(PA) Democrats elected mayors in Pittsburgh, Erie, Allentown, Scranton

Democrats elected mayors in Pittsburgh, Erie, Allentown, Scranton
11/9/2005, 3:03 a.m. ET
By JENNIFER C. YATES
The Associated Press

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Democrats won mayoral elections Tuesday in Erie, Allentown, Scranton and Pittsburgh, where a former City Council president promised to help shepherd the financially distressed city back to health.

In Erie, a city councilman was chosen to replace a first-term mayor who lost the primary after being indicted on corruption charges. In Allentown, a former economic development chief was chosen to lead the city, defeating a former mayor seeking a comeback four years after leaving office. Scranton's mayor was re-elected to a second term.

Elsewhere in the state, Philadelphia voters decided to impose the first-ever limits on campaign contributions by individuals and companies seeking no-bid contracts. In Dover, voters replaced the eight GOP incumbents with a Democratic slate that called for removing "intelligent design" from the school district's science curriculum.

The biggest city with a mayoral election was Pittsburgh, where Democrat Bob O'Connor beat Republican Joe Weinroth in a low-key election. With all precincts reporting, O'Connor had 67 percent of the vote, or 39,571 votes, while Weinroth had 27 percent, or 16,275 votes.

are the "Arkansas" sections of Pennsylvania!

Along with Dover.

Or, as Repukes like to call it, "Flyover".

I guess that the "pockets of liberals" concentrated in Pittsburgh and Philly are not as realistic as the repukes like to point out . . .

...

Its been a town full of dems forever. The republican running against him (DiBileo) has been a registered democrat until last year just to have a shot at winning.

Democratic for years.

Wonder what Santorum is thinking now?

You should update your demographics. It's more like San Juan. Allentown was also teeming with Kerry supporters last year so this doesn't surprise me.

Scranton & Allentown. "Don't you know Scranton? Have you ever even been to Scranton?" Relevant quote from the Office last night.

While Erie, Scranton and Allentown aren't hard to win with a dem party that's not sleeping at the wheel, there were lots of local wins by energized local's...

You can tell what county's are energized by looking at any "atypical" results.

Like Chris Seeley (18) winning Mayor in Linesville (he was worried, believe me - he was a newbie running against a councilperson in a republican area).

Or our county, where we unseated an incumbent Sherriff by 32 votes, and kept our Treasurer (4 Democratic Nominees Win, 100%, in a 33% Democrat County).

implying that they were Red areas. Sorry for the confusion.

IT's so weird that it takes place in Scranton. Anytime I ever was there I couldn't wait to leave.

need comments from the peanut gallery.

in my head whenever I went down that hill. 30,000 pounds of bananas!

The Lehigh Valley is generally about even dems vs. republicans. In this election, Dems won almost all the big contested races, including the top "County Executive" positions for the two counties. The Allentown Mayor's race was hotly contested. The young Dem. candidate beat a Republican who had served as mayor for 8 years. All of the City Council seats and almost all of the open County Commissioner seats in the region went to democrats.

The Lehigh Valley (including Allentown and Bethlehem) has had a huge influx of residents from New Jersey and New York City, including many Latinos and many suburbanites seeking cheaper housing.

No Republican mayor in more than 40 years.

I don't know the last time it went red for POTUS.

I will, however, give you that the county (Erie County not the City of Erie) is much more Arkansas reddish. That's primarily where the votes for Phil English come from. But the city itself is almost purely blue. It's the county that throws things off on maps.

The big win is Lehigh County Executive, which has NEVER been won by a Democrat.

thanks

:hi: