Harrisburg City Council member Patty Kim won a four-person Democratic primary for Pennsylvania state representative in the 103rd District.
Kim defeated Harrisburg School Board President Ray Christ by 45 votes, 1,591 to 1,536. Barring write-in candidates, Kim will run unopposed in November. Rep. Ron Buxton, a Democrat, is not seeking re-election.
Kim, a former television news anchor, voted last summer in favor of the state-supported Act 47 financial recovery plan that the City Council rejected three times, triggering the state to impose receivership on its capital city.
Harrisburg is saddled with $310 million of bond debt that it cannot pay, related to an incinerator-retrofit project.
Ex-council president Gloria Martin-Roberts, who also backed the Act 47 plan, also ran in Tuesday’s election, finishing last with 1,031 votes, behind school administrator Karl Singleton’s 1,341.
Martin-Roberts also launched a write-in campaign as a Republican, as did Harrisburg Authority board member William Cluck at the last minute.
Cluck was to find out Friday whether his write-in campaign succeeded. He needed 300 votes.