O'Neill retains Northeast Philly Council seat

He'd had a helluva run, but this was probably the end of the line.

That's what some political observers had been saying about City Councilman Brian O'Neill, who was supposed to be headed for a neck-and-neck Election Day battle with Bill Rubin for Northeast Philly's 10th Councilmanic District.

So much for that.

O'Neill, Council's Republican minority leader, captured 59 percent of the vote Tuesday as he won his ninth term in office.

He jumped out to an early lead over Rubin, a former city pension board vice chairman, and never looked back.

"I'm absolutely ecstatic," O'Neill, 61, said Tuesday night. "I kept hearing all morning that this race was going to be too close to call. To get almost 60 percent feels wonderful. It makes me appreciate the voters even more."

O'Neill said Rubin's campaign was "heavily funded" and attacked him frequently, something he surprisingly rarely faced in a district where Republicans make up just 33 percent of the registered voters.

"That had me worried," he added.

O'Neill said earlier Tuesday that the expected light voter turnout would favor his chances.

Rubin struck a positive note. "We ran a great campaign," he said. "He [O'Neill] worked more in the last nine months than he has in quite a while. Maybe the people in his district will be better served."

The race between O'Neill and Rubin, a former supervisor of elections in the City Commissioners Office, had been contentious.

They traded barbs at a debate last month, and attacked each other over the much-loathed Deferred Retirement Option Plan in TV ads.

Rubin, 44, claimed O'Neill planned to enroll in DROP and collect an enormous settlement, a claim O'Neill repeatedly denied.

O'Neill, meanwhile, chastised Rubin for working for outgoing City Commissioner - and DROP poster child - Marge Tartaglione.

Rubin was supported by the city's white and blue collar unions, and by Local 98, the electricians' union.

In the weeks leading up to the election, O'Neill said he believed that his record spoke for itself after 32 years in office, that people in the Northeast trusted him to take care of them.

Turned out he was right.