Tom Knox, hit by new verbal assaults in a debate yesterday morning, made a dramatic move later in the day to try to protect his status as the Democratic mayoral front-runner.
With the primary just two weeks away, the wealthy businessman purchased an extra $400,000 of time for TV commercials, bringing his total buy for the week to more than three-quarters of a million dollars.
That's by far the most any candidate has spent at any time during this campaign.
By way of comparison, the Knox campaign spent just under $348,000 on ads last week, compared to about the same amount by U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, roughly $300,000 by former City Councilman Michael Nutter, $225,000 by U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah and $193,000 by state Rep. Dwight Evans.
"We have to combat these illegal 527s smearing Tom's name all over town," explained Josh Morrow, Knox's campaign manager, referring to ads aired this past weekend by political committees formed under Section 527 of the tax code.
Such committees are, in fact, illegal only if they fail to maintain independence from the candidates themselves. The city Board of Ethics is looking into any links between the candidates and two 527s formed with the apparent intention of damaging Knox. The candidates have denied any involvement.
The ethics board is moving quickly, its interim head said yesterday. J. Shane Creamer Jr. declined to say if subpoenas had been issued, but noted that "there is very little time between now and the election to take action that may be appropriate."
During the debate, which was hosted and broadcast by KYW Newsradio, Knox said he would cap his spending at the amount he has contributed to the campaign thus far. He refused to specify how much that was - it's believed to be about $7 million - saying the amount would be revealed in the campaign finance filing due Friday.
But later in the day, Morrow said that such a self-imposed limit might not last long: "If these guys keep attacking us, we're not going to cap our spending."
In a statement issued late in the day, Brady said: "We all knew that Tom Knox wanted to buy City Hall, but now it looks like he might make a run at buying the entire Avenue of the Arts, too."
A new Knox commercial mentions the attacks as one more reason why Philadelphia needs the change he is offering. An independent survey last week put Knox, the leader in the polls for weeks, in a statistical tie with Nutter.
In the debate, Knox still seemed to be wearing the front-runner's bull's-eye on his back.
