Margaret Tartaglione

Margaret “Marge” Tartaglione (February 1, 1933 – July 9, 2019) was a Democratic politician from Philadelphia who served as city commissioner. She was elected in 1975 serving until 2011. She was the Democratic chairwoman of the 62nd Ward in Northeast Philadelphia from the 1960s until her death.

Early life Tartaglione was born Margaret M. Warnecka in Port Richmond of Polish ancestry, graduating from the Nativity Commercial School. She married Eugene Tartaglione in 1950 with whom she had five children. The family lived in Oxford Circle of Northeast Philadelphia, and in the 1960s she was recruited by the Democratic Party to serve as a committee person and was soon elected Democratic ward leader for the 62nd ward. implementing computerized voting, and instituting the policy of "sunshine meetings" in which the city commissioners are required to discuss and vote on matters in public.

In 1994, a judge ordered the removal of William G. Stinson from the Pennsylvania State Senate due to a voting scandal in the Second Senate District, where the two Democratic commissioners including Tartaglione were accused of allowing absentee ballot packages to be distributed via Stinson’s campaign instead of directly to voters, contrary to election rules, and failing to properly timestamp and verify voter signatures. His ruling sharply criticized Tartaglione, finding her complicit in enabling the fraud, accusing her of failing to prevent and potentially facilitating misconduct. She claimed the ruling unfairly disenfranchised voters and compared it to the Dred Scott decision. The Republication commissioner John F. Kane said he was unaware of any misconduct.

Family in politics Marge Tartaglione was also the matriarch of a political family, including her daughters, State Sen. Christine “Tina” Tartaglione and Renee Tartaglione Matos. Renee, who served as chief of staff in her mother’s city commissioners office, retired from her position as deputy elections commissioner after a Board of Ethics investigation determined that she ordered ballots that misled voters and collected street money for her mother and husband’s election funds. Renee was later imprisoned for federal fraud and theft convictions. When Marge found out she called the district attorney Lynne Abraham, party chairman Bob Brady, and anyone else she could think of so that early in the morning a lawyer was working on court pleadings and by noon a judge had ordered Rice, who was supported by then mayor Ed Rendell, to stop handing out the ballot. Rice called this court order an abuse of Marge Tartaglione’s power. and won the general election by a 393 vote margin, and as of 2024 still holds this office.