As primary approaches, Mayor Nutter is barely campaigning

There has not been one television ad or campaign debate. Not even billboards or bullhorns.

Indeed, save for some radio ads that began airing Monday, you might say Philadelphia's 2011 mayor's race is MIA - and that may leave polling places running on empty come Primary Day, precisely two weeks away.

Light voter turnout could depress numbers not just for Mayor Nutter - who is nonetheless widely expected to beat his Democratic opponent, T. Milton Street Sr. - but also for City Council candidates the mayor is backing who could help him advance his second-term agenda.

There hasn't been a mayoral primary quite this quiet since Ed Rendell ran for a second term in 1995. And even though he had no opposition, there was still noise in the way of sound bites and speeches and Rendell's well-known, ongoing quest for campaign cash.

John F. Street likewise faced no Democratic primary opponent when he campaigned for a second term as mayor in 2003. But there he was, running television ads two weeks before the May primary - and he didn't face Republican Sam Katz in a high-profile rematch until six months later.

Despite their lack of primary opposition, both Street and Rendell each managed to draw about 175,000 voters to the polls; that amounted to about one in three registered Democrats for Rendell, and one in five for Street.

Given the lackluster mayoral race this year, it is questionable whether that many Philadelphians - or few, as the case may be - will come out to vote May 17.

"This may not necessarily be the most exciting race in the world, but elections happen only twice a year, and voting is a part of citizenship," Nutter, in jeans and a red City Year sweatshirt, said Saturday, urging residents to vote as he shook hands, posed for pictures, and walked north on Broad Street during the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts.

As with most incumbents, how many votes Nutter gets - or doesn't get - will be viewed as a referendum on the mayor himself.

At the same time, the number of ballots cast for Street, the city's former First Brother, an ex-convict and an ex-state senator, will also be closely assessed by, among others, two municipal unions yet to negotiate new contracts with the Nutter administration; city and state elected officials who will work with the mayor in the next four years; and, to be sure, anyone contemplating a last-minute write-in campaign against Nutter in November.