1913 Pittsburgh mayoral election
November 4, 1913
 
Nominee Joseph G. Armstrong Stephen G. Porter
Popular vote 39,912 37,472
Percentage 51.6% 48.4%
Mayor before election

William A. Magee
Republican

 Elected Mayor

Joseph G. Armstrong

The 1913 Pittsburgh mayoral election was held on Tuesday, November 4, 1913, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Joseph G. Armstrong was elected mayor of Pittsburgh over Stephen G. Porter in a nonpartisan election.

Background

The election in 1913 was the first Pittsburgh mayoral contest to be conducted under a new nonpartisan ballot law that eliminated party labels from ballots and replaced the party primaries with a nonpartisan blanket primary.[1]

In the early stages of the campaign, support formed around two candidates, public works director Joseph G. Armstrong and U.S. Representative Stephen G. Porter. Incumbent mayor William A. Magee, who by law was ineligible to run for a consecutive term, gave his support to Porter, as did longtime political boss William Flinn. U.S. Senators George T. Oliver and Boies Penrose and local Republican leader Max G. Leslie backed Armstrong.[1][2]

Primary election

There were six official candidates in the primary.[1] Although the candidates were officially non-partisan, the press identified Armstrong and Porter as Republicans,[3] Frank I. Gosser as a Democrat,[4] William J. Van Essen as a Socialist,[5] and Robert S. Glass as a Prohibitionist.[5] Victor Breitenstein styled himself as "the workingmen's independent candidate" but rejected a socialist label.[6]

Porter was the top vote-getter, edging second-place Armstrong by 302 votes.[1] The rest of the candidates together captured less than 10 percent of the vote, but this was enough to keep either Porter or Armstrong from attaining a majority.[7]

Pittsburgh mayoral primary election, 1913[7]
Candidate Votes  %
Stephen G. Porter 35,206 45.6
Joseph G. Armstrong 34,904 45.2
Frank I. Gosser 5,418 7.0
William J. Van Essen 1,464 1.9
Robert S. Glass 152 0.2
Victor Breitenstein 96 0.1
M.W. Clair 1 0.0
Total votes 77,241 100.0

Runoff

As no candidate received a majority of votes in the primary, a runoff election was held between the top two finishers, Porter and Armstrong.[1] This time Armstrong came out ahead of Porter, by a margin of 2,440 votes.[8]

Pittsburgh mayoral runoff election, 1913[8]
Candidate Votes  %
Joseph G. Armstrong 39,912 51.6
Stephen G. Porter 37,472 48.4
Total votes 77,384 100.0

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Townley, John B. (June 23, 1934). "Pittsburgh Has Had Three Democratic Mayors in 50 Years". The Pittsburgh Press. p. 16.
  2. ↑ Beard, Charles Austin (January 1914). "Notes and Events". National Municipal Review. 3 (1): 151.
  3. ↑ "Pittsburgh Result Close". The New York Times. November 5, 1913. p. 1.
  4. ↑ "Democrat Enters Race for Mayor of Pittsburgh". The Philadelphia Inquirer. August 15, 1913. p. 3.
  5. 1 2 "Definite 'No' by Gen. Logan". The Pittsburgh Post. August 26, 1913. p. 4.
  6. ↑ "Breitenstein Denies Socialist Imputation". The Pittsburgh Post. August 21, 1913. p. 4.
  7. 1 2 "Armstrong Will Not Mince Words". The Gazette Times. Pittsburgh. October 5, 1913. sec. 4, p. 6.
  8. 1 2 "Dillinger a Winner by 99 Votes". The Pittsburg Press. November 16, 1913. p. 1.
Preceded by
1909		 Pittsburgh mayoral election
1913		 Succeeded by
1917
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