Sullied Sao Paulo clamors for clean mayor

SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) -- Sao Paulo City Hall these days is a lot like the two rivers that encircle the Brazilian megalopolis: murky, fetid and stagnant.

Mayor Celso Pitta, bogged down in corruption charges for most of his four-year term, managed to dig himself out of two impeachments and two court-ordered expulsions. But he is set to go down in history as modern Sao Paulo's most unpopular mayor.

On the eve of Brazil's October 1 municipal elections, 75 percent of voters give Pitta a failing grade at the helm of the southern hemisphere's largest city with 10 million people. Not surprisingly, he is not seeking reelection.

The city's first black mayor never had much time to govern as he battled a stream of scandals and the antics of populist ex-Mayor Paulo Maluf, who had handpicked him as his successor.

Making matters worse, Pitta's estranged wife Nicea aired the mayor's dirty laundry on prime-time TV in a scene worthy of the famed Brazilian soap operas. By accusing him of receiving loans from cronies, she set the stage for an impeachment as well as an acrimonious separation in his final year in office.

Meanwhile, a nearly bankrupt City Hall could not keep pace with the needs of a huge city built by Europeans and populated by millions of new arrivals, most from Brazil's poor northeast.

While Sao Paulo continues to dazzle visitors with a dynamic economy and business sophistication, its denizens are growing weary of worsening social problems and urban decay. The city is short 400,000 homes and 300,000 places in schools and day care, leaving the youngest generation of Paulistanos at the mercy of the violent streets.

"The city has definitely been abandoned," University of Sao Paulo political scientist Gildo Marcal Brandao said. "You can see in the last years that people in Sao Paulo have been losing love for the city, not only with Pitta but also under Maluf."

But Paulistanos are now poised to get their revenge at the polls.

Opinion polls two weeks ahead of the election put Marta Suplicy of the Workers Party (PT), a 55-year-old mother of three, former TV sexologist and leftist lawmaker, well ahead in a 10-candidate field that includes the conservative Maluf.

A Datafolha poll gave her 32 percent of the vote, more than double Maluf's 14 percent. Right behind him are Luiza Erundina, a socialist woman elected mayor in 1989, and Geraldo Alckmin, vice governor of Sao Paulo state and candidate from President Fernando Henrique Cardoso's Social Democratic Party.

"For the first time, a party on the left is leading from the beginning of the campaign. The PT has never had so much support and maintained it so well," poll director Mauro Paulino said.

Suplicy probably will not achieve the 50 percent of all votes she needs for a first-round victory, but she is virtually guaranteed a spot in the runoff election on October 29.

The wife of Sen. Eduardo Suplicy, she married into one of Sao Paulo's most influential families and makes her home in the city's posh Jardins neighborhood. With a light approach to leftist politics and a clean record on corruption, she is pulling in voters from all over the political and social map in a city where half the population votes conservative.

"As a banker, you would not think I would vote for Marta, but I just might," said one young man. "The city needs a drastic change in management and new ideas."

Suplicy has taken her campaign from plywood shantytowns to gay nightclubs to Fasano, the city's most expensive restaurant where 120 businessmen paid $550 a plate to have lunch with her.

But analysts say her surprisingly strong performance in the polls is probably more about backlash than her background. "In my opinion, this is a protest against 'Malufismo,' against the administrations of Maluf and Pitta," said Paulino.

Back in 1996, Mayor Maluf chose his finance secretary to run in his place since the constitution then barred reelection. He set his powerful political machine in motion and told voters, "If Celso Pitta is not a good mayor, then never vote again for me."

Four years later, the 68-year-old Lebanese immigrant's son is back, asking for those votes with the slogan, "If I made a mess, let me clean up."

The odds are stacked against him despite a hard core of voters whose mantra is, "He steals but he gets things done," and others who like his tough, in-your-face stance on crime.

"For the first time since Maluf has been running for office, he runs the risk of not making it into the second round," said Brandao. "And if he doesn't go to the second round, the command of Sao Paulo's conservative wing will go to other people."

One contender who could bump Maluf out of the second round is Alckmin, a soft spoken former anesthesiologist hailing from the interior of Sao Paulo, where he was mayor of a small city at the age of 23. He is now 47 and has never lost any of the seven elections in which he has been a candidate.

"Little Geraldo" -- as his boss Gov. Mario Covas calls him -- has rallied in the polls with the center voter and the support of influential business barons.

Erundina, 65, also has around 10 percent but is handicapped by having to compete directly with Suplicy for the leftist vote. Pollsters say she might suffer a big defeat on election day.

Even if Sao Paulo elects the clean, effective mayor it so sorely needs, the city probably will not become a cleaner or a nicer place to live for quite some time. One reason is a corrupt City Council, where prosecutors recently found the roots of an extortion racket that has led to 49 convictions and investigations into 600 people.

Another obstacle is a desperate financial situation. Sao Paulo's annual budget of $4 billion is third largest in Brazil behind the federal government and Sao Paulo state, but a debt of $10 billion and punishing interest crush its spending power.

"The next mayor will be forced to be much tougher on corruption, close the faucet of money and put finances back on track," Brandao said.

Suplicy, ever careful not to promise too much, admits she will need around four years to do just that.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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