Bob O'Connor (born December 9, 1944) , a Democrat, is the Mayor of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was sworn in on January 3, 2006.

O'Connor's campaign for mayor in 2005 was his third attempt at the office. O'Connor was defeated in 2001 and in 1997 in the Democratic Party primary. He previously served on Pittsburgh's City Council and became City Council President. He resigned from that position to work for Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell.

In 2001, Bob O'Connor ran against incumbent Tom Murphy for the mayor's office in a five-way Democratic party primary. Both O'Connor and Murphy spent more than $1 million on their respective campaigns and in the end earned around 30,000 votes in a very close race. O'Connor lost the race by 699 votes. He conceded the race several days after the primary.

In 2005, O'Connor did not need to face Tom Murphy, who decided to not seek a fourth term as mayor. O'Connor was able to raise the most money, collect many endorsements and beat a group of challengers. Among the runners up in the May 17 Democratic primary were Bill Peduto, a member of the City Council and Michael Lamb, a County Row Office Holder. On November 8, O'Connor would go on to handily defeat Republican lawyer Joe Weinroth to win the mayoral office.

A longtime resident of the neighborhood of Squirrel Hill, O'Connor graduated from Pittsburgh's Taylor Allderdice High School, worked briefly as a steelworker, and then entered the restaurant business. He entered politics in the 1990s.

On Monday July 10, 2006, Bob O'Connor was diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma He began chemotherapy treatments the next day. The treatments were expected to last 10-12 weeks[http://postgazette.com/pg/06192/705020-100.stm.

External links

• City of Pittsburgh Official Biography
• O'Connor Elected as Mayor
• Bob O'Connor for Mayor

1944 births | Irish-American politicians | People from Pittsburgh | Living people | Roman Catholic politicians | Leaders of cities in Pennsylvania