Buttons for the straight Democratic Party ticket were fading from heavy use across the city during Tuesday's elections. Surprise! Surprise! We now have a Democratic district attorney and city controller and all the candidates on the Demo judicial ticket now have new jobs.

The party's only setback, statewide, was the loss of Supreme Court Justice Russell Nigro. The man in black, who was initially elected on the Democratic ticket, became the first Supreme Court Justice to ever lose a yes-or-no retention vote. Mark him up as the first victim of the backlash against politicians for the legislative pay raise.

Republican Justice Sandra Schultz Newman, also up for retention, was barely reseated with 54 percent of the vote in an initiative that usually has judges winning by a 3-to-1 margin. Fallout from the backlash?

Watch for a big grab for donated campaign funds. State legislators will be going cheap as they know they need all the help they can find to get re-elected.

District Attorney Lynne Abraham soundly thrashed her Republican opponent, Louis Schwartz, who had no money and little name recognition. He won't be able to sit for a week.

The only interesting race locally was for city controller, which pitted Democrat Alan "Butko Man" Butkovitz against Republican Hillel Levinson. Levinson's campaign showed some spark at the eleventh hour with endorsements from the Daily News and Philadelphia Magazine chairman D. Herbert Lipson, and a new media campaign by consultant Elliott Curson that hammered Butkovitz, a State House member, for accepting the pay raise that he took early.

Butkovitz's campaign sent out mass mailings over the last weekend of the campaign. They pointed out Levinson's 30-year-old indictment, stating that he was not convicted on a technicality. The text read: "Philadelphia deserves better than a city controller with a record of indictments and questionable behavior."

The city will be watching Butkovitz, the newly elected watchdog, to see if he can stand apart from the Democrats who helped get him elected, unlike outgoing controller Jonathan Saidel, who looked the other way.

Frank Palumbo won the Democratic and stripper vote for Common Pleas Court as he was unharmed by negative publicity surrounding his ownership of the building that houses titty bar Signatures.

Earlier in the day, the traditional lunch at the Famous 4th Street Deli drew a decent crowd for such a lackluster election.

Former Famous owner David Auspitz presided over the assembled pols just like the old days.

Abraham took her usual table in the main room with husband Frank Ford along with her supporters and campaign staff while State Sen. Vincent Fumo and crew sat on the porch. U.S. Rep. and Democratic City Committee Chairman Bob Brady made an appearance before heading back to his ward headquarters.

Sharif Street, who is rumored to be making plans to run for the at-large City Council seat recently vacated by the death of Councilman David Cohen, waited patiently for his father, Mayor John Street, who never came. Neither did Gov. Ed Rendell, who usually stops in for corned beef. The back table belonged to über media consultant Neil Oxman, Ballard Spahr chairman Arthur Makadon and assorted media types.

While some at the lunch were chatting about the next year's U.S. Senate race likely pitting Bob Casey Jr. against incumbent U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, the only candidate who showed up was Democrat Alan Sandals, who brought his campaign literature.

Butkovitz made the rounds but declined to discuss whether he would keep the current staff hired by Saidel.

When the polls finally closed, Abraham and Butkovitz were in suites atop the Warwick Hotel. Butkovitz's gig drew an eclectic crowd including his lawyer George Bochetto, who was there with his girlfriend Christy Adams; Michael Karp; Bob O'Donnell; Scott Sigman; Joe Vignola; and Mary Mason. Bochetto, who once represented Butkovitz's Democratic primary opponent John Braxton in a petition challenge, has now been hired by Butkovitz. Butkovitz took Levinson to court after Levinson received more than $100,000 in a single campaign contribution -- well over the limit he can receive from any individual. After a court ruling, Levinson returned the money.

Abraham's party was more subdued with her close advisors gathering to watch the returns.

By 10:30 p.m., the parties were over and Abraham and Butkovitz were declared winners.

Looking ahead to the 2007 mayoral election, Tom Knox, CEO of United Health Care, was walking down Walnut Street on his way home from an Election Night party when he stopped to declare he is undoubtedly running. Knox has retained Joe Trippi as his media consultant and the plan is to run commercials early in the year to boost his name recognition.

"I plan to give my campaign $5 million of my own money and match it with another $5 million in donations," said Knox. "I just got a call today from someone who wants to give me $50,000."