league or volunteer at a school, all within their duties, which i think will really change the relationship between the police and the community that they serve. >> we have seen violent crime dropping under commissioner ramsey, particularly the murder rate.

do you feel that getting illegal guns off the street is something that you would tackle? is that a problem that you can see any way to accomplish in terms of getting the number of illegal guns off our streets? >> the murder rate has gone down. but it's now kind of teetering again. we had a pretty terrible summer when it comes to that. what's more, so many young people who are being shot and killed. so any time someone is killed, i think we should be up in arms and we should really try to see what we can do about it. so i think that we have a great law on the books that needs to be enforced, which is around minimum sentences for people who are found with a gun that doesn't belong to them. and people should know that if they have guns that are illegal, we're going to find them and you are going to go to jail. >> how do you find them? how do do you that? >> i mean, one of the most obvious ones is to have gun buy back programs. so they -- there's different

views on whether they work or not. but every time they have them, illegal guns come in. so i don't think we should not do that. i think that's something that could be very beneficial. >> we will hear more from each of the candidates including how to control crime in the city when we come right back.

this morning we are hearing from the democrat jim kenney and republican melissa murray bailey. murray bailey, a newcomer to city government, is not giving in. what's the next big job creator here in philadelphia? >> well, we have a great opportunity with the energy hub. i know the energy hub is a word that's been thrown around a lot. how i envision us bringing jobs with the energy hub is looking

at companies that can leverage liquid natural gas to make our things. i don't want us to become an exporter of the liquid natural gas. that means other cities are going to benefit from the energy boom. if we're able to attract manufacturing companies to work around the liquid natural gas that we can provide here, we can have the next generation boom here and have so many opportunities for blue collar workers back again in our city. >> of course, we do biotech and we need to pursue that. comcast is doing their part and building a tower, maybe two. those opportunities for people with higher education. people without a higher education, we need to have them work in industrial-style jobs that pay more than $12 or $15 an hour. we're looking at expanding opportunities at the port of philadelphia. we do 450,000 containers through

our port. >> the demand has not been there for the port. i will not be against anything that will create new jobs. when we look at the sustainability of that, it's not there. you know why it's not there? the same reason everyone is pointing to why it can be there. because of the expansion of the panama canal. the expansion is creating a lot more ships that are much bigger. you know what? those ships can't fill under the delaware memorial bridge. if part of our plan is to jack up the delaware memorial bridge, that's a fine way to create jobs. but the reality is, the port cannot compete with some of the mega-ports that have better access to the ocean and that the ships can actually get to. >> we're not competing with the larger ports. what we're doing is making our port better. this whole issue that she raised relative to the delaware memorial bridge and that, it's just inaccurate. we do 2,500 to 5,000 ships every -- all the time. it's not a big deal.

we have a 45-foot depth dredge channel now. we can take those ships. the super, super size ships we don't get. but it wouldn't come here anyway. they go to the west coast and the like. we can really double the size of what we do down there now. also look at the energy situation and what that will become as natural gas comes more into play. >> we start out by saying this is a long shot for you as a republican. if jim kenney is successful and he's the next mayor of philadelphia, where do you see our city in the next four or eight years under his administration? >> well, i wouldn't be running if i thought that what we had going on in the city was the right path forward. so i will hope for the people in the city that we can move forward and some of the ideas that i'm talking about are able to actually become a reality. >> i would like to see less people incarceration in our county. i would like to see more people who have been incarcerated

working. middle class folks being able to work in a job that takes care of their families, that gives them some ability to have -- to go on a vacation to have a car and do the things that i experienced when i was growing up. my parents worked very hard. my father was a firefighter. my mom worked in the home and outside the home to provide the roof over our head, education and some of the amenities of life that are terrific. here in vineland, home of progresso,

we figured out how to get rich ingredients like bacon into 22 light soups, so if you want 100 calories or less per serving without giving up rich flavor do what we do...make it progresso. this moment is perfect in every way just like my kid gooey...flaky...happy. toaster strudel. now with more icing.

the polls open tuesday at 7:00 a.m. they close at 8:00 p.m. voters may be asked but aren't required to show i.d. on election day. first-time voters must show proof of identification. that includes most photo i.d. s or something that includes your name and address like a utility bill or paycheck. that's it for this edition of nbc 10@issue. thank you for joining us. make your voice heard on election day tuesday and vote. have a great sunday.

nbc sports, home of the 2016 rio olympics. nhl, premier league and primetime's number 1 show, monday night football, only on nbc. >> welcome to glasgow, scotland's largest city. the center of the gymnastics world, as everyone aseveralles at the sse hydro arena to find out who is the best. >> unbelievable!