Declaring that she’s the only candidate with the experience to deal with the city’s most difficult problems, former District Attorney Lynne Abraham said that she plans to enter the race for mayor of Philadelphia next year.
Elected to four consecutive terms after initially being appointed district attorney by fellow judges in the spring of 1991, the 73-year-old Abraham served in that post from May 1991 to January 2010.
She was the longest-serving district attorney in Philadelphia history.
Abraham said she wasn’t yet prepared to make a formal announcement of her candidacy, but told the Philadelphia Inquirer earlier today that she certainly wasn’t keeping it a secret either.
“Right now, I’m helping Tom Wolf become governor,” she said.
Nicknamed the “Deadliest DA” for the frequency in which her office sought the death penalty, the former prosecutor will be the third Democrat — and the second woman — to enter the fray. Terry Gillen, a former aide to Mayors Michael Nutter and Ed Rendell and the city’s first director of federal affairs, announced her candidacy on September 5th.
Ken Trujillo, a former city solicitor, formally entered what is expected to be a crowded Democratic field earlier this morning.
Along with several others, State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams and City Controller Alan Butkovitz are also reportedly weighing mayoral bids.
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