Yesterday's local elections overwhelmingly approved the job of the incumbent city prosecutor and possibly signaled a change in the way politicians think about ethics.
Voters elected Democratic District Attorney Lynne Abraham to her fourth term in the post.
She won 82 percent of the vote against Republican challenger Louis Schwartz.
Abraham's campaign partner, Alan Butkovitz, will assume the position of city controller for the first time.
Butkovitz is currently a state representative for District 174 in Philadelphia.
Abraham and Butkovitz celebrated their victories at the Radisson Hotel, located at 17th and Walnut streets.
Abraham said she hopes that her next term will see dramatic decreases in gun crimes.
There are "too many guns, too many hot tempers, too many people who think they can settle any score with a gun or a fist," Abraham said. "We are capable of more."
The ballot question calling for ethics reform in Philadelphia was also passed last night.
Butkovitz said that he hopes to be a vehicle for ethics change in the city.
"The voters have spoken," he said. "They want change and ethics in government, and they want it now."
Penn Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush -- who attended the celebration -- said Abraham's initiatives for the city will help to curb crime on campus.
"She talked about gun violence, she talked a little about youth violence with tempers flaring," Rush said. "These are all issues that Penn is concerned about, so I am thrilled that our wonderful district attorney will be back for four years."
The University has recently seen a crime increase that Penn Police have attributed in part to increased crime in the city.
Deputy District Attorney for the Trial Division John Delaney said he welcomes Abraham's victory for personal reasons.
"There are 300 attorneys and 250 employees that have an extreme amount of respect [for Abraham] because she does the right thing regardless of the consequences," Delaney said.
The newly passed ethics-reform measure will restrict the size of contracts that can be awarded to firms that have contributed substantial amounts to political campaigns.
The Committee of Seventy, a nonprofit political watchdog group, and many other community groups had been advocating for the passage of the measure.
A number of students were also elected to office yesterday, though returns were not immediately available.
Penn's campus is located in the 27th Ward of Philadelphia, and students ran for the judge of elections and inspector of elections positions in a number of divisions in the ward.
These four-year posts involve checking voters for identification and managing the poll stations on election day.
The positions do not carry any decision-making power and, in the past, have not always attracted much interest from students.
