Rendell Claims Landslide Victory Dismal Turnout Failed To Help Rocks

Democrat Edward G. Rendell was reelected mayor yesterday with one of the largest victory margins and smallest voter turnouts in Philadelphia history.

Rendell, who brought the city back from the brink of bankruptcy and came to be known as "America's Mayor," was piling up a ratio of more than 3-to-1 over his Republican challenger, former State Sen. Joe Rocks.

Rendell's rain-soaked victory came on a day when fewer than two in five of the city's registered voters bothered to vote. An elections expert said it was the lowest turnout in a general election since at least the turn of the century.

To cheers from his supporters, a beaming Rendell said last night that his opponents "never had a chance."

Trailing far behind were Lance Haver, the Consumer Party candidate, and Deborah Liatos, who represented the Socialist Workers Party.

Rendell will return to office for a second four-year term with a City Council changed a bit from the team that he credited with helping him turn around the city's fortunes and image during the last four years.

Thirteen incumbents of the 17-member Council were reelected to four-year terms. Three new faces belong to Democrats: Donna Reed Miller, a Germantown community activist who won the seat in the Eighth Councilmanic District; Rick Mariano, a labor union official, who won in the Seventh District; and Frank DiCicco, who won easily in the First District.

Incumbent Councilman W. Thacher Longstreth, a Republican pillar for decades, won reelection with a burst of last-minute TV advertising.

Less fortunate was the other longstanding GOP incumbent, Joan Specter.

Frank Rizzo Jr., son of the late Philadelphia mayor, narrowly defeated Specter yesterday, returning the Rizzo name to the political landscape as a Republican at-large Council member.

Rendell joined his supporters in the ballroom at the Warwick Hotel in Center City about 11:20 p.m., his wife, Midge, and son, Jesse, joining him on a stage also packed with local elected officials and campaign supporters.

"Joe Rocks is to be commended for the effort he put forth," Rendell said. And he spoke fondly of Haver.

"Lance Haver came up with a lot of ideas and some of them were good - not all of them," Rendell said. The mayor said he would sit down with Haver and talk about implementing some of Haver's initiatives.

Yet despite their good ideas and effort, Rendell said of his challengers: ''I had sympathy for Joe and Lance because they never had a chance." Still, he said, "it was a super, super campiagn."