Frank DiCicco

PHILADELPHIA-With his election virtually assured but his campaign still deeply in debt after a fiercely competitive primary, Democratic state Senate candidate Larry Farnese is preparing an aggressive fundraising push over the next two months.

Farnese has 11 fundraisers scheduled between now and late October, his campaign manager told PolitickerPA.com, and four more could still be arranged before Election Day. Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter is scheduled to attend a fundraiser Oct. 23, and City Councilmen Jim Kenney and Frank DiCicco will attend an event Sept. 19.

After narrowly winning the April primary to replace retiring state Sen. Vince Fumo (D-Philadelphia) in the 1st Senatorial District, Farnese's campaign was almost half-a-million dollars in debt in late May. Much of that debt from was from loans given by colleagues of Fumo.

Farnese campaign manager Renee Gilinger said the campaign had paid off about $60,000-$70,000 of the debt, acknowledging that "a substantial amount" still remains. She said debts to small vendors had been fulfilled, staff members had been paid and the campaign was confident the remaining balance could be taken care of by the election, with money left to spare for voter turnout and other Election Day efforts in November.

"Obviously we want to settle our debt," Gilinger said. "That's very important to us that we make sure all of our debt from the primary is paid off.

CheesesteakBill Green, Philadelphia’s freshman City Councilman, has ruffled his share of feathers among colleagues since taking office in January.

Now he’s locked in yet another dispute with one of his council elders—but this time, the subject at hand is Philadelphia’s food of pride, the cheesesteak.

Green and fellow Councilman Frank DiCicco have been sparring recently the impending relocation of a famed local cheesesteak joint, Rick’s Steaks, in the equally famed Reading Terminal Market. The market did not renew its lease with owner Rick Olivieri, angering many of the lunch-hour faithful.

Rick’s is all but gone, a state court having recently struck down its attempt to stay. But a long-brewing dispute between DiCicco and Green exploded last week, The Inquirer reports, when DiCicco, who is on the Reading Terminal board, responded to Green’s assertion that the Olivieri was being evicted in favor of political favoritism with a scathing letter of his own.

“I … continued to marvel at your inexperience, your political naivete, and your inability to see an issue for what it truly is,” DiCicco wrote, according to The Inquirer. Green is the son of the late Philadelphia mayor of the same name.

From John Kerry’s infamous order of Swiss on a Philly cheesesteak to Geno’s owner Joey Vento’s more infamous “English-only” sign, cheesesteaks in Philadelphia have long been magnets for political controversy. Karen Heller writes that it’s time for that to end.