FBI probe gives mayor a boost

President Bush has been stumping for Republicans.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Mayor John Street's re-election campaign seemed lackluster -- until his office was bugged by the FBI. Then he opened up a lead over Republican Sam Katz, riding a wave of public skepticism about the federal corruption probe.
In one of dozens of mayoral races around the country, voters were to decide today whether to re-elect the Democratic mayor or install the businessman he narrowly beat four years ago.
The off-year elections also featured gubernatorial contests in Kentucky and Mississippi, legislative races in three states and a host of ballot items ranging from gambling issues to mass transit.
Support from Bush
In Mississippi, President Bush stumped over the weekend for influential Republican lobbyist Haley Barbour, who was trying to unseat Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove.
Bush also campaigned in Kentucky for U.S. Rep. Ernie Fletcher, who was fighting with Democratic Attorney General Ben Chandler to become the successor to Gov. Paul Patton, a Democrat whose final term was roiled by an infidelity scandal.
Both races were being closely watched for signals that Bush will be either vulnerable or tough to beat in 2004. In Louisiana, voters go to the polls to select a new governor Nov. 15 because GOP Gov. Mike Foster is term-limited.
Fletcher enjoyed an apparent lead in recent polls, while the Mississippi race was neck and neck. Dual victories by Republicans may tell of further erosion of Democratic power in the once "solid South."
Mississippi has not elected a Republican governor since 1967, but Musgrove has downplayed party affiliation in trying to beat back Barbour's challenge. Instead, he has called himself independent and conservative and criticized Barbour, a former Republican National Committee chairman, for being too cozy with Washington special interest groups.
Investigation
Federal authorities in Philadelphia have refused to say what the probe in that city is about, but for a month, voters have read about agents seizing files related to city contracts, raids on the offices of two Street supporters and the seizure of three handheld computers the mayor uses for e-mail.
Rather than doom Street's campaign, the news seemed to give it new life. He has climbed steadily in the polls since Oct. 7, when police discovered the listening devices during a routine security sweep at city hall.
In a city where Democrats vastly outnumber Republicans, Street has made anti-Bush rhetoric a staple of both his campaign and his public defense against the FBI.
Democrats rallied around him, claiming the investigation was an attempt by the Bush administration to disrupt the election. Black leaders also claimed that the FBI unfairly targeted Street because of his race; he is Philadelphia's second black mayor.
Meanwhile, his opponent, Republican businessman Sam Katz, has had to deal with harassment by union activists, an incident in which a person tossed what appeared to be an unlit firebomb into a campaign office and a former employee's claim that the candidate embezzled money from a private business venture.
Katz has campaigned on promises to cut city taxes and end cronyism at city hall. The race is a rematch of 1999, when Street beat Katz by fewer than 10,000 votes out of more than 430,000 cast. That fight was resolved on racial lines, when all but a few of the city's black neighborhoods voted for Street.