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

Philadelphia City Controller Race

On Tuesday, November 3rd my group and I are going to follow the two candidates in the City Controller race, Al Schmidt (R) and Alan Butkovitz (L). In a nutshell, the City Controller is responsible for establishing and maintaining a budget for the City of Philadelphia. He/She is also responsible for pre-auditing any claims and demands against the city prior to payment. Usually a quiet contest, this year the City Controller seat has heated up due to the recessionary problems facing Philadelphia. Here is a rundown of each candidate:

Al Schmidt, a former Senior Analyst for the Government Accountability Office, is running on a platform to eliminate tax payout waste, combat public corruption by running annual audits on every city agency, and to protect city employee pensions. For more information on his campaign click HERE.






Alan Butkovitz is the incumbent candidate. He promises to identify cost-savings and new revenue opportunites (he boasts identifying over $400 million in his first term), he vows to to oppose the BRT plan to re-evaluate citywide full value reassessment of real estate and also protect city employee pensions. Click HERE for more information on his campaign.


Which candidate will walk away a winner? Tune in Tuesday to find out.

Josh Middleton
Stephanie Wharton &
Trenae McDuffie