Last minute campaigning ahead of Philadelphia mayoral primary

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Just days away from Tuesday's Philadelphia mayoral primary, Action News caught up with candidates out for some last minute campaigning.

All the candidates are ignoring the polls and speculation about who will get the democratic spot on the mayoral ticket. That even includes candidates who are leading in the polls.

This week a recent poll placed former City Councilman at Large Jim Kenney in the lead. He also got City Council President Darrell Clarke's endorsement.

On Sunday, he checked in with poll workers in North Philadelphia and had this to say to voters:

"What I know I'll bring to City Hall is a good heart and a good head and I care for people. A belief that public service is a high calling, a belief that public service is really something important and special. If God gives you the opportunity to serve people, you need to take and do your best every day to serve them the best way you can," said Kenney.

That same poll put State Senator Anthony Hardy Williams in a close second.

On Sunday, he hit the ShopRite in the 3400 block of Fox Street.

"It's here, where people are, that have a desire to make sure they are connected to the next mayor in real ways. And real plans for improving schools, and real plans to provide jobs and real plans to change the culture of policing in Philadelphia," said Williams.

Lynne Abraham, former Philadelphia District Attorney, reiterated the message she has kept through her campaign.

"If you're going to be the leader of Philadelphia, you have to be tough and resilient, and you have to banish the status quo. You can't do business the way it's always been done in City Hall, in which some of the people who are supporting some of my opponents want it to be," said Abraham.

Lawyer and former City Solicitor Nelson Diaz made calls personally to voters.

"If they want to get the schools fixed, they better look for me. Secondly if they don't things that happened in Baltimore, they better make sure they pick the right mayor because it only takes one incident in this city to make things happen," said Diaz.

And Doug Oliver, a former aide to Mayor Michael Nutter, finished his day of events feeling confident that he reached a large portion of Philadelphians not in the daily political fold.

"Our operating assumption is that there's a disconnect between political Philadelphia and the rest of Philadelphia. So we figured if we could reach enough people in the time that we had, we had a chance to be successful. We also knew we had to get more people engaged in the race," said Oliver.

Action News also reached out to candidate and former State Senator Milton Street but were unable to get a comment from his team.

The mayoral primary is Tuesday, May 19th.