Pennsylvania’s biggest cities see conflicting primary election outcomes

(WHTM) — School boards, city councils, and township supervisor seats were decided in Tuesday’s primary election across the Commonwealth, but there were also interesting results in the state’s two biggest cities, and they almost sent conflicting messages.

It almost never happens, but an incumbent Pittsburgh Mayor has now been defeated twice by a Democratic challenger. This time, Mayor Ed Gainey was knocked out by Corey O’Connor in the primary.

“Bread and butter issues are important to the Democratic Party,” said Blake Lynch of One+ Strategies, a Democratic public relations firm. “Centrist Democrats do exist, especially in black and brown communities.”

“They really had, I think, what I refer to as a failure to launch,” said Christopher Nicholas of the GOP’s Eagle Consulting Group. “He just never got out of second gear, and that’s why you had widespread discontent among the Democratic Party there.”

Gainey’s win four years ago and Sara Inamorato’s as County Executive two years ago signaled a leftward lurch in Steel City politics.

“This year it screeched to a halt and the voters said, ‘No, we want competency now, not so much ideology,'” said Nicholas.

The opposite story on the opposite side of the state in Philadelphia, as proudly uber-liberal DA Larry Krasner cruised to victory for a third time. Republicans detest him, but Philadelphia voters keep electing him and his promise of reversing decades of criminal injustice.

“Making sure that the sentences actually fit the crime, I think that’s really what the people of Philadelphia were looking at,” said Lynch. “I think Larry Krasner can sit back now and say he can be DA in Philly for pretty much as long as he wants.”

While candidates pored over numbers to see if they won, democracy lost, as only about 20% of registered voters managed to vote.

“We always go from the busiest election, the presidential general election, to the next election, the off-year primary,” said Nicholas. “You just go from a million miles an hour to five miles an hour.”

“It’s civics, we’ve got to get more people involved,” added Lynch.

Residents are reminded that every vote matters, and that appears to be the case in Upper Allen Township, as the supervisor election came down to one vote.