The Mayoral election of 2001 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was held on Tuesday, November 6, 2001. The incumbent mayor, Tom Murphy of the Democratic Party was running for a record-tying third straight term.
Tom Murphy had a very close and personal primary battle with City Council President and future mayor Bob O'Connor. Murphy won the primary by just a few hundred votes, and in later years this primary battle was the subject of a Federal District Attorney and U.S. Department of Justice probe. It was alleged but never proven in court that Mayor Murphy had a quid pro quo with the powerful Firefighters union in the city, promising to exempt them from city wide budget cuts in return for "bought" votes.
| Pittsburgh mayoral election, 2001[1] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Democratic | Tom Murphy | 32,683 | 48.3 | ||
| Democratic | Bob O'Connor | 31,984 | 47.3 | ||
| Democratic | Leroy Hodge | 1,659 | 2.5 | ||
| Democratic | Joshua Pollock | 1,094 | 1.6 | ||
| Democratic | Earl V. Jones, Sr. | 237 | 0.4 | ||
| Turnout | 67,657 | ||||
A total of 52,839 votes were cast in the heavily Democratic city. As expected, Murphy won by a huge margin over James Carmine, a philosophy professor at Carlow University.
| Pittsburgh mayoral election, 2001[1] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Democratic | Tom Murphy | 39,257 | 74.3 | ||
| Republican | James Carmine | 12,175 | 23.0 | ||
| Turnout | 52,839 | ||||
| Democratic hold | Swing | ||||
| Preceded by 1997 |
Pittsburgh mayoral election 2001 |
Succeeded by 2005 |