Toward that end, he has run TV campaign ads daily for nearly a week.
Even a few days out, Nutter continues campaigning as if in a close contest, attending nightly meet-and-greets. And he hammers home his tough talk about what's at stake for city Democrats if they don't vote: Republican domination on the state's high courts.
Despite those efforts, the dismal turnout forecast didn't seem to brighten at all last week.
A half-dozen local election veterans interviewed for this article estimated turnout as low as 20 percent - and none forecast anything higher than 35 percent.
"There's no excitement there whatsoever," said City Councilwoman Carol Ann Campbell, secretary of the Democratic City Committee and a big influence among African American ward leaders. "It could be that people think the election is over."
That view was shared by Ralph Wynder, veteran leader of the 38th Ward, which includes East Falls and upper North Philadelphia, the heart of Nutter's old City Council district.
"You can try to relate the importance of the state Superior and Supreme Courts to their everyday lives, but it's like pulling teeth," Wynder said of city voters. "The reality is folks see this election as a done deal."
In May's five-way Democratic primary, about one-third of the 12,000 registered voters in Wynder's ward cast ballots, the majority for Nutter.
Come Tuesday, Wynder is hopeful, but not overly confident, that turnout will reach 25 percent at least.
"There's a lack of interest in the mayor's race, and there are few contested Council races," said Zack Stalberg, president of the Committee of Seventy, an election watchdog group.
The lowest turnout in a mayoral general election in decades happened in 1995, when 39 percent of registered voters cast ballots in Mayor Ed Rendell's successful race against GOP challenger Joseph M. Rocks.
