Landslide Win for Harvey Dent
The bitter struggle in the Gotham City District Attorney race ended yesterday with a landslide win for Harvey Dent. With 97% of precincts reporting, Dent won the election with just over 70% of the vote, followed by Roger Garcetti at 16% and Dana Worthington at 14%. Exit polls showed fear of violent crime and desire for change fueled Dent's decisive victory.
"It's one of those 'only in Gotham' stories," said longtime political observer Walt DeFabrizio. "Our city has a way of finding the leaders it needs at every critical moment. And obviously, the voters felt we needed a hard-charging, unbending prosecutor like Harvey Dent."
Dent vowed to take quick action against the crime bosses and corrupt officials he claims are destroying the city. "Gotham is sick and tired of rising crime rates and endemic corruption, and I will target our city's enemies in my first day in office," Dent said.
Officials close to the Dent campaign say that the new District Attorney plans to immediately seek out and prosecute senior city officials for malfeasance. Defeated opponent Roger Garcetti is believed to have already been indicted by Dent, sources say.
From her election night party held at the Gotham Victims Advocate Foundation headquarters, Dana Worthington addressed dozens of tearful supporters.
"This experience has been quite a ride, hasn't it?" Worthington said to the small group of hardcore supporters that showed up.
"We've all been on this journey together and I wouldn't trade a moment of it. I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart. As you move on to all the great things I know you're going to do, I hope you will join me in showing Mr. Dent your support," Worthington said, adding with a smile, "God knows, he's gonna need it."
Viewed as a long shot when he entered the race, Harvey Dent's campaign began with a grassroots effort that earned him a small but passionate following that used the Internet to spread his anti-crime message.
His campaign was rocked and almost derailed by a massive anti-Dent effort launched largely by Gotham police officers taking part in a group called Concerned Citizens For a Better Gotham.
The group brutally attacked Dent in the press and on television commercials with accusations that Dent was fabricating evidence against innocent police officers in order to raise his own reputation. With many pundits calling for Dent to resign from the race, his poll numbers tanking, and his fundraising collapsing, Dent looked finished.
But fate intervened with the incident at Rossi's Deli. One of Dent's primary accusers, GPD officer Frank Notaro, took a hostage when he feared that his life was at risk from mob associates. Dent traded himself for the hostage and then convinced Notaro to turn himself in. The incident resurrected Dent's hopes and created a wave of support that continued through the campaign until the landslide victory of yesterday.
Some, however, remain skeptical of the incident and of the District Attorney-elect himself.
"It was all rather convenient, don't you think?" said one Garcetti advisor. "I'm not saying that it was all a set-up, but there are no accidents in politics. Now Dent will have to live up to his rhetoric, and I fear that we are all about to see how unfit he is for office."
Such words of caution were in the minority as Harvey Dent supporters savored the massive victory.
"It doesn't matter what the naysayers think," said Dent strategist Allan Cypes. "This is a landslide win not only for Harvey Dent, but for the people of Gotham City."
