By BOB WARNER
Philadelphia Daily News
ALLIES OF STATE SEN. VINCENT Fumo are migrating toward attorney Lawrence Farnese in the race to fill Fumo's Senate seat, and a rival candidate, John Dougherty, is worried enough to seek Farnese's removal from the ballot.
City Councilman Jim Kenney, a longtime Fumo ally with a strong citywide following of his own, said yesterday that with Fumo pulling out of the race, he's now supporting Farnese. "I like him and I think he can win," Kenney said.
Two other political figures with close ties to Fumo - Councilman Frank DiCicco and South Philadelphia ward leader Rosanne Pauciello - said they were leaning toward Farnese.
Meanwhile, Dougherty, the leader of the electricians union, announced that he would appeal a Commonwealth Court ruling that Farnese had collected enough signatures to appear on the April 22 primary ballot.
Citing widespread instances in which Farnese followers apparently had forged voter names on candidate petitions, Dougherty said his campaign would appeal to the state Supreme Court.
An aide to Anne Dicker, the third Democrat left in the Senate race, said that Fumo's departure seemed to be opening doors for her, as well as for Farnese.
"We're getting calls back from people who were afraid to call us" while Fumo was in the race, said Karim Olaechea, Dicker's campaign manager. "We expected that core group of Fumo supporters to back Farnese. But there are a lot of people outside the core group who may be willing, now, to give some support to Anne."
Fumo, the 64-year-old power broker who has held the Senate seat for 30 years, announced Wednesday that he was giving up his fight for re-election, mostly because of his pending federal trial, in September, on corruption charges.
Some strategists figured that Fumo's withdrawal would give an immediate edge to Dougherty, a former Democratic Party treasurer who has access to hundreds of thousands of dollars in political donations from union members, a cadre of political advisers employed by the union and a potential army of workers on Election Day.
But others speculated that Farnese and Dicker would divide most of Fumo's support among rank-and-file voters, and that Fumo's campaign war chest - $624,000 at the end of 2007 - could counter Dougherty's if the senator is willing.
"It wouldn't be surprising for him to contribute money from his campaign account . . . to support another candidate, but he hasn't made a decision on that," said Fumo's media adviser, Ken Snyder.
Dougherty's challenge to Farnese's ballot spot is based on Farnese's initial submission of candidate petitions that included hundreds of voter signatures in similar handwriting, apparent forgeries.
After Dougherty hired attorney Samuel C. Stretton to challenge the petitions in Commonwealth Court, Farnese's lawyers withdrew 22 pages of petitions, including those with the questionable signatures.
Commonwealth Court Judge Rochelle S. Friedman ruled that without considering those 22 pages, Farnese still had more than the 500 valid signatures needed to appear on the ballot.
Stretton argued unsuccessfully that he should be permitted to question circulators about the withdrawn petitions, possibly raising issues with petitions that were otherwise treated as valid
| 
