by MICHAEL J. MISHAK

With less than two days to campaign, Mayor Street and his supporters promoted a title bout to Tuesday's election that looked more like "Street vs. Bush" than "Street vs. Katz."

Spawned in the wake of the federal probe revelation early last month, the Street campaign has ridden the "Republican dirty trick" spin to double-digit leads and a galvanized political base.

Street supporters crowded the Venetian Club entrance on Sunday in eager anticipation of another man who shares the experience of an 11th-hour election controversy.

"Al Gore is here," said Street supporter Kris Sullivan. "Come on in."

Sullivan's shouts elicited the honks of Chestnut Hill's afternoon drivers, many of whom pulled over and followed her instructions.

"Park your car. Bring the kids," she said, waving a folded Gore 2000 sign. "It's all good. It's all free."

In a last ditch effort to shore up support for the Democratic incumbent among Northwest voters, former vice president Al Gore rolled into town to further the Bush-Katz connection.

(Katz spent the day on a "whistle-stop" train tour along SEPTA's R8 line, starting in Chestnut Hill and ending in the Northeast's Fox Chase station.)

Refraining from specific criticisms about the Republican challenger, Gore urged a packed ballroom, still waiting for Street's arrival, to view the city's mayoral election in the larger context of next year's presidential race.

"This may be the last election of 2003," Gore said. "But it's also the first of 2004."

For Hillers like Sullivan and her husband Walt, Gore's word is truth.

"The Keystone State is the keystone in 2004," Walt said, sporting a "Lie Down with Katz, Wake Up With Bush" button. The Democratic presidential candidate must win Philadelphia overwhelmingly to carry Pennsylvania, he said. While Katz has attempted to distance himself from Bush, Sullivan remains unconvinced. A Katz victory would shave the Philadelphia Democratic plurality, he said. Without Pennsylvania, Sullivan said, the Democrats face almost certain defeat. He concedes that Katz will most likely win Chestnut Hill, but hopes to reduce the considerable lead the Republican enjoyed in 1999.

Linking the halted 2000 Florida presidential ballot recount with the "unusual amount of attention" paid to both the California recall and the mayor's office in Philadelphia, Gore petitioned the crowd of mostly liberal white voters to, "make sure the White House doesn't succeed in taking over Philadelphia this Tuesday."

Gore described Street as a "man of integrity" and a "good mayor" who has revitalized neighborhoods, diminished blight and demonstrated fiscal prudence in a turbulent national economy.

"If you can get them to count the votes," Gore mused, "every vote counts."

Gore was preceded and followed by a venerable army of high-profile Democrats, including Congressmen Joe Hoeffel, Bob Brady and Chaka Fattah; State Representatives Allyson Schwartz and Kathy Mandarino; Lt. Governor Katherine Baker Knoll; District Attorney Lynne Abraham; City Controller Jonathan Saidel; and City Councilwomen Blondell Reynolds-Brown and Jannie Blackwell.

But the Washington brass didn't pull their punches like Gore, blasting the Bush administration and the Iraq reconstruction effort on a day the U.S. lost 16 more soldiers in a helicopter attack.

Hoeffel led the charge with fighting words.

"I'm fed up. I've had it with the right-wing," he said, prompting a sea of applause. Hoeffel said that GOP "obstructionism" has prevented progress on both the national and state levels, "making it impossible for us to keep moral commitments."

"I haven't seen such deception out of the White House since Watergate," Hoeffel said.

A Republican in the city's mayor's office would invite local deterioration with "lousy fiscal policies," he said. A Democratic win in Pennsylvania is essential to securing the presidency in 2004, he said. "It starts here," Hoeffel said of Tuesday's election.

Fattah emphasized voter turnout and took aim at a media that has "majored in the minors" when writing about Street. "Intentions don't win elections," he said. "Get out and vote."

Brady called for party solidarity, "to right a wrong," labeling the federal probe into city contracts as an attempt to "Bush-whack" the election. "If they can do it to Street, they can do it do you," he said. "Politics is a blood-sport in our town," Brady added. "We're ready. Don't mess with us."

After being whipped into a partisan frenzy by its leaders, the crowd rose to its feet and delivered an ovation as Street finally strode onto the stage.

"In this country, a lot of us say 'family first,'" Street said. "And I'm part of a big family tradition of Democrats."

Declaring, "no man is an island," the mayor insisted that a vote for him would also bring with it "pieces" of Governor Rendell and members of the incumbent's "political family."

In the last days of a tough and tumble campaign, Street spoke little of his Republican opponent and appealed to party allegiance and history. In a passing reference to Katz, the mayor maintained that the Republican would be required to work for Bush's re-election and to unseat the city's Democrats.

Street touted Philadelphia's "great Democratic legacy," adding, "This is the party of Roosevelt. This is the party of Rosa Parks. This is not the party of Trent Lott. This is not the party of President Bush."

Street's finishing move was a call to action. "The people have the last say … get out there and drag them to the polls. We want to send a message that reaches all the way to Harrisburg and Washington, D.C."