Harrisburg mayor won't get second shot

Democratic voters in financially troubled Harrisburg denied Mayor Linda Thompson a second term Tuesday, choosing bookstore owner Eric Papenfuse to try to help the financially strapped capital.

Harrisburg is the only Pennsylvania municipality under a state takeover - the result of a multimillion-dollar debt on its trash incinerator that pushed it to the edge of bankruptcy. Harrisburg officials hope to negotiate a bailout that includes the sale of the incinerator.

Papenfuse defeated Thompson in the primary, along with other challengers City Controller Dan Miller and former state employee Lewis Butts Jr.

No Republican is running this year. But Papenfuse is likely to face competition in November from Nevin Mindlin, who lost to Thompson as a Republican in 2009 and is running as an independent.

In Pittsburgh, longtime City Councilman William Peduto won the Democratic nomination for mayor, defeating former state Auditor General Jack Wagner and State Rep. Jake Wheatley.

Peduto is vying to succeed Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, a Democrat who is not seeking reelection, and the winner of the primary was all but certain to be elected in November in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans by 2-1.