A project of The Nation & The Drum Major Institute
Mayor TV is a challenge from America’s mayors to the 2008 Presidential candidates: Start talking about cities. Learn more
- Mayor Michael Nutter
- Philadelphia, PA / Pop. 1,449,634 / Elected 2007
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“Often, whatever the federal government is not doing or what states are not doing shows up as problems in cities all across America.”
— Mayor Michael Nutter
- Will the Rural Myth Persist? Philadelphia Mayor Nutter Offers Some Insight
- By Andrea Batista Schlesinger, DMI Blog
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The selection of Sarah Palin as Senator McCain’s running mate has reinvigorated the myth of small town America, prompting Toronto’s Globe and Mail to observe: Having established this we’re-all-rural-at-heart proposition, the Republicans will seek to portray Mr. Obama as an exotic, urban dilettante, estranged from real America. Reliant on the small town myth for his success in November, Senator McCain has steered clear of urban issues throughout the campaign. In an interview earlier this summer (available soon on MayorTV and previewed below), MayorTV asked Mayor Michael Nutter of Philadelphia whether McCain can talk about urban issues in the campaign and still reach his Republican base.
"It’s certainly not my position to offer advice for Senator McCain given that I’m a good Democrat and I’m supporting Senator Obama. Having said that, Senator McCain can talk about whatever it is he wants to talk about. I think the challenge of leadership is the ability to reach out to as many constituencies as possible...I think our main charge in public office is to serve everyone in our constituency regardless of party, regardless of race, regardless of class or whether you think people are going to vote for you or not. I think that if you box yourself in, if you limit what you can talk about because you’re worried about political constituencies, I don’t think you’re much of a leader."
Although he originally endorsed Senator Clinton (and her stance on urban issues) for the Democratic nomination, Mayor Nutter is now an Obama supporter, telling MayorTV, “I look forward to working with Senator Obama on city issues, urban issues, metropolitan issues…” Fundamentally, Nutter is most concerned that the next president be aware of issues that matter to the nation’s cities. He has been particularly vocal about the need for the candidates to talk about crime and in our interview passionately described Philadelphia’s program to reduce recidivism by giving a tax break to employers who hire ex-offenders.On several occasions – for instance, here and here – Senator Obama has tied together the interests of America’s urban centers with the interests of the United States at large, echoing Nutter’s sense that “cities really do matter.” Obama has, on these occasions, elevated cities from the mythical liberal enclaves that Senator McCain and many Republicans would have them be to common ground for discussion rooted in the country’s existent socioeconomic conditions.
Senator McCain’s small town mythology, on the other hand, is opportunistic and myopic. As Mayor Nutter put it: "This segmentation, this isolation by constituencies – I’m only talking about these four or five things because I only want to appeal to 51% of the public in order to get myself elected – I think is short-sighted and does not allow for the kind of full representation that all of us as Americans deserve.
- Read the full article on DMI Blog >
- Mayors We Interviewed
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Antonio Villaraigosa
Los Angeles, CA
“Poverty, work and opportunity, bolstering the middle class, housing, infrastructure ... it is absolutely criminal that the federal government has failed to address these issues.”
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Shirley Franklin
Atlanta, GA
“We must invest in infrastructure, or Atlanta's economy -- and the national economy -- is going to shrivel up and die.”
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Manny Diaz
Miami, FL
“The media and the pollsters focus on issues like war, abortion, gay rights. Quite frankly, for those of us in the trenches, they're not the hot button issues.”
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John Hickenlooper
Denver, CO
“Cities are America's laboratories. But once we figure out solutions, we need the federal government's help to roll them out to the entire country.”
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R.T. Rybak
Minneapolis, MN
“I want a community organizer in the White House, because that's what I do every single day.”
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Douglas Palmer
Trenton, NJ
“Our cities are where it’s at.”
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Christopher Doherty
Scranton, PA
“The strength of a city is the combustion engineering that takes place inside it.”
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Pegeen Hanrahan
Gainesville, FL
“Use our cities more effectively.”
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Byron Brown
Buffalo, NY
“The presidential nomination process certainly has a negative effect on the coverage of cities.”
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Tom Menino
Boston, MA
“I challenge you, presidential candidates - talk more about cities. It will be beneficial to you, it will be beneficial to the country.”
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Rocky Anderson
Salt Lake City, UT
“President Bush has not only neglected cities, but has hurt our cities in such enormous ways.”
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Sheila Dixon
Baltimore, MD
“We have wars here in our city. We should be making strides against drugs and gang violence, but it's something I never hear the presidential candidates talk about.”
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Bob Duffy
Rochester, NY
“Our cities across this country are proud. They have a great history. But like a boxer, they've taken one knee, and they have to bring themselves back.”
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Antonio Villaraigosa
- More About:
- The Nation
- Drum Major Institute
Alon Levy on 09.17.2008:
Nowadays, the myth is more exurban than rural, I think. The Republicans used to say Democrats only played in big cities, while the Republican suburbs were real America. Now that the Democrats have flipped Long Island and Westchester and are about to flip Chester County and Dallas County, the Republicans have retreated to the exurbs, saying that they are now where America really is.
And for what it's worth, McCain's latest attempt at culture war politics, the anti-sex ed ad, reduced him from up by 3 points to down by 1.