Lehigh County voters on Tuesday chose Democrat Thomas Muller to serve a four-year term as county executive.

Muller, who for the past seven years has served as county director of administration, garnered 52 percent of the total 45,214 votes cast beating Lehigh County Commissioner Scott Ott, a fiscal conservative, by an unofficial 23,369-21,845 votes.

During the campaign, Muller stressed balancing the quality of life in the county with maintaining essential county services.

"I believe government exists to serve its residents and I believe it's important to spend our taxpayers' money wisely, Muller stated at the time. "I don't believe we should simply gut government and slash spending just because some politician or team of politicians made an uninformed but convincing campaign promise.

During his campaign, Ott emphasized lower taxes, less spending and free market competition of the county's purchasing decisions.

He emailed comment on the election to The Press Wednesday.

"Our principles that government should live within our means, focus on essentials, measure results, and continually improve efficiency those ideas were not on the ballot. I was," Ott emailed. "Commissioner candidates who embrace those principles won last night. I did not.

"Given my personal values, perhaps I cannot run the kind campaign it takes to counter what was thrown at me.

"I can live with that possibility, because I must be able to look my children in the eye and say, "Your Dad did the right thing."

I trust the voters, and I trust the marketplace of our electoral system to at least in the long run make the right decisions.

I wish Tom Muller a fruitful tenure as county executive, and will work to find common ground with him and my fellow commissioners as we strive to serve the people of Lehigh County.

"I pray only that those who gave so much for so long to advance this reform movement will after a few moments of justifiable grieving pull your boots back on, get back on the horse, and continued to ride toward that horizon that you can see in your mind's eye.

"Your vision for our future is not the province of a single candidate, but a commitment to time-tested principles that will outlast us all."