Taubenberger captures Council seat, ousting O'Brien

AL TAUBENBERGER'S campaign for mayor in 2007 didn't go so well. Neither did his run for an at-large City Council seat in 2011. So this year, as a candidate again for an at-large Council seat, he quit his day job to focus on winning. It appears to have worked.

With 98 percent of the vote counted last night, Taubenberger, a Republican from the Northeast, had enough votes to claim one of two at-large Council seats city law designates for candidates from minority parties.

If absentee ballots don't change that, Taubenberger, 62, will have ousted incumbent fellow Republican Councilman Dennis O'Brien, who was seeking his second term in the city's 17-member legislative body.

The tentative numbers indicate that incumbent Republican Councilman David Oh has claimed the other at-large seat for minority party members.

"I feel very honored and humbled that the citizenry of Philadelphia has elected me," said Taubenberger, who in May resigned as director of the Greater Northeast Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce.

"I want to be a voice, not a wallflower that sits in the back. I also want to work out problems for small businesses, to work out problems of education and also to work out problems of business retention and job growth," he said. "To make Philadelphia a better place is my ultimate goal," added the lifelong Fox Chase/Burholme resident who celebrated at the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 in the Northeast.

Attempts to reach O'Brien were not successful last night.

Oh, 55, who was running for a second term, entered the race with possibly more baggage than any other candidate.

In September, the leaders of the unions that represent city police officers and firefighters accused Oh of falsely claiming on his campaign website that the unions had endorsed him for the general election.

In August, after the city's Ethics Board ruled that Oh accepted campaign contributions over the legal limit, it fined him $2,000 and ordered him to pay the city the $4,600 in excess contributions.

While campaigning in 2011, Oh apologized for embellishing his military record by claiming that he had been an officer in an Army Special Forces unit and that he was a Green Beret.

"I feel very fortunate. I appreciate very much the voters who voted for me. They had to support me through a lot of smears and slurs. That gets pretty confusing," he said. "I think their support reflects the confidence they have in me that has been built up over four years."

In a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans 7-to-1, it was expected, and it came to pass, that the five at-large Council seats open to Democrats were captured by them. (A total of 14 candidates sought seven at large seats.)

In addition to incumbent Democratic Council members Blondell Reynolds Brown and William Greenlee, also elected to at large seats were Allan Domb, a real-estate developer, Derek Green, an attorney and longtime aide to retiring Councilwoman Marian Tasco; and Helen Gym, a former teacher and public-school advocate.

Gym, 47, a first-time public-office seeker from Logan Square, was embraced by voters who saw her as a voice for education reform.

"Many of our communities have been organizing for decades around educational justice, immigrant rights, criminal-justice reform and to make this city pay attention to our public spaces and to address poverty in a meaningful way," she said last night.

"This was our win. I come out of that community struggle, and that's the vision and energy I hope to bring to City Hall."

Domb said he'll focus on reducing poverty, increasing city revenues and collecting delinquent taxes. "It's always good to win but this is just step one," he said last night. "Now the real work begins. This is just a small step in the right direction and now people are counting on me and others to do great things."

Green, 44, of Mount Airy, said he felt "very thankful" to voters and attributed his win to a hard-fought campaign that took him to every corner of the city.

"I worked really hard," Green said last night. "I'm running on adrenaline."

Green said he hoped to work with Kenney and Council members to reduce the city's poverty rate by increasing the number of small businesses and creating jobs.

As expected, all nine incumbent district council members were easily re-elected.

Eight ran unopposed, 8th District Councilwoman Cindy Bass easily beat back Free Dominion Party candidate Michael Galganski, and state Rep. Cherelle Parker won the 9th District Council seat, despite serving 72 hours in jail this spring for a 2013 DUI conviction. As part of her sentence handed down in April, Parker's driver's license was suspended for 12 months, according to online court records.

Her name recognition and endorsement from retiring seat-holder Tasco likely lifted her above Republican Kevin Strickland and Independent candidate Bobbie T. Curry.

In addition to Bass, the incumbent district Council members who were re-elected are: 1st District Councilman Mark Squilla; 2nd, Kenyatta Johnson; 3rd, Jannie Blackwell; 4th, Curtis Jones Jr.; 5th, Council President Darrell Clarke; 6th, Bobby Henon; 7th, Maria Quinones-Sanchez; and 10th, Brian O'Neill.

On Twitter: @MensahDean