MARIA POUCHNIKOVA / TIMES PHOTO
The votes are in: State Rep. Brendan Boyle won the 13th Congressional District Democratic primary on Tuesday night. Boyle, of Somerton, had about 41 percent of the vote.
State Rep. Brendan Boyle on Tuesday won a surprisingly easy victory in the 13th Congressional District Democratic primary, declaring victory at about 10 p.m. at Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 headquarters in the Far Northeast.
His younger brother, Kevin, also a state representative, delivered the good news to the crowd.
“We won,” he said.
When Brendan Boyle declared his candidacy a year ago, his poll showed him behind 32 percentage points, but he was not deterred.
“We worked like hell,” he said.
In the end, he overcame frontrunner Marjorie Margolies, a former congresswoman who had support from Bill and Hillary Clinton, Ed Rendell and top officials in Montgomery County.
Boyle, of Somerton, had about 41 percent of the vote, followed by Margolies with 27 percent, state Sen. Daylin Leach with 17 percent and Val Arkoosh with 15 percent. All three conceded to Boyle before he declared victory.
Boyle took almost 70 percent of the vote in Philadelphia. Margolies, who had the support of five ward leaders, was a distant second.
“Our number in Philadelphia is overwhelming,” he said.
Boyle did better in Montgomery County than he expected. He was running last, but taking about 16 percent of the vote. Margolies led the way with 35 percent, followed by Leach (27 percent) and Arkoosh (22 percent). All three live in the county.
“Brendan ran a great campaign,” said John McNesby, president of the FOP.
Boyle will face Dee Adcock, a swimming pool company owner who gave a strong showing against Schwartz in 2010. He defeated Beverly Plosa-Bowser, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, with about 66 percent of the vote.
Here’s a rundown of the results of yesterday’s primary elections. The victorious Republicans and Democrats will face each other in the fall general election.
• Governor
Gov. Tom Corbett was unopposed on the Republican side.
York County businessman and former state Revenue secretary Tom Wolf, long the front-runner in the gubernatorial race, got his party’s nod to run against Corbett.
With more than three-quarters of the vote counted, Wolf had 58 percent, followed by U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz (18 percent), State Treasurer Rob McCord (16 percent) and former state Department of Environmental Protection Secretary and Rhawnhurst native Katie McGinty (8 percent).
• Lieutenant Governor
State Sen. Mike Stack, of Somerton, led the Democratic Party’s field, besting former U.S. Rep. Mark Critz, state Rep. Brandon Neuman, Harrisburg City Councilman Brad Koplinski and Bradford County Commissioner Mark Smith.
Stack, who dropped his bid for his party’s gubernatorial nomination to run for lieutenant governor, had a financial edge on the field, having carried over money from his Senate and governor accounts. He also was listed first on the ballot.
With more than three-quarters of the vote counted, Stack had 48 percent, followed by Critz (17 percent), Smith (13 percent), Neuman (11 percent) and Koplinski (11 percent).
• 2nd Senatorial District
Incumbent Tina Tartaglione came out on top in a three-way race yesterday, beating back challenges from Danny Savage, a ward leader from Northwood and a former city councilman, and Tomas Sanchez, husband of City Councilwoman Maria Quinones Sanchez.
The five-term incumbent reaffirmed her seat in emphatic fashion as supporters were cheering victory by about 8:45 p.m. with 75 percent of the ballots counted and Tartaglione holding about half the votes, leading each challenger by more than 20 points.
“The voters like the job I’m doing and they want to send me back for four more years,” Tartaglione said. “They want to see me raise the minimum wage and protect the lottery from the governor. There are so many things to get done, like education funding.”
The campaign saw a litany of direct mailings in which Savage accused the incumbent of skipping hundreds of legislative votes, while raising her own pay and pension benefits. Tartaglione countered that she fought to submit her Senate votes remotely while recovering from a debilitating boating accident that left her wheelchair-bound.
Savage also criticized Tartaglione’s politically connected family, including mother Marge Tartaglione, the longtime city commissioner who lost a re-election bid in 2011.
“When they bring my mother in, it’s personal,” Tartaglione said.
She credited “teamwork” for Tuesday’s victory.
“I had a great organization on the ground, a great field team. I cannot express how grateful I am to [organized] labor,” said Tartaglione, who is a dues paying member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776, led by President Wendell W. Young IV.
The Republican candidate is John Jenkins, admissions director at West Catholic High School.
• 173rd Legislative District
Democratic Rep. Mike McGeehan is not seeking another term.
The Republican candidate is Mike Tomlinson.
Mike Driscoll took 63 percent of the vote to best Dennis Kilderry (22 percent) and Paul DeFinis (16 percent) for the Democratic nomination.
“Thank you, Northeast Philly,” he told supporters at FOP Lodge 5.
Driscoll cautioned against overconfidence heading to the general election.
“We’ve got to win this in November,” he said. “Mike Tomlinson is a good candidate.”
Driscoll, a married father of five from Torresdale, had the backing of the Democratic ward leaders, former District Attorney Lynne Abraham and Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5. He is a business development administrator for the Philadelphia Federal Credit Union. He formerly served as deputy secretary of the Department of General Services in the administration of Gov. Bob Casey.
Kilderry is an elected official of Insulators Union Local 14 and longtime committeeman in the 55th Ward. He is the volunteer president of the advisory committee at Tacony’s Roosevelt Play-ground.
DeFinis is an auto body shop owner who is active with the Upper Holmesburg Civic Association. One of his top priorities is monitoring the redevelopment of the former Liddonfield Homes housing project.
• 179th Legislative District
Challenger Jason Dawkins seemed headed toward unseating first-term state Rep. James Clay for the Democratic nomination last night.
According to online voting results, voters supported the former City Council aide over the freshman legislator, 2,133 to 2,053, with more than 96 percent of the vote counted.
Dawkins, 30, had worked for City Councilwoman Maria Quinones Sanchez until he quit to run for office this year.
Dawkins called the 80-vote margin in a race that he expected to be tight “unreal close.” Still, he said he was going to claim victory.
Thom Neilson, Clay’s campaign manager, said he expected Dawkins’ lead would hold.
The district runs from lower Mayfair through Wissinoming, Frankford, Northwood and Oxford Circle to Olney and Feltonville.
• 202nd Legislative District
Longtime state Rep. Mark Cohen yesterday beat back an aggressive challenge from local civic association leader Jared Solomon to win the Democratic Party’s nomination.
With more than 98 percent of the vote counted last night, Cohen, a Castor Gardens resident who has represented the lower Northeast district for 40 years, pulled 2,214 votes to Solomon’s 2,053.
Cohen said the race was closer than he expected it to be.
During the campaign, Solomon, founder and president of the Castor Gardens-based Take Back Your Neighborhood civic group, said he wouldn’t take taxpayer-funded per-diem reimbursements for personal expenses for state business. This was a criticism of Cohen, who is usually one of the state’s top lawmakers in collecting per diems.
• City Council at-large
Democrat Ed Neilson, a state representative from the Northeast who was backed by his party and unions, beat Republican Matt Wolfe, a lawyer and ward leader from West Philadelphia, and Libertarian Nikki Allen Poe.
“I’m excited. We have another voice in Council to fight for the neighborhood,” he said upon arriving at FOP Lodge 5.
Neilson took 79 percent of the vote, followed by Wolfe with 15 percent and Poe with 5 percent.
• Ballot question
City voters rejected a proposed change that would have allowed city elected officials to remain on the job while they seek a higher office. By a count of 54 percent to 46 percent, the measure was failing. ••
Reporters William Kenny and John Loftus contributed to this report.
