Talk about burying the hatchet.
Last night’s Unity Rally for area Democrats at Midtown Scholar Bookstore was pretty much as expected: lots of pols and their supporters; party activists; candidate speeches; plenty of kudos for Eric Papenfuse, the Democratic nominee for Harrisburg mayor.
But there was one surprise. Lewis Butts Jr. was in attendance, saying he now supported the candidate. This is the same Butts charged by Dauphin County with defacing banners just before May’s primary, spray-painting over the now-nominee’s large, roadside signs to read PapenPuss.
When asked about his change of heart, Butts replied, “It’s all about economic development, about my ideas for economic development.”
Evidently, Butts believes it’s better to be inside the tent so he can push his pet projects like the Harrisburg International Aquarium, a hydroelectric dam and PennDOT Plaza, a shopping and restaurant center.
He seemed hopeful that Papenfuse would embrace his agenda, even though his ideas sound like they could come from the one man the nominee is loath to imitate — former Mayor Steve Reed.
The long-elusive Reed, of course, wasn’t there, nor was Mayor Linda Thompson or Controller Dan Miller, showing that, in Harrisburg, even unity has its limits.
