Congressman Joe Sestak speaks to a North Philadelphia crowd next to NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg. (photo: Matt Petrillo)

While Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter is on vacation for another week (Come back…we misses you!), New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg stopped by Progress Plaza in North Philadelphia today to endorse Joe Sestak for Pa. Senate (remember when Obama rallied there when he campaigned for Prez last fall? Or how about when  the First Lady stopped by last February to check out the Fresh Grocer…real original place to hang in Philly, Sestak, real original).

Anyway, we’ll just get this out of the way: regarding that Islamic mosque some want to build near the World Trade Center, Bloomberg had this to say:

"Those that think we should have fewer immigrants in tough times just don’t understand. We need more immigrants.” --NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg (photo: Matt Petrillo)

“Another mosque in NYC would add to its diversity and be good for the city. But if you want the terrorists to win without firing a shot, then you take away the very freedoms that our young men and women around the world are fighting for.”

That’s a strong statement, and we totally agree.  It’s just anti-American to join state and religious issues together. But what we were surprised to hear from Bloomberg is what he had to say about undocumented immigrants.

While Mayor Nutter has recently called for Washington to create a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, Bloomberg told a crowd of no more than fifty Philadelphians today that “if you want to get more people to work, you have to have small businesses growing….those that think we should have fewer immigrants in tough times just don’t understand. We need more immigrants.”

Immigrants…as in those the criminals we blame the recession on who are stealing American jobs?! How could we need more?

Well, it’s very American to notice immigrants taking our jobs, a practice that no doubt happens. But it’s even more American to ignore the amount of jobs they create through productivity, capital formation and demand for goods and services that “could help bolster the US economy in the long term by creating a larger, younger, and healthier workforce,” according to Mother Jones.

But Bloomberg’s real reason for visiting, (other than talking about mosques) was also to show his support of Sestak, who so desperately needs it.

Sestak says party lines shouldn't matter. Riiiight. (photo: Matt Petrillo)

According to data released today by Public Policy Polling, Pat Toomey is dominating Sestak with a 9-point lead: 45% of voters in the poll side with Republican Toomey, while 36% would vote for Sestak and 20% are still undecided. Just two months ago, they were dead even at 41%.

Besides from Pa.’s struggling economy swaying voters to support Republicans, says Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling, Democrats look less inclined to vote than Republicans.

Yet, Sestak doesn’t want to be seen as typical Democrat, or even a typical politician, and is sort of copying the moves of Bloomberg– the three-term Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-independent mayor– by trying to ignore political parties altogether.

He claims he’ll run an “independent, non-partisan, practical solving-problem approach” to politics, saying that “more than anything else, everything citizen I meet most yearns for a public servant, where politics be damned.”

But Toomey campaign communications director Nachama Soloveichik was quick to issue a response, calling out Sestak’s democratic values.

“An endorsement from a New York City mayor and a Yankees fan can’t hide the fact that Joe Sestak voted with Nancy Pelosi 100 percent of the time. The only time Joe Sestak has stood up to his own party is when he thought they weren’t spending enough. In contrast, Pat Toomey stood up to Republicans and Democrats when he thought they were spending too much money.”

Sestak knows his chances of winning as an independent are as slim as the Tea Party taking control of the GOP, which is probably why he deterred from jumping on the independent-bandwagon. And his claims to be bipartisan when it comes to American values and saying he will vote for “what’s right” is seemingly political rhetoric. The whole feng shui of it sounds like voters heard it a billion times before…because we have.

But when he’s not involving himself in scandals with the Prez, he’s calling for a 15% tax break for small businesses and an end to perpetual bail outs, and is “considered one of the more moderate members of the House with a National Journal liberal rating of 77/100 in 2009,” according to TIME.

Sestak will more than likely remain a democrat on the ballots, but as Toomey takes the lead in what he hopes voters will view as a politically polarizing race, perhaps Sestak might inch towards a more independent approach to gain non-democratic voters.