Legal News

Mayor Nutter Backs McElhatton for DA

By Brian Harris

By Amaris Elliott-Engel
Of the Legal Staff

While it is late in the game, Mayor Michael A. Nutter is coming out in support of district attorney candidate Dan McElhatton.

According to a release from McElhatton's campaign, Nutter has recorded a phone call encouraging voters to vote for McElhatton because McElhatton has "the experience, independence and toughness we need in our next DA."

McElhatton served alongside Nutter in City Council, and the two were viewed as allies.

While the mayor's endorsement is one of the most important endorsements in Philadelphia, Larry Ceisler, a political analyst with the Ceisler Jubelirer public relations firm, said Nutter's backing may have come too late to really help McElhatton.

"The value of endorsements: can you use them as validators in paid advertising?" Ceisler asked. "And for McElhatton, for the exception if they use them for telephone robocalls, he's not going to be able to use it any mail or television or radio."

Full post as published by The Legal Intelligencer Blog on May 15, 2009 (boomark / email).