The Mayor

Mayor

In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

al election of 2001 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

was held on Tuesday

Election Day (United States)

Election Day in the United States is the day set by law for the general elections of public officials. It occurs on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. The earliest possible date is November 2 and the latest possible date is November 8...

, November 6, 2001. The incumbent mayor, Tom Murphy of the Democratic Party

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 was running for a record-tying third straight term.

Primary elections

Tom Murphy had a very close and personal primary battle with City Council President and future mayor Bob O'Connor. Murphy won the primary by just a few hundred votes, and in later years this primary battle was the subject of a Federal District Attorney and U.S. Department of Justice probe. It was alleged but never proven in court that Mayor Murphy had a quid pro quo

Quid pro quo

Quid pro quo most often means a more-or-less equal exchange or substitution of goods or services. English speakers often use the term to mean "a favour for a favour" and the phrases with almost identical meaning include: "give and take", "tit for tat", "this for that", and "you scratch my back,...

 with the powerful Firefighters union in the city, promising to exempt them from city wide budget cuts in return for "bought" votes.

General election

A total of 52,839 votes were cast in the heavily Democratic city. As expected, Murphy won by a huge margin over James Carmine, a philosophy professor at Carlow University

Carlow University

Carlow University is a Roman Catholic university founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, on September 24, 1929, by the Sisters of Mercy from Carlow, Ireland. Originally called Mount Mercy College, the name was changed to Carlow College in April 1969. In 2004, Carlow College achieved university...

.