>> the philadelphia mayor's race is set...sort of. we'll explain next on "inside story." good morning, everyone. i'm matt o'donnell. it is sunday, march 15, 2015 and this is "inside story." let's meet our panelists of the week. sharmain matlock-turner, nonprofit executive. good morning, sharmain. >> hello, matt. good to see you. >> g.o.p. state official renee amoore. >> good morning. >> good morning, renee. >> jim eisenhower, attorney. >> good morning, matt. >> hello, jim. >> and jeff jubelirer, communications executive. >> hi, matt. >> hey, jeff. thanks for joining us here. introducing the candidates who want to replace mayor nutter. there are seven of them at this point when you talk about democrats and republicans and you see some of them here. anthony williams, a state senator. jim kenney, who was on city council for many years. nelson diaz, a former common pleas court judge who was also a panelist here on "inside story." doug oliver, who is

a spokesperson for the mayor also a pgw executive. lynne abraham, who's a former philadelphia district attorney. milton street, who once was a state senator, and melissa murray bailey, political unknown, will be running for the g.o.p. we'll be talking about all these people in a moment. first of all, we want to do something fun here. and there's melissa murray bailey. we wanted to show how many signatures all the candidates were able to collect, which was required last week so that they could run. you need to get at least 1,000. and look who came out on top -- anthony williams with 15,000. another thing that i thought was interesting -- how close milton street and lynne abraham came near the end of all the democrats in terms of submissions. >> mm-hmm. >> anything stick out for you guys? i mean, does this mean that anthony williams is the front-runner just for the simple fact that he's got the most signatures? >> i would say having been a candidate myself the signatures really come down to organization. that's really what it shows. >> doesn't the collection of signatures tell you something

about organization? >> it does. it shows that if you get a lot of signatures, it, at the very least, means that you have a pretty decent organization. if you're really faltering there, it makes you wonder about the organization of that candidate. >> so would you raise questions about lynne abraham then? >> i was gonna say, yeah. i was gonna say that, but if you look at the last time around none of these candidates pretty much reached where the democratic nominees were. dwight evans had more than 17,000. >> good point. the lowest was tom knox with 10,000. >> exactly. >> yeah. >> so, again, i think, you know, yes, it does show some level of organization. it lets people know that -- you know, again, people will start to analyze, you know where are the signatures from? were they all from one neighborhood? were they across the city? >> are they all legitimate? >> how many people circulated them? you know, all of those kinds of things, i think, will give us a better understanding of how deep the organization is and how far-flung it is. >> let's talk about the republicans for a second. >> we're really excited. we have a lot of people.

>> melissa murray bailey. she's 36 years old, making her the youngest candidate in the entire field. she's a former democrat, which is the same case for karen brown, who ran against nutter as a republican last time around. so what do you think about your candidate? >> well, we like people that switch, you know... >> [ laughs ] >> ...from democrat to republican. i think that's a good start. >> rizzo did it. >> you know, so, see? that's what i'm saying. so there is a chance. there's hope. >> it's like the movie "dumb & dumber." "you're telling me we have a chance. there's a little bit of a chance" -- that line. you know, it's unfortunate though, that we can't find a, frankly, real republican in the city to run as mayor to be nothing more than just a slaughtering horse. >> yeah, but i think what's more interesting certainly is the fact that there are a lot of people talking about running as independent this time around. i mean, there is the possibility that there could be, you know, a november surprise. >> well, let's talk about that. we have bill green, who switched his party to no affiliation,

and this is the same person who was battling with governor wolf about losing his chairmanship with the src, which he says he's not gonna bring to court, and, also, we have sam katz, who unveiled a website a couple of days ago called citizensam.net and lists a lengthy plan to fix philadelphia schools, which includes changing some taxes selling assets like the airport and pgw, and creating an endowment for that. so let's talk about the independents. >> i think bill green is interesting historically, given that his father, democratic mayor, his grandfather was the democratic chair. many people credited him with the election of john f. kennedy and the organization that he had in philadelphia in that election. so for bill green to go from democrat to independent is a big step for him, and i think it signals that he wants to keep his options open either for mayor or perhaps city council. >> i think it's a good point. i think that sam katz is definitely in. i wish he'd run as a republican. he was an excellent candidate

in the past, knows how to raise money, knows what's going on in the city. so i think he's definitely gonna be in. >> i think it all depends on who wins the democratic primary, and, frankly, it may come down to something -- well, not something. it'd be down to race. if anthony williams wins i expect, you know, could you see a bill green or a sam katz in? and if kenney wins, you probably don't see necessarily a katz race. >> i don't know. there could be another independent that comes in. if kenney wins, there could be people who say, "wow, we need someone who's not kenney to come in. maybe he's too close to one group or another." >> well, with sam katz, you have to wonder. sam has never been devoid of ideas. he's an intelligent man. he's had a lot of good ideas over the years, but you have to think if he couldn't beat john street in the middle of a wiretap scandal -- >> actually, he came closer four years -- >> the first time, right. you got to wonder how strong a candidate he would be. >> how about with bill green and his fight with governor wolf and sort of coming out on the wrong side of that? how does that work with his legitimacy as a candidate?

>> well, i think he ended up being the good guy in the sense of dropping the suit, standing with new chairwoman marjorie neff, and saying it's all about the kids. i think he took one for the team at the end of the day. the question is, who is his constituency if he were to be running as an independent? he doesn't have the supportness of the democratic party obviously against a democratic candidate, but, you know depending on who that democrat is, he could pull off a lot of support. >> but let's talk about some money here. that's the bottom line. you have to raise money. who could raise the money? >> and they can't raise it now because they're not declared candidates. >> exactly. >> right. and we have campaign finance limits, which i know renee's gonna talk about, and the fact that we -- you know, unless you have outside groups, which i'm sure we're gonna really be monitoring, whether or not you can get on tv. i talked to a couple folks this week and said, "okay, why aren't we seeing any polls as it relates to the mayor's race?" you know, i think everyone presumes that tony's on top, and certainly he is working really really hard for this job, but folks are saying you're just not gonna know where anybody is in

the race until they go on tv. and maybe that's why we saw jim kenney come out this week on tv. >> we did -- the first person to be on tv. >> it wasn't jim, though. remember it was that -- as lynne abraham would say -- "dark money," folks supported by the labor unions -- john dougherty. it was a strong, positive ad and we saw what tom wolf did. granted, he had something called green in his pocket, which... >> that's been the model. >> well, sharmain makes a good point, as does renee. you know, the rubber meets the road as you get closer to the election, and the candidates who have money can get on the air. if you ran a poll right now, it would just be a name-recognition poll, and i would bet lynne abraham would win that right now. >> which she has in the past. >> people know her. >> right. >> they like her. >> some don't. >> well, that's with all the candidates. >> well, they know her. >> they do know her name. >> let's talk about one idea one of the candidates threw out. nelson diaz wants to eliminate the src if he becomes mayor and institute a school board with parents, which is the way most school districts are run in pennsylvania. what do you think of that? >> well, i mean, i'm not quite

sure that i actually understand the idea of just putting parents on. i think, you know, taxpayers and everybody wants to be involved in making sure the schools really work well but there clearly has been a lot of conversation over time is, is the src really working, and do we need to get back to local control? the real question, though, always comes back to who's going to pay? remember why we have the src. it was to try to create a partnership between the city and state so that the state couldn't say, "i'm not giving any more money to that organization because i don't have any say as to what's going on in that organization." so, again, i mean, i understand certainly the sense of it, but i still believe that we need the city and the state to work together so that we can have the amount of money and the funds that we need in order to build a system. >> guess who decides if the src disbands? the src itself. >> not the mayor. >> not the mayor. >> and not the governor. >> and i've sat on a school board, and, yes, there was parents on it or whatever, but still we came together.

i'm not sure if that's really gonna happen. >> milton street -- there's a question as to whether or not he's even a democrat, and he may not still be on the ballot, but the fact of the matter is -- and i know some people see him as a sideshow, but when he ran against nutter the second time he had a significant portion of the votes. so, do you see him as a big disrupter here? >> i do, and i think you're going to see a suit very soon by who knows who, but i think he would really dig in, frankly, to tony williams' numbers just given the makeup of our city and i think that street, though, he has really not been able to counter the facts of the matter. >> i think the nutter race may have been somewhat unique. first of all, you had the street name, and people know that name. you also had michael in that campaign running -- still running an anti-john street campaign. >> without john street on the ballot. >> without john street on the ballot... >> that's true. >> ...and mayor nutter also had some problems in the black community, which milton street could exploit. i'm not sure you're gonna have that, assuming he stays in

the race, with the tony williams' candidacy. >> okay. let's talk about joe sestak. he announced his campaign for senate. he's gonna run against senator toomey again. he's a former three-star admiral with the navy, former u.s. congressperson -- narrowly lost to pat toomey in 2010, 51% to 49%, 80,000 votes out of 4 million overall. so why do we hear whispers sources, what have you, say we're not very comfortable with him being the democratic nominee? why? >> ask the democrats. >> [ laughs ] >> i think, number one the democrats want to win, and if someone -- >> but he almost beat toomey. [ laughter ] >> if someone is sort of coming in who sort of like didn't win last time, you can imagine why people are asking that question. >> he came close! >> and i'm gonna say i worked with joe on the nsc staff at the clinton white house. he's a brilliant man, and no one will outwork this guy. but he's never been an organization guy. he's never been a democratic party guy. so he's always been sort of outside of the political process, and, you know, even

when he first ran, he came out of nowhere to win that seat. so i can understand why democratic regulars might still be not particularly comfortable with his candidacy. >> does it tell you something, though, that you don't see a lot of other democrats saying, "hey, well, i'll run well, i'll run," speaking to maybe pat toomey's ability to win elections, which has been quite impressive? >> i think it's a combination. pat toomey, i think, has for the most part, moved more to the center. >> that's true. >> he used to lead the club for growth, which is a very economically, fiscally conservative organization. his numbers way back when -- you know, right after he got elected, were in the 90s -- 90% time voting on their issues. now it's more the low 80s. i think he's come around. i think he's done a good job of trying to represent the views of most of the state. >> except that he signed on to that letter -- the iran letter. >> you're talking about the letter to iran. >> yeah, to the president of iran. >> i don't think people will vote about that. i think they're gonna vote about what he's done for the state. >> i don't think pennsylvanians are gonna say, "i'm not gonna vote for him because he signed that letter."

>> well, i think the way to play that as a democrat would be say it's a question of judgment. you can say, "where are you coming from signing on with these cranks and extreme right-wing...?" >> but there are some other candidate names that are floating out there -- i mean, seth williams. >> kathleen kane. >> okay, that's a great one. >> i said seth williams. >> josh shapiro. >> yes. absolutely. >> josh shapiro -- let me tell you. he's my commissioner. i got to be honest. even though he's a democrat, the man is doing his job. >> why won't they get in this? >> i think he stays in the state, though. >> i think he will be a strong candidate, but i don't think that he wants to leave for a seat that he's not sure that he really has a good chance of winning. >> i think he'll wait to be governor. >> here's what's big for democrats next year. it's a presidential year. turnout is going to most likely be very high. that's when the democrats come out in pennsylvania, especially in the southeast. >> if hillary clinton is the nominee, historically -- >> she may not be. >> both bill clinton and hillary clinton have been very strong in pennsylvania. >> they have. >> hillary's family is from scranton. >> no, that's true. they have. >> you have to expect that hillary would be a very, very strong candidate in

pennsylvania, and that would help the ticket. >> if she gets past her e-mail. >> given the rough time that governor wolf's probably going to have with republicans -- they're already calling his budget smoke, mirrors, and confusion. >> it is. >> would you think that that election in two years may be leaning republican because of maybe some of the battles that are going on in the state in pennsylvania? >> i'm gonna say absolutely. >> and i'm gonna say absolutely not. >> don't talk to the other republican in the room. >> that's where i'm at. >> so then a democrat would say, "well, you know, i'm just gonna sit this one out." >> i don't think so. i mean, my perception, even taking off a partisan hat, is that wolf is still coming across as having good judgment, trying to be fair, trying to reach to the other side, and i think the republicans are coming across as obstructionist. >> let me just say this. i don't think that he's been transparent and all this stuff. when you meet with republican leadership, don't tell them what your ideas on your plans, and then you go ahead and do it, that's not being straight up. they don't want to make a deal. even rendell said he should make a deal. come on. how's he gonna make a deal if you're not being straight up? >> but keep in mind that he brought proposals to the table that republicans had already supported. i don't think he needed to sort

of say that. i mean, they had already gone on record saying that they wanted to make some of those changes. >> just remember that we are very early here. >> right. >> most budgets in pennsylvania are negotiated at the 11th hour in july. >> and most of them are late. >> right. >> ours aren't late. you're talking about the democrats are late. >> no sales tax expansion is going to happen. lobbyists' dream. everyone's fighting that the bar being strongest against it. >> i mean, the list is very lengthy. >> income tax maybe. maybe. it's too confusing. the electorate is never gonna understand all the different parts. the shale tax isn't gonna raise as much money now. >> but you cannot get to putting together a set of proposals unless you put everything on the table. people have always said, "put everything on the table." he has put everything on the table... >> and more. >> ...and is allowing everybody to sort of look at the pros and cons of all of those but in the end, almost every school district in the state is saying, "we need support. we need help.

we have got to be able to deliver here," and so we've got to figure out how to do that. >> and i think that part might happen, but the bottom line is the republicans are still in control. sorry, matt. >> i know. [ laughter ] i just wanted to let you finish. >> right. >> and we go to our break. we'll be back. >> announcer: "inside story" is presented by temple university. temple fuels students with academics and opportunities to take charge. plugged into the city, powered by the world. temple.edu/takecharge.

>> more to discuss right here on "inside story" with our panelists here. senator robert menendez -- could he be in trouble? news leaked last week that the justice department is preparing to file corruption charges against him related to menendez's conduct with a florida eye doctor who is also a long-time friend and political donor. now, meanwhile, the new jersey democrat has acted as if nothing is wrong, dismissing everything as just speculation and going about his day. so, what does our panel think about this? and be as pensive as you can. [ laughter ] >> it's like attorney general kane. let me just say that. you're acting like nothing is wrong, but then you tend to get arrogant. to me, he's been very arrogant with this whole process, and that's not gonna help. >> interesting timing. you know, who knows, you know? he's been strong. he helped escort benjamin netanyahu down the aisle when he spoke, not to the pleasing of the democrats, many democrats, and the president. on the cuba issue, he's been

very against what obama did. just saying. the timing of this leak just seems to sort of take on the opponent, take on menendez. >> as a former justice department lawyer, i have to object. i do not think that there's any proof that the department would politicize a case like this, and i say that seriously. i think you have to be very careful here. he's not been charged with anything. he's a respected member of the senate. he was the chair of the foreign relations committee, right? so let's see how things unfold but he is presumed innocent under our constitution. >> you go, mr. lawyer. >> am i right? >> this is president obama's justice department at the same time, so giving credence to what you say. >> but the justice department, i think, as jim said, has a role to play that is not a political role, and that is to review the facts as they present themselves and to, you know, build their case and then, ultimately, a trial will determine if it gets to that point whether or not this is true. >> poor new jersey. >> it just seems -- i mean

you know, certainly having this kind of cloud is not anything that anybody is happy about. >> how do you think he's handling it, though, democrats? >> i don't have an opinion on how he's handling it. i think in the end, he's got to do his job. he's got to continue to operate each and every day as the senator from new jersey. that's what people are expecting. i mean, you do happen to have a governor who doesn't spend a lot of time there. you've got to have at least a senator who's doing some work. >> that was good. >> that was really good. >> well, new jersey's taken another black eye. you know, torricelli, corzine, christie, some of my friends would say -- enough. you know, new jersey just is this bad reputation, you know? tough for our neighbor state. >> let's talk presidential politics. hillary clinton is having a rough time these days for a variety of reasons. martin o'malley coming out of nowhere, appearing on tv. you see on the internet these pictures of him without any sleeves on, and he's got these big guns. you know, everyone's thinking, "oh, maybe he's gonna be the one to challenge hillary clinton."

>> i didn't see that. >> but some are stopping to say, "what about joe -- joe biden?" now, the atlantic points out that the only prominent democratic contender to travel to all three democratic primary or caucus states is vice president joe biden. now, maybe it's partly due to the fact that he has duties as a vice president, but are party leaders underestimating the vice president? >> well, first of all, hillary clinton -- e-mails tempest to the teapot, no big story there at all. >> i knew you wanted to get something in. >> you knew i was going there. >> okay. you'll get to respond to that. [ laughter ] >> vice president biden has a lot of energy, and he travels quite a bit, and he's a serious politician, obviously, but i still believe that hillary will be the nominee, and as for martin o'malley, a good guy, but he couldn't get his lieutenant governor elected governor of maryland -- maryland a democratic state, a republican wins the governorship. >> thank you so much for caring and sharing. >> i think that, again, i mean the good side of it is that

hillary can certainly say she has completely controlled the presidential news cycle for the last two weeks. i think it took her a little bit of time to figure out how she wanted to respond to this, but i thought when she did, she did a really good job of responding to it, and so, no, i don't think that it's something that's gonna be long-lingering. i do believe that there is a force, which i've said before, of women both on independent women, republican women, and democratic women who are saying this is time for a woman, and hillary is that woman. >> i agree. >> she had a good two weeks, and so did the dallas cowboys this week. >> wow. >> she's handled it horrifically, in my opinion. the a.p., associated press has sued for all the e-mails that she conveniently forgot to save or put on. she can only handle so many devices. people, understand. there is -- i understand there's a movement. we want a female, we want a strong -- hillary is a strong pennsylvania possibility to win this primary, but i think it's got long legs. i think this is far from over,

and i think there's gonna be more clinton fatigue as a result of this. >> i'm with you, jeff. >> i know. i feel strongly on this one. >> that's all you want to say? >> no, because i talked about it earlier -- her e-mails and stuff. i think this is gonna be ongoing. how can you delete, all of a sudden, some and not the others? please, come on. cut me a break, you guys. please. >> but the only relevance that it has to anything is benghazi which has been investigated and reviewed and reviewed and reviewed. >> i'm not sure if i agree on the substance, it's more the action and the fact that she said in another interview that "i have an ipad, i have a mini ipad, i have a blackberry, and i have an iphone," and then she conveniently says, "i can't carry two devices for my work e-mail." >> oh, please. >> you know what's interesting about this discussion? >> trust! >> i wanted to talk about joe biden, and you guys completely ignored him. >> i forgot! >> jim, do you all agree that he doesn't have a chance? >> that in itself says something, doesn't it? >> well, i guess he's not running. >> how about deval patrick? i've seen -- i saw an article where they threw his name in there -- say, "hey, you know what? maybe"... >> i mean, it makes sense for the democrats to have other candidate possibilities.

i mean, hillary -- keep in mind that she has not said that she's running, so the idea that there are other names, there are other people, i think that's always gonna be a competition. >> and as for deval patrick, massachusetts governors haven't done well. >> well, you're right. we'll be right back with our inside stories. trading-in or selling your car truck or suv? webuyanycar.com takes the hassle out of selling in just 3 easy steps. one, get your free online valuation. two, book an appointment. and three, pick up a check at your nearest buying center. ♪ find out how much your car is worth ♪ ♪ at webuyanycar.com ♪ 14 irresistible flavors. one for the mood. one for the moment. each one can make every day more delicious than the last. the taste could only be baileys. the experience could only be yours. baileys coffee creamers. this is the one.

>> announcer: "inside story" is presented by temple university. temple fuels students with academics and opportunities to take charge. plugged into the city, powered by the world. temple.edu/takecharge. >> sharmain has our first inside story of the week. >> thank you, matt. it's a pleasure to be here today because on friday, i was honored by a wonderful organization called the valley youth house, and they really work with young people who are coming out of foster care who need housing and need support, and this year they've actually opened housing for young people who are lgbt, and so it's really a wonderful organization, and i encourage everyone to support them. >> congrats, sharmain. >> thank you.

>> renee. >> mine's about women's history month, but really talking about the u.n. and how they really talked about women last week for women's national day, and it was very -- not good. because women are not looking good politically or in public office, and so we really have to fix that gap. how are we gonna do it? let's start sponsoring some women, and men can do that also, and also be their mentors. >> thanks, renee. jim. >> matt, this week we'll be celebrating st. patrick's day, and being married to an irish woman, every day's st. patrick's day, but as we're drinking beer and reveling let's remember that ireland's a lot more than that -- great country, great culture and also a symbol of hope, ending sectarian violence after centuries through reconciliation and american leadership. >> thanks, jim. jeff. >> on the show, a lot of partnerships are going on. i want to salute nick miccarelli, state rep republican from delaware county, and kevin boyle, democrat from philadelphia, running up a new caucus, the pennsylvania future caucus, to tackle issues that republicans, democrats can get together, let the young people teach the old people how to get along and make things

happen. >> all right. spring begins on friday, folks. you ready? >> yes. >> yes. >> that's "inside story" for sunday. we'll see you next week. i'll see you monday morning on action news, 4:30 a.m., baby. >> right. >> "action news" starts in minutes s hold on to your hats we're dealing with windy conditions, we could see 60s tomorrow. that's next only "action news."

better brownie. papa john's.

good afternoon, it is sunday march 15. here's some of the stories we're following on "action news." a man is fighting for his life after gunfire rings out in camden. a pick up truck slams into a delaware county home while a couple is asleep inside. we're minutes away from the