"It feels good to be a Republican," Rizzo said in a short speech thanking the ward leaders for their support. "We're going to make this a two-party town again.
"I'm real grateful," he said. "I'm certain we're on our way to a great, great victory."
Rizzo also said he was confident, with the help of the Republican Party, of switching thousands of Democrats into so-called Rizzocrats. A recent campaign mailing he sent out asking Democrats to switch parties to vote for him in the Republican primary had produced 500 inquiries one day earlier this week, he said.
The former mayor was given a warm round of applause by the ward leaders, and one of them cried, "There's our mayor! There's our mayor!"
Rizzo's endorsement by the city's ward leaders was not without its minor blemish. Leaders of eight wards, showing their support for Egan, boycotted the meeting.
Egan, who has refused to get out of the race even though he was not endorsed, held an organizational meeting yesterday with about 65 supporters at his campaign headquarters on Walnut Street in Center City.
"Like me, a lot of other committee people, ward leaders and plain old folk think that the Republican party leadership on Monday made a big, big mistake," Egan told the cheering crowd.
"Two people in this city think Frank Rizzo can win. That's Frank Rizzo and Bill Meehan (the leader of the Republican party). Frank Rizzo is flat unelectable . . . and we all know that."
State Rep. Frances Weston, who is also the Republican leader of the city's 41st Ward, said that the decision by the eight ward leaders not to attend the meeting at Palumbo's was made out of support for Egan.
"We see no purpose in joining in," said Weston, who is Egan's campaign manager. "We don't have any interest in what Frank Rizzo has to say."
