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David Oh takes the cake in at-large Council race

There will be no repeat of the nightmare four years ago, when attorney David Oh was ahead on election night for one of two City Council at-large seats set aside for the minority political party but lost after absentee ballots were tallied.

Oh today finally bested Al Taubenberger in last week's election, after absentee, military and provisional ballots were counted.  In the final tally, Oh led by 166 votes from election day ballots and absentee ballots.  A count today of 755 provisional ballots, used on election day when there are questions about a voter's registration, did not put Taubenberger ahead.

Oh said he was not surprised by the narrow margin, though he said it was unclear what impact a barrage of negative mailings, radio ads and robo-calls in the closing week of the campaign had on his campaign.  That effort was run by a political action committee controlled by Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which supported another Republican in the race.

"I think that there were a lot of good candidates" Oh said. "It was a very vigorous campaign. And you never know how these votes turn out, so I'm thankful that I did win."

Taubenberger said it was too early to say if he would run again in four years.

"Nobody likes to lose," said Taubenberger, head of the Northeast Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, after conceding and congratulating Oh. "The results are the results. You move forward."

State Rep. Denny O'Brien took first place for the GOP seats  in last week's election.