So-called "off-year elections" rarely capture the imagination of the voting public.

The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have helped push the races for district attorney and city controller completely out of the public's mind.

"We're still having an election on November sixth," District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham told members of the Greater Northeast Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce on Friday.

Abraham, a former city judge who has been the city's top prosecutor since 1991, beat back a strong challenge from former City Commissioner Alexander Talmadge in the Democratic primary. She is facing three candidates in the general election.

Abraham and Republican Joseph N. Bongiovanni spoke to the local business group during a continental breakfast at Parkview Hospital. Green Party nominee Richard Ash and independent Leon Aristotle Williams were not invited.

The incumbent didn't make the traditional campaign speech. Instead, she focused on a variety of programs in her office.

The Senior Lawyers Program encourages retired attorneys to volunteer their services and experience. These elder statesmen are particularly helpful to elderly victims of crimes, accompanying them to court and being available to talk about the court process at any time.

The Public Nuisance Task Force, among other things, works to seize, seal and tear down nuisance properties.

Abraham wants her office to play a role in the education of school children. There's a unit dedicated to truancy intervention, and assistant district attorneys are encouraged to mentor students.

Abraham pointed to an eye-popping statistic to underscore the importance of improving the climate in city schools.

"There are twenty-thousand kids absent every day without a valid excuse," she said of the School District of Philadelphia.

In a rare mention of the election, Abraham urged citizens to learn more about the records of city judges before casting a "yes" or "no" vote on their retention.

Bongiovanni, an attorney in private practice, spoke about reforms he'd bring to the job.

One of his ideas is to open offices across the city where residents could file private criminal complaints. The offices would be open in the evening. At present, citizens must go downtown during business hours to file complaints.

Bongiovanni also outlined his differences with Abraham. He acknowledged that she has a reputation as a "tough" prosecutor.

"I would rather be recognized as a 'fair' prosecutor," he said.

Bongiovanni criticized Abraham for declining to prosecute the Democratic Party operatives accused of bribery in the election for leader in the Kensington-based 7th Ward. Pennsylvania attorney general Mike Fisher is prosecuting that case.

The defendants include state Rep. Angel Cruz -- winner of the ward election -- and Carlos Matos, an aide to state Sen. Tina Tartaglione (D-2nd dist.).

The attorney general, a Republican, is also prosecuting Democratic ward leaders who have been charged with failure to file campaign-expense reports.

On capital punishment, always a central theme in a race for district attorney, Bongiovanni and Abraham have a widely different view.

"Lynne has an unholy zeal to seek the death penalty," Bongiovanni said.

The challenger complains that death penalty prosecutions are too costly. In addition, Bongiovanni said those sentenced to death live for years after trial because of the appeals process.

The only ones to die in a reasonable period of time, he said, are inmates who give up their appeals.

Also, in Bongiovanni's view, the death penalty polarizes Philadelphia along racial lines, since black defendants are sentenced to death at a higher rate than whites.

The Republican said he would seek the death penalty in certain cases.

He cites statistics that show that it costs an average of $500,000 to incarcerate a person for the rest of his or her life.

Bongiovanni said that it costs the state, on average, $1.5 million to pursue the death penalty at trial and throughout the appeals process.

"That's not an intelligent expenditure of money," he said.

Among those in attendance were Republican City Committee boss Mike Meehan and Joseph Gembala, the GOP candidate for city controller.

Gembala and City Controller Jonathan Saidel, a Democrat, will appear in front of the local chamber of commerce on Friday, Oct. 26, at Friends Hospital.