Fowler says that political advice he offered to Smith has been incorrectly perceived as pressure or coercion, but Smith says that Fowler tried to use his influence as a two-term city council member and former mayor to convince her not to run against incumbent John Howe.

In June, Smith and Fowler sat down to talk about her candidacy. At that point, Howe had filed to run for reelection for Seat 3, and Planning Commission Chairman Christopher Moylan, Anthony Drago and Dixie Carney had filed to run for Seat 2. Tim Risch and Tony Spitaleri had also filed to run against one another for Seat 1.

At the June meeting, Smith says Fowler told her that he wanted her to run against Moylan and not against his friend Howe.

"It became clear that he wanted me to run for Seat 2 when he said that if I ran for Seat 2 against Chris Moylan, he would do anything in his power to help me win, but if I ran against John Howe, he would do anything within his power to defeat me," Smith said.

Fowler, in a telephone interview with The Sun, said that at the time, he simply felt Smith was a stronger candidate than Moylan, but an "inferior" candidate to Howe, and since he had pledged his support to Howe, he would have to work against Smith.

At that time, Smith said she had not made up her mind about what seat she would run for. Smith has repeatedly expressed her concern in speeches and campaign literature over what she views as ethical problems with the city council in the past two years, specifically the termination of many upper managers in the city, including former City Manager Robert LaSala and former City Attorney Valerie Armento.

At the time, Armento said the council did not want her to finish her contract with them, while Howe said Armento had come to the council looking to resign, and that the two parties had agreed on terms for just that. Contrary to Howe's statements, the agreement signed said the settlement between the two parties--which kept Armento on the city's payroll for another year, while relieving her of all duties--was to resolve a contractual dispute.

It was incidents such as this that Smith says motivated her to run for election, but that meant running against former Mayor Howe.

"Running against an incumbent is a scary proposition; there are built-in resistances," Smith said. "I had quite a few reservations about it, because I don't have a lot of experience with public debate."

In the end, Smith said she decided to run against Howe because she was concerned with his actions.

Her first public comment about which seat she was running for came on July 4, at the annual State of the City address, when she passed out fliers saying that she was running against Howe.

At 1:45 p.m. that afternoon, Fowler left a message on Smith's answering machine. Smith said she believes the intent of the message was to intimidate her. She recently played the message for The Sun.

In it, he referred to her earlier discussion with him in which she said she had not made up her mind which seat she would run for. Then he said he heard about her fliers saying she was going for Seat 3. What he said on the answering machine message then was: Now obviously you didn't make up that flier in one day, and I need to know what exactly, well, I need to know why you lied to me because that is unacceptable.

The message ended with Fowler asking her to call him.

Smith agreed to meet with Fowler at a coffee shop and brought along her friend Francisco Marquez, because she wanted a witness to the meeting.

Marquez said that Fowler's tone at the meeting was "distasteful and accusatory," and that Fowler had "come into the meeting with a different agenda."

Marquez added: "It was too calculated, too calm; he didn't seem disturbed. It seemed that he was out to scare Nancy. Clearly he was trying to make her see how unwise it was for her to go up against her opponent for Seat 3."

Fowler has said that he was concerned about Smith's chances for winning, but that it was motivated by a desire to see her on the council, and he felt Seat 2 was the best place for her to serve.

Smith is not the only person who was asked to run against Moylan for Seat 2. Darab Ghaffary said he too was asked to run. Ghaffary said that Ted Faravelli--who was briefly a possible Seat 2 candidate himself--suggested that Ghaffary run.

Faravelli has also been involved in helping with at least two other current council races. He stood behind Tony Spitaleri during Spitaleri's public refutation of Tim Risch's allegations, and collected signatures to get John Howe's name on the ballot without having to pay a fee. If a candidate collects 250 signatures, they do not have to pay the almost $2,300 fee.