PHILADELPHIA — In the heat of a campaign tightening amid his opponent’s focus on crime, John Fetterman came to Southwest Philadelphia on Monday and in brief remarks aimed to reclaim the narrative.
“Dr. Oz lies about my record on crime,” Fetterman said at African Small Pot, a restaurant on Woodland Avenue. “Two of the things that I was most proud of in my career, stopping the gun violence as a mayor and fighting for the innocent and other individuals for a second chance. That is my record on crime. And that’s my commitment to fight for you in Philadelphia.”
Fetterman, the state’s Democratic nominee for Senate, spoke briefly to a room of community leaders, small-business owners and elected officials, at an event organized by state Sen. Tony Williams. Several formerly incarcerated people, now advocates for criminal justice reform, were also in the crowded restaurant. The 40-minute visit, cut short due to a lot of introductions, signaled Fetterman is trying to win over voters in Black Philadelphia communities and jump start turnout efforts.
Republican Senate nominee Mehmet Oz has attacked Fetterman as “soft on crime,” aiming to tap into concern in Philadelphia and surrounding areas of rising homicide and crime rates. He’s pointed specifically to work Fetterman did on the Board of Pardons, a five-member board tasked with hearing applications for pardons and commutations of life sentences. Oz has also gone after Fetterman’s support of abolishing mandatory life without parole sentences for secondary offenders and a past stance on decriminalizing all drugs.
Fetterman on Monday touted the 5 1/2 year stretch during his 13-year term as mayor of Braddock when the small town had no homicides, a drop from two or three in the years prior to his election. He also doubled down on his work advocating for wrongfully convicted people or people in prison who he thinks deserve second chances.
Campaign staffers Lee and Dennis Horton, brothers whose life sentences were commuted by the board in 2021, attended the event. Oz has called on Fetterman to fire the two, who were both imprisoned for assisting as getaway drivers in a murder. They have long maintained their innocence, and their convictions have been widely criticized.
“(Fetterman) has a record,” Dennis Horton said. “That’s the difference. That’s been our argument throughout the city of Philadelphia. ... He was fighting for these two Black lives and other Black lives when nobody gave a damn.”
Oz has made several trips to Philadelphia in recent weeks, meeting with Black clergy in Northeast Philadelphia, doing a roundtable on gun violence in Germantown and going on two walks through Kensington.
Fetterman visited West Philadelphia’s 52nd corridor last month and met with Black clergy on Friday, both events closed to the press.
Ahead of Fetterman’s arrival, his statewide political director Joe Pierce reminded the assembled group that Fetterman was still recovering some of his hearing and communication abilities following his May stroke. “It has significantly affected his hearing,” Pierce warned the group.
Fetterman shook hands, posed for photos, and greeted people on the way into the restaurant.
The visit was slated to be a short meeting and then a walk around the Woodland Avenue corridor with stops at four businesses and restaurants primarily owned by African immigrants. But introductions and speeches ran long, as did photos outside, and Fetterman left after about 40 minutes without time for the walkaround. He didn’t take any questions, waved to the group and ducked into a black SUV to head to another campaign event.
Williams said Fetterman’s visit to the Southwest neighborhood underlined the importance of an area often neglected by politicians running for office but ripe with opportunity to grow the Democratic vote.
“This collection of leaders have never been talked to before,” Williams said. “(Politicians) don’t come visit this area at all. But it is my base that elects me every single election by significant numbers. Our voice matters. Our voice is needed. And we need a seat at the table.”
One attendee watching the photo-taking was worried about voter mobilization and questioned the effect of a quick stop in a neighborhood with low voter turnout.
It doesn’t get a candidate votes, Michael Youngblood, a political operative who supports Fetterman, said as he watched the crowd of elected officials and community members take photos with the lieutenant governor.
“Instead of hustling to get votes, we’re getting photo ops,” he said.
Pierce, with Fetterman’s campaign, dismissed those concerns, saying the campaign was making a point not to ignore areas with low turnout.
“These were leaders that represent that community that they say doesn’t vote. And they are leaders and influencers that can get their people to vote,” he said. “So you want to talk about 67 counties? We aren’t leaving votes on the table. People don’t believe these folks vote, but when you put resources there and show up, they vote.”
Earlier in the day, Fetterman attended an AFL-CIO rally with leaders of the union and endorsed U.S. Reps. Dwight Evans, D-Pa., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa.
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