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.

It was alleged but never proven in court that Mayor Murphy had a quid pro quo agreement with the powerful Firefighters union in the city, promising to exempt them from citywide budget cuts in return for "bought" votes.

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.