Chaka Fattah Launches Campaign for Mayor.

Vows 'Real Opportunity for All Philadelphians'

PHILADELPHIA -- Congressman Chaka Fattah, promising "real opportunity for all Philadelphians," on Saturday set the course to lead his home town as Philadelphia's next Mayor.

Fattah declared his candidacy for the 2007 Mayoral election before cheering supporters from across the city at a rally and news conference outside the High School of the Future, 4021 Parkside Avenue.

"I want to serve all of Philadelphia. I want to bring real opportunity to every Philadelphian. I want to transform this 'City of Brotherly Love' into 'the City of Real Opportunity," he declared in prepared remarks. "That is why, today, I offer myself as a candidate for Mayor."

Fattah, who will celebrate his 50th birthday on Nov. 21, is a respected legislator known for his leadership in education, crime fighting, housing, business and community development.

He will be a candidate in the Democratic Party primary in May 2007 for a four-year term that begins in January 2008. He has been re-elected to his seventh term representing the 2nd Congressional District in Philadelphia and Cheltenham Township and will retain that seat as he campaigns for City Hall.

Fattah called on Philadelphians to share with him the responsibility of building a better city and creating an environment for opportunity. Using a biblical reference from Nehemiah he declared, "You can rebuild the walls of our city if we have a mind to work."

Philadelphians, he said, have stepped up before and must once again take responsibility for our future.

The Congressman, flanked onstage by his four children, told the crowd that when skeptics have said Philadelphians couldn't solve their own problems, "We said, 'Yes, we can!'"

Noting that he is a native son who owes everything to the Philadelphia he is "coming home" to serve and to lead, Fattah said, "We want to write in those who have been written off."

During a yearlong exploration of a possible mayoral candidacy, he has said one key question has been whether he could make a difference "to change this city for the better, and not in an incremental way."

Saturday's announcement, he said, ends debate about his own future and begins a more important debate: a debate about Philadelphia, Philadelphians and our collective future.

"This is the work I've come home to do," Fattah said. "This is my dream for the city that's given me so much. And this is what I will work toward every day if you elect me as your Mayor. I'm not coming home to have a job. I'm coming home to do the job."

Fattah said he would make education reform and continued advancement of the School District of Philadelphia as a campaign cornerstone. But he said his campaign will go beyond education as he outlines over the coming months his vision and proposals on issues across the urban landscape.

Fattah has won a national reputation for his innovative work in urban education. He has created a variety of programs that provide opportunity for low-income and under-represented young people from pre-school to post-graduate level.

He is the author of GEAR UP - Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, enacted by Congress in 1998. GEAR UP has grown to be the largest national program to prepare students for college, with about $2 billion in federal spending.

At home, he created CORE Philly in 2004, a program that provides "last dollar" scholarships for every graduating high school senior - public, private, parochial and charter - who is accepted into more than a dozen Pennsylvania colleges and universities.

He launched the Fattah Conference on Higher Education - now 20 years old - to prepare and inspire college students from underserved groups to continue on to graduate school.

Fattah said he will build his campaign upon the work of the Fattah for Mayor Exploratory Committee (FMEC). On Friday night, he hosted a gala "thank you" reception for FMEC volunteers at Independence Visitors Center, 6th and Market Streets, at which Fattah expressed appreciation to all those who had participated.

Fattah chose the High School of the Future to announce his candidacy because it serves as a working model for opportunity and achievement on a level playing field. Built by the Microsoft Corporation, the newest high school in the School District of Philadelphia opened with 170 students that will grow by one grade each year.

The new Centennial District surrounding the high school is rich in the challenges and opportunities that will mark a Fattah Administration.

Fattah cited housing development along Parkside, the future home of the Please Touch Museum at Memorial Hall, the vibrant Philadelphia Zoo, small businesses he has aided with Congressional grants along Girard Avenue and the diverse communities that enjoy nearby Fairmount Park. No longer visible are the dismal high rise public housing projects that were demolished in West Philadelphia under Fattah's leadership.

As he introduced his candidacy, Fattah reintroduced himself to Philadelphians by describing his remarkable and unconventional path to achievement and accomplishment. "If I have learned one lesson so far, it's this: Life is never a straight line," he said. "There are challenges and obstacles. I have had them in my own life."

The future Congressman grew up in the Urban Boystown in West Philadelphia, founded by his mother, Sister Falaka Fattah, as a haven for boys trying to change their lives.

As a teenager, Fattah worked on voter registration and community empowerment. He attended Overbrook High School and took classes at Community College of Philadelphia.

At age 22, supporting a young family, Fattah ran for City Commissioner. At 25 he ran an underdog race and defeated a veteran State Representative in Philadelphia's 192nd District. In January 1983 he took office as the Pennsylvania Legislature's youngest member. He went on to serve six years as State Representative and six years as State Senator before upsetting an incumbent Congressman to win the 2nd District seat in 1994.

When he announced his mayoral candidacy on Saturday, Fattah was preceded to the podium by three Philadelphians whose lives he has impacted through his scholarship programs and community work: Dr. Ala Stanford Frye, a pediatric surgeon; Lauren Ingster, a single mother whose daughter was able to attend Penn State; and law student Brandon Bruce, a "graduate" of the Fattah family's Urban Boystown who said, "I went from needing a lawyer to becoming a lawyer."

In issuing his challenge to the people of Philadelphia, Fattah declared, "I ask for your prayers, your ideas, your time, and talent. But I ask that you walk with me on this journey. And when they tell us we can't bring real opportunity to every Philadelphian, I want you to yell back, 'Yes, we can!' With your help, and God's grace, we can provide real opportunity for every Philadelphian."