From www.wpvi.com:

Philadelphia fire marshals are on location in North Philadelphia at Sam Katz's office where someone threw an incendiary device through the window this morning. It was found shortly after 9:30am in the office located at 1704 N. 22nd St.

Today's incident comes after a reported dispute between the landlord and people connected with Philadelphia's mayor John Street.

The attempted firebombing may turn into a political bombshell for Mayor John Street's re-election campaign.

Last night, someone threw a bottle filled with gasoline and plugged with a wick through the front window of the Katz campaign headquarters in North Philadelphia. But there was apparently no attempt to light the wick according to police.

This all follows a confrontation that several witnesses saw outside the building yesterday. The dispute was between the mayor's son – Sharif Street – his driver and the landlord of the building.

The landlord told police that Shariff Street's driver told him that they were going to "take down" him and his building if he didn't have the Sam Katz headquarters removed. Other witnesses say it was Sharif Street who made the threat.

The Katz campaign has said they've rented the offices for about a month, but they just put up the signs in the windows 2 weeks ago. Campaign workers also say that almost immediately they started getting threats.

Street's rats/cronies are scared, so they're doing everything they can to try and stop Katz. Quite frankly, it makes me sick.

This makes me pretty sick too.

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You would think that this sort of stuff would be the last straw for some people. I'm just amazed that Philadelphians can't think outside the box and vote for other candidates. Street has done so little good for the city that he tries to instill fear in people. Don't vote for Katz because he's a Republican - that's the stupidest argument. But he knows it will work with alot of people, and that's sad. And D that won't consider voting for and R is a fool, and vice versa.

From a number of people I have talked to today, this latest incident has only STRENGTHENED their resolve to help, support, and vote for Sam Katz for Mayor.

Let's just hope that the people you talked to weren't already Katz supporters.

It's looking less cut-and-dried today. If you read the Inky article, you saw that the reason there's no evidence is that, supposedly, the building manager threw away the offending bottle BEFORE being shown the broken window & thereby making the connection - "aha! firebomb!" This part was lost in TV news reports, who just said the building manager threw away the evidence - makes it sound like a hoax.

Nevertheless, the fact is that there is currently no strong evidence that an unlighted incendiary device was thrown through that window, other than the building manager's word. That reduces this whole thing to a partisan argument - one camp vs. the other. Don't get me wrong, I find it very believable that some of the fringier elements of the Street retinue would do such a thing, and the fact that earlier yesterday a guy accompanied by Sharif Street came & verbally harrassed the building manager is certainly damning.

However, I don't think this issue can go anywhere intelligently, if there is no concrete evidence. Katz handled it very well. Dan Fee, Street's spokesman, on the other hand, made the ridiculous statement that if this turns out to be a hoax, Katz should not only fire the staff member who perpetrated it but then withdraw from the election !!! This guy Fee spews some pretty ludicrous things. But that's his job, I guess.

Fee will say anything for a fee. What he won't do is directly address the issues with relevant facts.

Sam truly cares about his workers and volunteers; he and his campaign handled this very well and he further demonstrated that he is a true leader.

These quotes taken from an article in the Inquirer, bother me more than anything else. Even if this gentleman did not have anything to do with the vandalism, he is a disgrace and would seem to be a poor representative of the NAACP as he comes across as being racist.

Steve, why does he come across as racist to you? When I read the article and the statements you pulled in particular, I hear him telling a man that this is a Street stronghold and the residents might not appreciate him giving space to Katz. He is definitely a poor representative of the NAACP, for they should be encouraging people to learn the facts instead of blindly following anybody, but I don’t see how his comments are racist. Please enlighten me.