by KYW's David Madden
In the 1st District state senate race in Pennsylvania, center city attorney Larry Farnese came out on top in a three-way race that included well financed and well connected union leader John Dougherty.
Farnese beat Philadelphia union leader John Dougherty and community activist Anne Dicker on Tuesday in a bitter fight for the Pennsylvania state senate seat being given up by embattled incumbent Vincent Fumo.
It took the center city wards to report before Farnese went into the lead in the vote count. But he didn’t wait for his opponents to concede before thanking supporters along Passyunk Avenue:
"This city took five steps forward tonight. We made another statement that Harrisburg will be reformed. This city will be reformed."
You could say the deal had been sealed minutes earlier, when incumbent senator Fumo (far right in photo) emerged beside Farnese and promised to bring him to the state capitol in a couple weeks to show him the ropes.
And Fumo couldn’t help but smile when asked about beating his longtime foe, proclaiming for all to hear, ”The Doc is dead.”
Fumo took himself out of the running earlier this year, saying he would not run for re-election because of a federal indictment against him (see related story).
KYW's Paul Kurtz reports from Dougherty headquarters that John Dougherty was disappointed with the results of Tuesday's election but said he has no regrets about the campaign:
"There's been some disingenuous misrepresentations of the labor movement, of us. Of myself. We ran a campaign from Point Breeze to Port Richmond, from Fishtown to Packer Park, and all we did was attack the issues. We didn't attack any other people."
Dougherty congratulated winner Larry Farnese but said he wasn't quite ready to call and concede, due to the closeness of the race:
"I'd have to wait and see. I don't even know."
And Dougherty used a baseball analogy to indicate his own future plans:
"We rounded third base and we slipped, OK? We were almost there, OK? But this is only the first game of a double header (cheers)."
Anne Dicker, whose main platform was her vehement opposition to the waterfront casino projects, ran a distant third, never fully developing a strong base of support.
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