Michael Nutter

PHILADELPHIA -- Mayor Michael Nutter played to the crowd here during his opening remarks of this weekend's National Governors Association meeting Friday night.

At one point, Gov. Ed Rendell whispered in his ear to mention something about the famous, but unusual brightly-uniformed Mummers.

Here is a video of Nutter's remarks:

PHILADELPHIA -- After working the crowd during the National Governors Association annual meeting, Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter told PolitickerPa.com said he was ready to campaign hard for U.S. Sen. Barack Obama.

"We've had some contact with the campaign," he said. "I will do anything, go anywhere, do whatever I can, expend all possible energy. They just need to tell me the time and place."

Nutter campaigned hard for U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary during the spring, but said he would campaign for Obama when the primary season ended.

More coverage of the centennial meeting of the National Governors Association coming soon.

For almost two years, Gov. Ed Rendell has worked against staunch neighborhood resistance to proposed casinos in Philadelphia. Even as some residents who once revered him as the city's mayor grew to loath him for his acceptance of the slot parlors planned for the Delaware River waterfront, Rendell has always sided with the casino developers.

When neighborhood activists continued to push the casinos to consider other sites further from residential areas, Rendell wrote to one that "the issue of re-siting is over." When City Council continued to cause delays, he sharply criticized local lawmakers as having "no guts."

But now that some of his staunchest Harrisburg allies from Philadelphia are lining up against him, Rendell appears to be bending, if not breaking, on the casino issue. On Friday, the man who championed casinos in Pennsylvania said "the political landscape has changed" and that he would meet with the casino developers to discuss moving the projects elsewhere.

Still, even as he signaled his first significant shift on casinos after long lauding their potential for proving tax relief, Rendell, a Democrat, sounded a note of caution.

"I'll meet and make a good-faith effort to explore the potential benefits of re-siting," he said, "but nobody should get too excited. The only way these casinos can be legally re-sited is if the casinos voluntarily agree."

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter: Getty Images PhotoA government watchdog group has urged Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter to form an independent panel to review the city's campaign finance law and give recommednations for how to improve it before the next local election cycle, The Inquirer reports.

The plea by the watchdog group, the Committee of Seventy, comes after a mayoral primary last year in which millionaire businessman Tom Knox provided vast amounts of his own campaign funding.

With Knox funding his own campaign, city law doubled the caps on individual donations to other candidates. But the committee noted that the so-called "millionaire amendment" could be endangered after the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a similar federal version of the provision.

Philadelphia is the only municipality in the state that limits campaign donations and expenditures, The Inquirer notes.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter saw his national profile rise as he stumped fervently for U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) in the weeks leading up to April's Pennsylvania primary.

But even before that, he had political friends throughout the Northeast. Now, he's trying to help on move into the Delaware governor's office.

On Tuesday, Nutter will headline a fundraiser for Jack Markell, Delaware's state treasurer who is running for governor, The Inquirer reports.

The fundraiser, to be held at an upscale restaurant in downtown Philadelphia, will net $500 per person.

"They've met in the past, but they're not close friends," Andrew Roos, Markell's campaign manager, told The Inquirer. He said Nutter would appear as a courtesy to some of the hosts.

"He's there to be helpful and be friendly, but it's not an endorsement," Roos said.

When Ed Rendell took over as Mayor of Philadelphia he took on the unions during contract negotiations and won.  When John Street took over he tried to take on the unions and quickly backed down.  Now it is Michael Nutter’s turn.  Nutter said in his state of the city address he has set aside $400 million to take care of the contracts, but will that be enough?

More PolitickerPA.com coverage: John Street's vanishing legacy

The Inquirer today asks a question that has been on the mind of many political watchers: What on earth is happening to former Philadelphia Mayor John Street's legacy?

Street left office in January after a second term that saw his popularity dip drastically as the city's murder rate climbed and he was assailed for spending a morning waiting in line to buy an iPhone. His successor, former City Councilman Michael Nutter, won office in large part by campaigning as the anti-Street.

Nutter and Street have always been political foes, and many say their dislike of one another extends outside politics and into the personal. But when Street left City Hall to make room for Nutter, he probably didn't expect that so much of his time in office would be deconstructed so fast.

TJ Rooney and the Democratic Party in Pennsylvania was solidly behind Hillary Clinton and delivered for her in the primary. When Barack Obama won this week the Party was quick to get behind Obama which makes them a winner this week.  Find out who else made the Winners and Losers list for June 6, 2008.

PHILADELPHIA-After stumping hard for Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) before Pennsylvania's April primary contest, Mayor Michael Nutter said today that he was ready to campaign for Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), now the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.

"I'm a Democrat, I'm supporting the Democratic nominee," Nutter told reporters this afternoon at City Hall.

"I'm going to do everything I can to help," he added.

He opted not to jump into the debate over whether Obama choose Clinton as his running mate, calling it "a very personal decision." He said Obama should be allowed to make the decision with "fill freedom and flexibility, without a lot of pressure."