Despite being called everything from a virulent racist to the "queen of death" during the campaign, incumbent District Attorney Lynne Abraham and her staff are fairly confident of another win in today's election.
Abraham, a Democrat who has held her office since 1991, maintains that she treats every election as a challenge, but that her record still speaks for itself.
"She is all about doing the job of district attorney," Abraham campaign spokesman Vincent Thompson said. "She's passionate about the position that she holds, she's passionate about her convictions and she believes in doing a job to the best of her ability."
With 10 years as DA under her belt, Abraham has a long political history. "But she hasn't been out there only talking about her record," Campaign Manager Eleanor Dezzi said.
Through her staff, Abraham declined repeated requests for an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian.
Over the past few years, Abraham has been working on several projects she hopes will prove her continued commitment to the job, including a Public Nuisance Task Force designed to help close down establishments that lower the quality of life in communities and a Cyber Crime Unit.
The Cyber Crime Unit was designed to help handle the rising number of identity thefts and other crimes that run rampant on the Internet.
"She doesn't believe in a stagnant office," Thompson said.
Dezzi said that a lot of these initiatives have taken on even greater importance to Abraham in light of the Sept. 11 attacks, and she has been part of a number of anti-terrorism task forces.
"The people who are dealing with terrorism issues here are saying that they know [Abraham] has the ability to work effectively on these issues," Dezzi said.
Many critics, however, accuse Abraham of three things -- being a racist, allying with the city's police department and seeking the death penalty overzealously. The Abraham camp, however, says the competition just likes to exaggerate.
Dezzi said the district attorney does not discriminate when given a case.
"She targets victims of crime, that's who she serves," Dezzi said. "Everyone gets equal treatment because she doesn't see colors. She sees no gender, no race, she just sees victims of crime.
"We can see the support. It has been proven, and it crosses all racial and social lines."
One of Abraham's opponents, independent candidate Leon Williams, has said that the African-American and Hispanic communities in Philadelphia are unanimously opposed to Abraham, which normally would not bode well in a city that tends to vote race.
Abraham did defeat Alexander Talmadge, an African American, in May's Democratic primaries, and campaign officials said she received 25 percent of the African-American vote in that election. The campaign said those were solid numbers.
Abraham has also been endorsed by a host of high-profile African-American Philadelphians, from Mayor John Street to City Councilwomen Jannie Blackwell and Donna Reed Miller to state Sen. Shirley Kitchen.
Apparently, Abraham and her campaign workers are not phased by The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News endorsements of her Republican opponent, Joseph Bongiovanni, with officials noting that she is still supported by a majority of the city's unions, as well as the Fraternal Order of Police and the firefighters' union.
"We're proud of our endorsements, and the citizens understand Lynne's record," Dezzi said.
Abraham was a judge in Philadelphia's Court of Common Pleas for 11 years prior to taking office as district attorney. As such, and continuing through her career as district attorney, Abraham has dealt with many high-profile murder cases.
Over the summer, Ira Einhorn, the Philadelphia man now in prison for the 1979 murder of his girlfriend was extradited back to the United States after fleeing to France to escape trial.
Abraham was more than pleased to have Einhorn returned as she was the one to sign the search warrant for his apartment that turned up the mummified remains of his victim, Holly Maddux. She was also the one to try Einhorn in absentia.
According to Dezzi, though, the case's notoriety has not been used to leverage Abraham's campaign this year.
"I don't think we have to," Dezzi said. "The community has thanked her for bringing this man back to justice, and they know full well that she has been involved with this case for all 20 years."
Abraham was also involved in the controversial case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted for a 1981 shooting that resulted in the death of a Philadelphia Police officer, and sentenced to death.
Activists have rallied together to free Abu-Jamal, claiming that the only reason he was convicted in the first place is because Abraham is extremely partial to police officers in cases where they stand accused of misconduct.
The Abu-Jamal case is also an example of a case where Abraham has sought the death penalty, and her willingness to seek the punishment has brought her heavy criticism.
Abraham says that she only follows what is called for under Pennsylvania law, also noting that many of the inmates on Pennsylvania's death row were put there before she came to office.
"The district attorney's office looks at everything on a case-by-case basis," Dezzi said. "And this is also the law in Pennsylvania. If someone takes issue with [the death penalty], what they need to do is talk to the legislators."
And when Abraham will finally give up the fight each election year for the office of district attorney is anybody's guess.
"She's the Energizer Bunny DA," Dezzi said. "She just keeps running.
"She ran for judge and she was successful, she's run for district attorney and been successful, and yet she always runs with the same vim and vigor."
Dezzi and Thompson see Abraham as a woman who campaigns long after campaign season is over, pointing to the fact that Abraham has made over 1,000 public appearances since the last election in 1997.
"This is what she does 300 days a year," Thompson said.
