Face-Off in Philadelphia

Race is not a weapon in this heated mayoral primary

At Harold Washington's boisterous victory rally in Chicago's Donnelley Hall last month, his supporters held aloft a banner that read RIZZO IS NEXT. The allusion was to Philadelphia's hard-nosed former mayor Frank Rizzo, who has fought an uphill battle against his black opponent, W. Wilson Goode, the city's former managing director, for the Democratic Party's mayoral nomination on May 17. Thus far, however, traditionally Democratic Philadelphia has successfully ducked the racial mudslinging that made Chicago's mayoral election one of the bitterest in American history. Both Rizzo and Goode, along with the three Republican primary contenders, signed a pledge four weeks ago to avoid raising race as a campaign issue.

During his two-term mayoral stint, which ended in 1980, the tough-talking Rizzo earned enemies among blacks and liberals for his outspoken support of a police department they considered to be brutal to blacks and insensitive to citizens' rights. To soften his combative image during the current campaign, Rizzo signed up for some public relations cosmetology. First he hired New York Media Consultant David Sawyer, who attempted unsuccessfully to portray his barrel-chested client as wiser and mellower. Then Sawyer's replacement, Baltimore Consultant Robert Goodman, promised to show "not the old Rizzo or the new Rizzo, but the real Rizzo." Shortly after, Rizzo endorsed Bernard Epton, Washington's Republican opponent in Chicago, compared Civil Rights Leader Jesse Jackson to Adolf Hitler and called Goode "a big zero." Now Rizzo's TV ads close with: "You don't have to like Frank Rizzo to vote for him as mayor."

Goode, a phlegmatic campaigner, is a stylistic foil to the flamboyant Rizzo. He greets commuters at subway stops with a brisk handshake, but often does not ask for their votes. His master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and proven administrative talents reassure many white voters, but he is viewed as dull and humorless. A Goode aide was so afraid his candidate would forget to smile during a TV debate that he drew a smiling face on Goode's opening statement.

Sound city management has nosed out jobs as the front-burner issue. Goode reminds voters that as city managing director he negotiated tough contracts with municipal unions. Rizzo trumpets his record as a mayor who cleaned the streets of garbage as well as criminals.

A Philadelphia Daily News poll released last week showed Goode with a hefty 26-point lead among the city's nearly 888,000 registered Democrats. Goode is expected to capture better than 85% of the city's approximately 389,000 black Democratic voters. He may take between 30% and 35% of the whites hi a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans 5 to 1. Despite the statistics, aides to both candidates agree that race, an X factor in the voting booth, could still make the election close.

There is no clear favorite among the Republicans. But the stakes for the victor could be high. Should Goode win, and the Nov. 8 general election divide along racial lines, Philadelphia might end up with its first Republican mayor in 32 years. . This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.