Montgomery County Judicial Races: The Results

The results are in for the race for seats on the Court of Common Pleas in Montgomery County. The turnout was close to what county officials predicted. Six Republicans were elected, while one Democrat ended the long standing domination by Republicans on the bench. Five women were also elected to the bench which previously had only one woman occupying any of the 19 seats. It's also important to note that each candidate received votes within 1% of each other.

The Elected:
(D)Lois Murphy





(R)Patricia E. Coonahan




(R)Carolyn Tornetta Carluccio



(R)Kelly Wall



(R)Garret D. Page



(R)Gary S. Silow



(R)Wendy Demchick-Alloy




To see the preview for the race, click here.

Butkovitz Cruises to Victory In City Controller Race

Alan Butkovitz, a Democrat, defeated independent candidate Al Schmidt, by a ratio of more than 2-1. He won 72 percent of the vote.

That is less than the 7-1 ratio of Democrats to Republicans in Philadelphia, but consistent with Democratic-Republican contests in recent years.

"It's an affirmation of the work we've been doing for the past four years, and an affirmation of the work of the professionals in the Controller's Office," said Butkovitz, 57, who first won in 2005 after 15 years in the state House.

Butkovitz campaigned on his willingness to go beyond his office's traditional auditing function. He said the office helped transform government with exposés on poor emergency response, crumbling city facilities, and a hidden school district deficit.

He promised more of the same for the next four years, with a focus on delivery of services, collection of money owed to the city, and making Philadelphia more attractive for growth.

Schmidt, aggressively attacked Butkovitz over the last few months. He described Butkovitz, who is a ward leader, as a pillar of the city's political class who was not willing - or able - to reform it. He also chastised Butkovitz for failing to audit departments on a yearly basis, as required by the city's Home Rule Charter.

"We definitely knew what we were up against," Schmidt said of his first run for city office. "I'm very proud of the campaign we ran. I'm certainly proud that we helped Philadelphia, even if only a little bit."

Seth Williams beats out Michael Untermeyer by a Landslide

After 18 years, Philadelphia has a new district attorney. Democratic candidate Seth Williams defeated Republican candidate Michael Untermeyer handily and recieved 75 percent of the vote on Tuesday. Williams is taking the place of former D.A. Lynne Abraham and in the process he became the first ever African American D.A. to the city of Philadelphia. The vote was predictable from the beginning, where Williams was highly favored. He ended up recieving a 3-1 vote count over Untermeyer. Williams hopes to enforce higher gun control in the city, while trying to also revitalize communities throughout the city.

Jeff McMenamin and Andrew Wagner
Campaign Preview

Heckler takes Bucks DA race

Republican David Heckler defeated Democrat Chris Asplen to become the next Bucks County District Attorney. Heckler won with 57.6% of the vote. Republicans came out on top in a vast majority of the Bucks County races.

Republican Chris Christie was elected as the new governor of New Jersey on Tuesday, beating out Democratic incumbent Jon Corzine. Christie’s win has come as a bit of an electoral blow for President Barack Obama, as he campaigned for Corzine. Christie managed to get 50 percent of the votes even though the State of New Jersey is heavily Democratic.

Samantha Bucher and Matt Price

Results: Philadelphia City Controller

With nearly 95% of the precincts reporting, it looks like incumbent Alan Butkovitz is walking away a clear winner in this year's City Controller race. He is keeping his seat with 72% of the vote, while Al Schmidt only managed to sway 28% of the voters. WHYY reporter Elizabeth Fiedler caught up with a humbled Butkovitz at his victory party last evening where he had this to say:

The reason I ran for Controller is that I thought it was a key office in terms of identifying the things that make the city work for the people or not. What happens in a financial crisis is that everybody sees that and the question of money becomes very important when the city doesn't have any money or when people don't have any money. It also gives you the opportunity to push for reform and change during periods of crisis.

Thanks for watching. For our video of the candidates on election day click HERE.

Josh Middleton, Stephanie Wharton & Trenae McDuffie

2009 New Jersey's Governor Race

Lede:After months of campaigning the New Jersey gubernatorial candidates will finally have their fate decided by the voters...Samantha Bucher reports....
http://www.youtube.com/user/sambucher325#p/a/u/0/Rpyyc4JBoOA