Newly elected Democratic City Commissioner Stephanie Singer surprised her Republican counterpart Al Schmidt at his election party.

When Stephanie Singer defeated Marge Tartaglione—who oversaw the city’s elections since 1976—she sought to reform the City Commissioner’s Office based on a new species of transparency that has yet to breathe in Philly. Transparency was also a campaign promise of Al Schmidt, who beat Joe Duda and the GOP machine in the city.

NewsWorks’ Dave Davies calls the pair a “Reform Team.”

The Daily News endorsed the new parents of Philly’s elections, touting them as equals “matched in passion and intellect to [Schmidt's] Democratic counterpart Singer, and not just because both hold Ph.D.s. Both are energetic in their enthusiasm for the changes needed in the commissioners’ office to ensure that people register to vote and that elections are fair and well-run.”

And since it was expected Singer would win, and after it was for sure that Schmidt had Commissioner Joseph Duda beat, Singer showed up to Schmidt’s election party. It was freakin’ adorable and demonstrated what could be the start to some great change in City Hall.

But hold up a second! Remember headlines after Obama won the presidency?

Media around the world praised Obama, especially after his victory speech: “[To] all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world—our stories are singular but our destiny is shared. A new dawn of American leadership is at hand.”

That universal high from when Obama had swept into office left way long ago, and Philly shouldn’t blindly embrace Schmidt or Singer based solely on ideas of “reform.” It’s a small word that can mean a lot of different things according to a lot of different people—and now they’ve got to live up to that expectation.

City-government ball-busters Committee of Seventy sent them an open letter and outlined what they want to see happen, like better customer service, an increase voter turnout, an improvement in polling place staffing (aka, even more better customer service?), and transparency.

Part of that transparency  would mean to “take the politics out of our elections,” as Singer said when she first announced her candidacy. But that hasn’t really happened yet. There’s still a little more than a month until she and Schmidt kick Tartaglione and Duda out of office, and as Seventy described, there’s some stuff they could already get started on.

What Seventy didn’t mention, however, was that both could announce who they plan on voting to lead the three-person office. It takes just two of them to elect the chair, and Anthony Clark—who has been voted to serve his second term—is sure to vote for himself. As a republican, Schmidt won’t seek the chair—or if he does, probably wouldn’t win. That leaves the race between Singer and Clark.

At any rate, January is quickly approaching. Going on record to say who they want as chair would ease their transition into City Hall. And with an office of just three people, the fact that they haven’t is disappointing to those who voted for Schmidt or Singer and want the transparency they promised.

The only thing that is certain: There’s really no such thing as taking politics out of elections.