Delegation

With resignations, retirements and redistricting, Pennsylvania's congressional delegation - after finally gaining some stature in Congress - may be losing some muscle along with members. Consider: Republican Sen. John Heinz, who was a member of the Senate Finance Committee, died in an air crash last April. House Majority Whip William H. Gray 3d, who sat on the House Appropriations Committee, resigned in September. Republican U.S. Rep. Lawrence Coughlin, another ranking appropriations panel member, announced last week that he would not seek re-election.

A senior Iranian delegation arrived in Iraq yesterday, a sign of the growing rapprochement between the two longtime foes that could help Baghdad get around U.N. trade sanctions. The Iranian delegation was led by Manushahr Mutaqi, the deputy foreign minister for international relations, the official Iraqi News Agency reported. The agency, monitored in Nicosia, Cyprus, quoted Mutaqi as saying prisoner- of-war exchanges, border matters and the reopening of embassies would be discussed.

An effort to organize an uncommitted New Jersey delegation for this summer's Democratic National Convention is being led by prominent Democrats, including six of the party's county chairmen. Leaders of the effort, which was announced here yesterday, said an uncommitted delegation would enable New Jersey Democrats to influence the convention outcome if the party's presidential choice were still unclear at that point. The effort came under immediate fire from Senate President John F. Russo, the legislature's top Democrat and an early supporter of Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis.

Mayor Goode gave a City Hall send-off yesterday to nine Philadelphians involved in the arts who will represent the city at a sister-cities arts festival in Tianjin, China, Sept. 29 through Oct. 5. The delegation includes two choreographers, Terry Beck and Steve Krieckhaus, and four performing artists of the New Freedom Theater - Johnnie Hobbs Jr., William "Sonny" Hoxter, Diane S. Leslie and Millicent Sparks, along with New Freedom director John E. Allen Jr. Leader of the delegation is Nancy B. Hill, managing director of Movement Theater International.

Members of the New Jersey congressional delegation have requested a meeting with Defense Secretary-designate John Tower after weeks of frustration in trying to get information about the Pentagon's planned mothballing of Fort Dix. The latest frustration came late Monday evening when the Pentagon released a two-inch-thick stack of documents to the delegation in answer to the group's request for information about the Fort Dix decision. While the documentation was voluminous, it was hardly revealing about why Fort Dix is being mothballed.

Marina Grin's most recent telephone call to her aging parents in the Soviet Union two days ago was unlike any other. Usually, her parents are cheerful, if only to spare her worry. But this time, having been denied permission to leave Russia in September and having learned that Marina's father is stricken with lip cancer, all they could say was: "We are old people. We are tired. " Grin, a Russian emigre, is also tired. But she is hopeful that her parents, both 73, might be allowed to leave Russia as a gesture of good will before Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and President Reagan meet Monday in Washington.

In the 21 conventions I have covered, never has more attention been given to one delegation than at last week's Republican National Convention. Pennsylvanians were housed in the same hotel as Texas, Florida and Michigan. The delegation was selected to put the President over the top in the formal balloting for nomination. Renee Amoore, a delegate from King of Prussia, was given the honors; a nod to the suburbs, where I can guarantee this Pennsylvania election will be decided. It is the Rendell effect that Republicans fear the most.

The city's delegation to Harrisburg changed little as a result of yesterday's voting, although in several legislative races the incumbents had faced unexpectedly tough challenges. In particular, Republican state Sen. Frank Salvatore, an early favorite for re-election, was hit by a last-minute blitz of negative campaign literature by his opponent, 25-year-old Michael J. Stack 3d. Democrats had hoped the late assault might be enough to unseat Salvatore, who represents the Fifth Senatorial District, in Northeast Philadelphia.

It was Fiesta day for the Pennsylvania delegation yesterday, complete with Mexican pinatas, a pickup truck, fajitas, a sombrero-wearing band - and a visit from Vice President Quayle. A feisty and combative Quayle gave a brief speech at the event, a Bell of Pennsylvania reception at the Houston Airport Marriott in honor of State Sen. Earl M. Baker. It was all very polite and partisan - except for one little bit of awkwardness. Just two weeks ago, a local newspaper quoted the Chester County legislator and former state party chairman as expressing a decided lack of enthusiasm about having Quayle on the Republican ticket this year.

Although the Delaware delegation to the Republican National Convention this week will be among the smallest in New Orleans, it should be among the easiest to locate. Just look for the buffalo. That's right, the buffalo. Although the rest of the GOP delegations at the convention will be flaunting their party's official national symbol, the elephant, the 17 delegates and 17 alternates from Delaware will be marching behind a staff bearing a likeness of the American bison.

A week after Philadelphia School Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. said he was targeting seniority in the teachers' contract to win support from Republican lawmakers for more state aid for the cash-strapped district, the city's Democratic legislative delegation is scheduled to meet with him Thursday to discuss its concerns. State Rep. Dwight Evans (D., Phila.) said he was notified of the meeting through an e-mail but had a scheduling conflict and could not attend. He said several of the city's two dozen representatives in the state House were not supportive of the kinds of changes Hite was pushing in negotiations with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers.

Mayor Nutter will spend the next five days in Florence, Italy, comparing notes on the creative economy with a delegation from the U.S. Conference of Mayors and an organization of Italian counterparts. The full tab for airfare, lodging and meals will be picked up by the Conference of Mayors at no cost to city taxpayers, said Mark McDonald, the mayor's press secretary. At 10 a.m. Thursday in Florence (5 a.m. Philadelphia time), Nutter will join a panel discussion on culture and sports as contributors to economic development.

LAST MONTH, former Gov. Ed Rendell challenged Pennsylvania's U.S. lawmakers in these pages to answer a series of questions on gun-control measures making their way through Congress. We have published responses from Sen. Bob Casey and Rep. Chaka Fattah, and today publish responses from the rest of the members of Congress. Rep. Bob Brady 1. Will you support mandatory universal background checks? "Absolutely. " 2. Will you support stronger laws to stop straw purchase gun-traffickers?

Darrell L. Clarke likes how Baltimore has been fighting crime in the last decade with a huge network of surveillance cameras tied into a central police command center. He has admired Baltimore's strategy since before he helped persuade his mentor, former Mayor John F. Street, to start a similar program in Philadelphia in 2006. Clarke, now entering his second year as Council president, is less enthusiastic about how that program, troubled by technological problems from the beginning, has been run in recent years under Mayor Nutter.

WASHINGTON - As Congress scrambled to sidestep some of the most painful effects of the fiscal cliff, local lawmakers generally looked favorably on one key compromise: raising the threshold for the income-tax hikes set to take effect Tuesday. The provision to raise taxes on incomes of $450,000 and above, rather than at the $250,000 mark President Obama originally sought, won tentative praise from Philadelphia-area Democrats - and, crucially, some local House Republicans, too. "It's better than the alternative," said Rep. Chris Smith (R., N.J.)

CHARLOTTE - When Pennsylvania's youngest Democratic delegate spotted Julián Castro, the 37-year-old San Antonio mayor and convention keynote speaker, she burst through a couple of handlers, touched his arm, and said: "You are awesome!" Earlier, 18-year-old Alaysha Claiborne had wrapped her arms around civil rights hero U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D., Ga.). "Thank you," she told him. "You're welcome," Lewis replied. Part Puerto Rican and part African American, this freshman at Temple University quickly became the heart, soul, and inspiration of Pennsylvania Democrats here this week, injecting an energy that has allowed veteran politicos to experience the convention through her young eyes.

CHARLOTTE - When Pennsylvania's youngest Democratic delegate spotted Julián Castro, the 37-year-old San Antonio mayor and convention keynote speaker, she burst through a couple of handlers, touched his arm, and said: "You are awesome!" Earlier, 18-year-old Alaysha Claiborne had wrapped her arms around civil rights hero U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D., Ga.). "Thank you," she told him. "You're welcome," Lewis replied. The daughter of a Puerto Rican mother and an African American father, this freshman at Temple University quickly became the heart, soul, and inspiration of Pennsylvania Democrats here this week, injecting an energy that has allowed veteran politicos to experience the convention through her young eyes.

CHARLOTTE - The speaking gig was already a big deal for Mayor Nutter: an evening slot on the rostrum of the Democratic National Convention. Some of the mayor's big-name Democratic compatriots, like New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, aren't speaking at all, while others, like Newark Mayor Cory Booker, were assigned earlier, less-visible times. "I was already excited," Nutter said in an interview Wednesday afternoon. Excited, that is, before he got a call this week from President Obama's campaign.

CHARLOTTE - Enveloped by red, white, and blue, thousands of black and brown faces will stand out this week at the Democratic National Convention, mirroring an increasingly diverse America and contrasting with scenes from the Republican convention that just ended. Led by a president with a black father and a white mother, Democrats will tout diversity and sell themselves as inclusionary, sensitive to the most marginalized, and hip to the nation's changing demographics. Of their delegates, one study found, 26 percent are black.

TAMPA - Prepackaged television productions? High-pitched partisan lovefests? Perhaps. But political conventions do more than fire up the faithful. As they awaited their nominee's words, Republicans from the handful of swing states that will determine this election were already planning to spread those flames back home. "After you think you've done everything you can do, you come to something like this and you say, 'OK, I can do more,' " said Tammy Puff, an Ohio delegate in her seat five hours before Mitt Romney's Thursday night acceptance speech.