2001 Pittsburgh mayoral election

The mayoral election of 2001 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was held on Tuesday, November 6, 2001. The incumbent mayor, Tom Murphy of the Democratic Party was running for a record-tying third straight term.

Primary elections
Tom Murphy had a very close and personal primary battle with City Council President and future mayor Bob O'Connor. Murphy won the primary by just a few hundred votes, and in later years this primary battle was the subject of a U.S. Department of Justice probe. It was alleged but never proven in court that Mayor Murphy had a quid pro quo agreement with the powerful Firefighters union in the city, promising to exempt them from citywide budget cuts in return for "bought" votes.

General election
A total of 52,839 votes were cast in the heavily Democratic city. As expected, Murphy won by a huge margin over James Carmine, a philosophy professor at Carlow University.