Clout: Brady-challenger Varma says she’s not going away

WE HAVE entered the fractious season when politicians peruse the nominating petitions of rival candidates and then rush to court with challenges.

And U.S. Rep. Bob Brady appears to be using an elephant gun to go squirrel hunting.

Two registered Republicans on Monday challenged the nominating petitions for Pia Varma, a little-known candidate despite her flair for self-promotion.

Brady called to say that he has no problem with Varma running, but is offended by the “tea party” rhetoric she is tossing around.

“If she’s upset, she should go get a cup of tea and relax,” Brady advised. “I’m not worried about this lady. I don’t think she can beat me. That’s not the point. I’m a little disturbed about these tea parties.”

Varma fired back: “Why does he think I’m not relaxed? Where did he get that notion?”

Maybe from her Facebook page? Varma posted this on Monday after the challenge was filed: “Really Brady? Pissing me off is not the best of ideas. ”

The challenge was filed by Steven Kaplan, an attorney who does legal work for the Democratic City Committee. Kaplan filed on behalf of Mark Lupke, a venture capitalist, and Anthony Gilberti III. Gilberti has an interesting political resume – a registered Republican, he apparently ran in 2006 for a Democratic committee post in the 39th Ward and won. Yeah, we didn’t know you could do that either.

Kaplan said 440 of the 1,141 signatures on Varma’s petitions are flawed, mostly because people don’t live in the district or are not registered to vote or are registered Democrats. She needs 1,000 valid signatures to stay on the general-election ballot.

Varma, who hasn’t hired an attorney to deal with a hearing scheduled for Monday, said she had played a small role in circulating the petitions, leaving that work to members of Republican City Committee. She plans to fight to stay on the ballot, but won’t go quietly if things don’t go her way.

“If not, I’m going to do a write-in campaign,” Varma told us.

Struggle for local GOP control

It’s not uncommon to see fights in the Democratic Party over committee spots, especially when two factions are vying to elect a ward leader. This year, there’s an even more unusual effort by Republican City Committee to knock off some would-be committeemen – even in divisions that may be left with no GOP committee member at all.

Al Schmidt, Republican state chairman Rob Gleason’s representative in an ongoing fight with the local party leadership, said that lawyers for the Republican City Committee are challenging petitions for about 40 people recruited by Schmidt’s organization, mostly in North and West Philadelphia, in divisions where the committee posts were vacant.

“They would rather have nobody than somebody,” Schmidt said. “They don’t want to grow the party; they only want to control it.”

Party chairman Vito Canuso Jr. said the party was just trying to make sure that people follow the rules. “If they want to be involved, they can get involved, but to be a committeeman

you’ve got to have 10 valid signatures, filed in the proper way,” Canuso said. “This doesn’t mean we won’t go back to all these people and ask them to participate.”

Keeping Seth safe

Former District Attorney Lynne Abraham was seldom seen about town without a bodyguard who doubled as her driver. The job was held for years by Tony Fulwood, who drove first for the late Mayor Frank Rizzo and retired in 2007 at the rank of lieutenant.

The job of protecting new District Attorney Seth Williams is now handled by three officers and a detective who split the day in two-man shifts. Joe McGettigan, the first assistant district attorney, said he had recommended the four-man squad after the Police Department’s Dignitary Protection Unit suggested an eight-man team for Williams.

Fulwood was making $70,811 when he retired. Abraham’s lone bodyguards were known to rack up major overtime. The Williams squad is paid a combined $200,000 to $225,000 per year, with very little overtime.

McGettigan said he was aiming for economy and efficiency for Williams, who routinely works long hours all over the city.

“He’s an active, action guy and doesn’t want to seem to be surrounded by an entourage and doesn’t want one,” he added.

Quotable:

“I’ve talked to several people in the White House. I’ve talked to people that have talked to others in the White House. I’m told that whatever conversations have been had are not problematic. I think Congressman Sestak has discussed that this is – whatever happened is in the past, and he’s focused on his primary election.” – White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs this week, when asked about U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak’s claims that he had been offered a federal job to preempt his primary-election challenge against U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter.

Staff writers John Baer and Bob Warner contributed to this report.

Have tips or suggestions? Call Chris Brennan at 215-854-5973 or e-mail

brennac@phillynews.com.

Check out the Clout blog at:

www.phillyclout.com.

Have a news tip? Gossip? Suggestion? Call Chris Brennan at 215-854-5973 or Catherine Lucey at 215-854-4712. Or e-mail phillyclout@phillynews.com.

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