Crowded field of candidates striving to replace Abraham

    With Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham concluding her final term in office, a crowded field of candidates is vying to replace her. In advance of the May primary – candidates are challenging their opponents’ nominating petitions and financial papers.

    With Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham concluding her final term in office, a crowded field of candidates is vying to replace her. In advance of the May primary – candidates are challenging their opponents’ nominating petitions and financial papers. WHYY’s Elizabeth Fiedler reports.

    Transcript:
    There are some familiar names among the long list of district attorney candidates hoping to compete in the Democratic primary.

    West Chester University Political Science professor John Kennedy says there’s still a lot of uncertainty in the race.

    Kennedy: “Seth Williams has some experience in running for DA four years ago.  He received 46 percent of the vote so he has some name identification.  Daniel McCaffery has some name id because his brother is on the supreme court in Pennsylvania.  Dan McElhaton has served on City Council.  So you have a lot of jockeying and who’s going to emerge is very difficult to predict because essentially the winner might end up with as little as 30 percent of the vote.”

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    The Democratic field also includes former assistant district attorneys Brian Grady and Michael Turner.

    Republican Michael Untermeyer is unchallenged in the GOP primary.

    Listen:
    Click on the play button below or right click on this link and choose “Save Link As” to download. [audio: reports20090319da.mp3]

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