INQUIRER: Evans was on the outs with some members because they believe he was the master puppeteer behind an edict to try and cancel a House voting session this week in order to prevent a vote on a bill that contains a provision Evans did not like. In the end, other House leaders buckled to pressure from members and called them back to vote Monday. But the spat left Evans vulnerable. And it brought to the surface other complaints that House Democrats have had against their old leadership team, including how the controversial special-project grants nicknamed WAMs – for walking-around money – are doled out to members. As Appropriations chairman for the last four years, Evans controlled the flow of those dollars. MORE
PREVIOUSLY: Wow! Something weird just happened. I think Evans just gave Phawker Talk To The Hand. After making arrangments with his spokesperson for the standard candidate photo-op with the Phawker product placement, I handed Evans a Phawker bumpersticker, explained the photo-op, he nodded, and as I backed away to take the picture he dropped the Phawker sticker to floor like I’m a Moonie at the airport handing out cult literature. (His spokesperson quickly scrambled for it and smoothed it over with one of those What can you do? grin & shrug combinations.) Bad move. Nobody, puts Phawker in the corner. Heretofore, I was merely underwhelmed with his understanding of the city’s problems and how he proposes to fix them. But seeing as how he has voted at least twice AGAINST the interests of the people of Philadelphia — for casinos, and for a pay raise for him and his legislative cronies — and completely fumbled what should have been an easy photo-op that would get his smiling mug out to thousands of Phawker readers, we are not only giving his mayoral candidacy the thumbs down, but likewise question his allegiances as a state lawmaker. Now if you could just phone-in a smile for us, Mr. Evans…CLICK…Thanks for playing, and good luck to you, Sir.