Koch wins Council seat

After about 14 percent of District 3’s registered voters went to the polls Tuesday, Democrat… After about 14 percent of District 3’s registered voters went to the polls Tuesday, Democrat Jeffrey Koch came out with the victory.

Koch, a Department of Public Works employee and landscaping contractor, swept up 1,449 votes. His closest opponent, Independent Bruce Kraus, trailed Koch by nearly 200 votes, while the six other candidates had a combined 629 votes, according to the unofficial results from City Council.

After running on a platform of neighborhood improvement, Koch said in an interview yesterday that he’s willing to do “whatever it takes to make all these neighborhoods more attractable.”

District 3, which contains some Oakland neighborhoods, had a vacant seat because former District 3 Council member Gene Ricciardi left for a district magistrate position.

Now, Koch will fill the seat. He said he wants to work with community members to get his job done.

“[I] just gotta roll up my sleeves and work on these neighborhoods,” Koch said, noting the importance of removing litter and graffiti.

A way to do this, Koch said, involves teaming up with all members of the community. He said he wanted to “make inroads with students and faculty.”

Laura Halula, the community organizer for Oakland Planning and Development Corporation, agreed.

“He needs to make an effort to know the community members,” Halula said, emphasizing that in the past Koch has, but it’s important still to do more.

At the end of February, Halula said, Koch participated in a litter pick-up, something regularly sponsored by OPDC.

Even though the polls saw low turnout for the election, student voter turnout improved from the last City Council primary election, held in 2003.

Three students voted in the 2003 primary elections. With a tally of 93 student votes in the same voting district for the recent election, the turnout increased 3,100 percent, according to the Pittsburgh League of Young Voters.

In 2003, City Council held the elections during Pitt students’ spring break. After students and organizations voiced their concern to City Council this year, Council President Luke Ravenstahl moved the election to March 14 to accommodate students.

There was a Pitt student in this week’s election: Green Party candidate Jason Phillips.

Four voting districts – 8, 14, 15, and 17 – comprise the Fourth Ward, one of many wards within District 3, for which the special election occurred. Students primarily make up the voters registered in voting District 8, in Ward 4.

Three hundred and forty-nine new voters registered in District 8, Ward 4, after Jan. 1, and 93 registered voters recently voted in that district – a 26 percent voter turnout, and the only increase in the whole of District 3.

Jennifer England, the communications chair for the League of Young Voters, said that the league was impressed with the turnout. To England, this increase signified an increase in student voters from the primary and general City Council elections in 2003.

“Pitt students have been performing above expectations,” she said.