Why I'm Against Tom Knox

It's inconvenient, then, that Knox has spent so much time courting Vince Fumo. In 1999, Knox was Fumo’s chosen candidate for mayor until it became clear that he didn’t meet residency requirements. When Fumo gave his blessing to former Rizzo crony Marty Weinberg instead, Knox could not have been more helpful. He donated $50,000 to the Weinberg campaign, along with 4,000 square feet of office space, and hosted a $10,000-a-couple fundraiser as well. Knox's campaign had initially claimed that he and Fumo were “enemies” in the 1999 race, and that Fumo had opposed Knox’s proposed candidacy. When reporters pointed out that this was (what’s the polite term? oh yes) a pack of lies, the story changed. Maybe they weren’t enemies in 1999, but we swear to God that they’re enemies this time. But late last year, as Knox was gearing up his campaign, he went back to Fumo to seek his blessing again. (Fumo, by all accounts, said no, thinking that Knox had no real chance.)

Supporters frequently argue that Knox is too rich to be interested in lining his pockets through city government. But in fact he has a history of using appointed positions for personal gain. For example, Knox had been appointed by Governor Casey to the state’s seat on the board of Blue Cross, a position designed to ensure that the company has a voice speaking for the “broader public interest.” Knox found the time to rack up, in his own words, “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in brokerage commission fees—along with an all-expenses-paid vacation to the 1992 Barcelona Olympics—from the company he was supposed to oversee. In 1995, he lost his job as head of the state-run Fidelity Mutual Insurance Co., having been caught with another conflict of interest.

It’s hard to escape the impression that Knox is trying to do something similar with the somewhat more important job of mayor of Philadelphia. Why else did he loan five million dollars to his own campaign, rather than giving the money outright? Officially, Knox was worried that the money might not get back to his family should he pass away during the campaign. Now, I can’t say for sure if campaign manager Josh Morrow is the sort of person who would deny money to a recent, and highly public, widow and her children (although I doubt it). However, it’s worth pointing out that because of this trick, when Mayor Knox holds fundraisers for his campaign, companies trying to buy influence will be able to funnel money through the campaign to the pockets of Knox himself.

It’s not hard to see why Knox is positioning himself as an outsider. All other things being equal, why would you choose a candidate whose only experience is a year-and-a-half stint in city government fifteen years ago, who left so little an impact that he was never mentioned in Buzz Bissinger’s A Prayer For the City because (according to Bissinger) “he hadn’t done anything significant”? Typically, you vote for the outsider because your guy is going to shake things up, throw the bums out, that sort of thing. But what if your candidate is one of the bums already? What’s the pitch then?

Image Credit: TheNextMayor.com