Poor turnout expected for elections

While candidates have been campaigning hard in the weeks before city elections, few Philadelphians are following the off-year elections being held this Tuesday. Jon Rivkind, communications director for Democratic District Attorney Lynne Abraham, attributes the expected low voter turn-out to the fact that both of the top races – district attorney and city controller – feature well-liked incumbents. Abraham is challenged by Republican Charles Cunningham and Democrat City Controller Jonathan Saidel by Republican Herbert Linsenberg, a graduate of the University Law School. "[The expected voter turnout] is very low, lower than usual," Rivkind said. "You have a DA with a very strong base of support [and] a controller who has done a good job." However, Abraham has been criticized for being soft on violent crime after dismantling a special career-criminal unit which centered on repeat offenders of violent crimes. According to Tim Kelly, Cunningham's campaign manager, Abraham alienated the lawyers in her office, leading a third of them to leave the office to go into other areas of law enforcement. Andrew Henschel, the president of Pennsylvania Young Democrats, said that only 15 percent of registered voters are expected to vote, a percentage lower than most off-year elections. Henschel attributed this, in part, to the "lack of attention that major media has devoted to these races" while they were focusing instead on "everything else that's going on with foreign policy and the Phillies."