Nutter Helping Spearhead Obama Trade Campaign

Photo Credit: Matt Rourke | AP

There’s long been speculation that Michael Nutter would go to work for the Obama Administration after leaving office. But it looks like the mayor might have a head start.

Politico reports Nutter is helping spearhead the Obama Administration’s campaign for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free-trade pact that opponents say would give corporations unprecedented powers and rights internationally.

Nutter is one of several big-city mayors pushing the trade agreement on behalf of the Obama Administration

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter has been one of the most involved mayors pushing for trade.

“What I do know is trade going from Philadelphia to other places in the world is going to get loaded on the ship by longshoremen at our port, or may be brought by truck by a teamster. Businesses are going to grow,” Nutter said. “I’m the mayor of Philadelphia — I don’t get to have a lot of the higher-level philosophical kinds of debates that sometimes take place in the Congress.”

So far, he, like most of the others, doesn’t have much to show for it: Rep. Brendan Boyle, the only Pennsylvania Democrat in the House who was still on the fence announced Tuesday he’s voting no, and nearby Rep. John Carney, whose home state of Delaware is largely tied to the Philadelphia economy, remains undecided despite both his home state senators and Delaware’s own Vice President Joe Biden supporting the deal.

People at the White House “always encourage us to start with your own members, your own delegation,” Nutter said. “I’ll be taking a second or third round of discussions with my own delegation to see if we can get some movement.”

Noted lefty New York Mayor Bill de Blasio is the exception to mayors campaigning for the pact, Politico reported.