Progress Pittsburgh

Friends of P2PAC,
Both of the P2PAC endorsed candidates for City Council edged out their opponents in a pair of tightly-contested races.  Natalia Rudiak, District 4, and Daniel Lavelle, District 6, will be on the ballot in November after victory in yesterday’s Democratic primary.  Congratulations, Natalia and Daniel!

Please join us for a celebration on Thursday, June 4, from 5:30 to 7:30 at the New Amsterdam Pub (Butler Street in Lawrenceville) with our candidates.

If you ever wondered about your power as a contributor, we hope that our success in this campaign demonstrates that together we can influence the outcomes of elections!  Have you given to the challenge?  If you want to see more victories for progressive candidates who support social and economic justice, donate to the campaign challenge today! We are well on our way to reaching our goal of raising another $2009 by the end of May.  Your contribution can help get us there.  

Click here to visit The Point $2009 in 2009 Challenge

We would also like to congratulate P2PAC endorsed candidates Hugh McGough for Court of Common Pleas and Susan Banahasky for District Magistrate in the 6th and 9th Wards for running strong campaigns.  Both Susan and Hugh are leaders who we believe in and, although they did not win their races on Tuesday, we know that they will continue to be an asset to our City for years to come..

With your help, we will continue to identify and support socially progressive candidates to move our city and county forward.  Please, join us at our event on June 4th and celebrate our victory!  And join us in our commitment to progress in Pittsburgh!

Click here to visit The Point $2009 in 2009 Challenge

Cheers, P2PAC Board

Here are some blog posts, article and links that you may have missed.

• Teenage Wasteland – Early Returns – post-gazette.com – Last night he was still in a fighting mood. Despite crushing Dowd, he didn't even mention the councilman in his acceptance speech and told people later he wanted an apology from Dowd for some of his campaign statements.

  Harris and Burgess were the only council members at the beer hall last night that I saw. It's going to be interesting to see how many friends he has hanging around eight months from now.

• Tonya Payne Lost!!! – Discussion on the PA firearms board about Tonya Payne loosing her council seat.
• http://www.newshoggers.com/blog/2009/05/a-weakening-dem-machine-in-pittsburgh-.html – Yes it did; however it brought about no coattails within the city. The mayor supported candidates in two contested City Council district primaries where the primary winner is the 99.7% chance winner of the general election. Both candidates lost. Natalia Rudiak won in a minor upset as two opposing machines (the Warner and the O'Connor/Ravenstahl) groups beat each other senseless in District 4. Dan Lavelle won in District 6, knocking off mayoral ally and incumbent councilor Tonya Payne.

  Right now, it is safe to project that there will be a majority of Pittsburgh City Councilors for the 2010 term who were not endorsed by the Allegheny County Democratic Party and ran at least partially as the anti-machine candidate. These councilors (Rudiak, Lavelle, Dowd, Kraus and Peduto) have some serious coordination and cooperation problems they need to resolve amongst themselves, but that is the…

• Council upsets will pose challenge for mayor – Mr. Ravenstahl's campaign spent $661,995 through May 4, and even if it spent nothing more, that would be $25 per vote he got. Mr. Dowd said he spent $100,000 by Tuesday, or $8 per vote.
  Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09141/971742-53.stm#ixzz0G9Dd0yJ4&B
• Mayor Ravenstahl to face less-friendly Pittsburgh City Council – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review – Ravenstahl backed Councilwoman Tonya Payne of Uptown and Anthony Coghill of Beechview, who lost in two of three hotly contested races Tuesday. Both lost to candidates supported by Councilman Bill Peduto and Council President Doug Shields — political foes of the mayor.
• Au Revoir – Keystone Politics – Another political blog shutting down
• Don Walko Commercial – Don Walko commercial.

Better late than never, on the eve of the primary I just wanted to call everyone’s attention to BikePGH’s Bike the Vote questionnaire 

BikePgh asked each of the Mayoral candidates to discuss the status quo with respect to making Pittsburgh as bike friendly as possible, and asked them as well to what each of them would seek to do as Mayor to further cycling as a viable mode of transportation citywide.  The resultant questionnaire, which each candidate completed at some length, informs not only the cycling issues at hand, but also the candidates’ respective visions for Pittsburgh generally.  An excellent and illuminating read. 

And while you’re at it, why don’t you donate while you’re over there.  If I’m not mistaken, thanks to a generous benefactor, donations this summer will be matched one to one.  You’ll get to feel twice as good about supporting one of the most effective advocacy organizations in the city.

desperation

1. The act of despairing or becoming desperate; a giving up of hope.
2. A state of despair, or utter hopeless; abandonment of hope; extreme recklessness; reckless fury.

“Reckless fury” is the only way that to describe the campaign of Tony Ceoffe in the increasingly heated race against p2pac endorsed candidate Susan Banahasky in the past week or so.

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Leave your predictions in the comment thread for the mayor’s race, Pittsburgh council races, or any of your favorites.  Winner gets bragging rights.  Trash talking is only allowed if you make a prediction yourself.

Have fun…

Dowd Statement on this Morning’s Water Main Break in Northside.

May 14, 2009 – PITTSBURGH -     In response to this morning’s water main break on Chateau Street and the similar incident earlier this week on Liberty Avenue, PWSA Board Member and Mayoral Candidate Patrick Dowd issued the following statement:

    ”This morning’s water main break and sewer collapse on Chateau Street

    present another example of the havoc wreaked by the Mayor’s poor

    judgment.  Just last week, the PWSA board voted to shift $46 million

    away from critical maintenance projects protecting our water system

    and to what end?  Covering potential losses on a risky bond deal this

    Mayor championed – the same kind of bond deal that bankrupted Jefferson

    County, Alabama.

    ”Conveniently, and after repeated calls to more thoroughly review this

    deal,  this bond issue will finally be the topic of an Executive Board meeting

    the week immediately following the election.  Unfortunately for

    Pittsburghers, the Mayor is playing games with our infrastructure, and

    the citizens never win.   Who is he kidding by forcing us to wait until after the

    election to figure out how much this deal is going to cost the taxpayers?

“We can’t afford another four more years of Mayor Ravenstahl’s reckless quick fixes.  

We need responsible decision-making about basic public services.  This is not a good way to 

run our city. This is a good way to run our city into the ground.”

###

Here are some blog posts, article and links that you may have missed.

• Theresa Smith Literature – PGH Comet takes a look at some of the lit from Councilwoman Theresa Smith that is being distributed in district 2. Smith is handing out a page that looks like a PG endorsement. The PG has endorsed Georgia Blotzer in the special and in the primary election.
• BarSmart Pittsburgh Forums – Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, Proving Murtha Right! – Interesting discussion about Pittsburgh Mayor's Race on BarSmart – includes some photo shopped photos. Also comments about Mark DeSantis and Kevin Acklin.
• Payne leads city Dems – Early Returns – post-gazette.com – City Councilwoman Tonya Payne was appointed last night to fill the vacant seat of chair for the City of Pittsburgh Democratic Committee. She was the only candidate who submitted a letter of intent for the position.

  Former City Chair Barbara Ernsberger resigned from the position to run for Judicial office.

• Wonkette : A Children’s Treasury of Wingnut Responses To Arlen Specter Becoming Gay – some commentary on Specter's change of party

There is a near showdown happening in Braddock around the mayor’s race.  The current Mayor John Fetterman is facing a challenge from a candidate who is supported by some of the Braddock council members.

Here is the Post-Gazette article on the race: Braddock Mayor Has His Critics

Here is a letter to the editor froma  Forest Hill’s resident in support of John Fetterman: 

Your Monday piece about Braddock Mayor John Fetterman was timely considering the upcoming primary (“Braddock Mayor Has His Critics,” May 4). As a council member of a neighboring municipality I would like to report on some changes I have noticed in Braddock since Mayor Fetterman’s arrival.

Obvious aesthetic changes include: basketball courts, murals, re-paved roads, trees, an urban garden, UPMC additions, new housing and several revitalized buildings on historic Library Street. Practical additions have included a stronger youth program, a jobs center, a vegetable-based fuel business, a district art show, a farmer’s market, creative artists space and the return of the annual street fair.

While it is true that many people have worked to keep Braddock viable since the loss of the steel industry and no one disputes that, Mayor Fetterman’s unique character and dedication have created a buzz that has generated grants for the town, politicians’ attention and movement on the much-delayed neighboring Carrie Furnace development and Rankin bridge repairs next to the popular Waterfront.

The residents of Braddock would be well-served to embrace the change that their mayor has helped them realize and work with him to continue to move their neighborhood forward.

STEVE KARAS
Forest Hills

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We are very happy to see that there has been a lot of discussion on the Progress Pittsburgh blog recently.  We have upgraded the comments feature on the blog to add threaded comments – so now you can reply to a specific comment.  

We are working on some other improvements too.  How can we make this website more useful to you – what would you like to see more of? 

We also are working on updating the link section – what blogs should we include on our blogroll?

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Voters in parts of Shadyside (7th Ward) and Bloomfield (8th Ward) may not be able to vote, unless people sign on for open slots in the district Boards of Election. (These are the people who have you sign in and set up the machine for you to vote. They are also the ones who count the votes.)
 
For info on what these jobs entail, go to http://www.alleghenycounty.us/elect/volunteer.aspx.
 
To find out where workers are needed the worst, call Jeanne Clark at 412-736-6092 or jeannekcc@aol.com and she’ll put you in touch with the folks at the County Elections Department.

When campaigns begin to sputter and hemorage support close to Election Day, this is the time when they often begin to engage in disgusting and illegal tactics.

Exhibit A:  At least one elderly woman was reportedly harassed at her door for telling a Coghill-canvasser that she was suppoorting Natalia Rudiak in the District 4 City Council race.  After telling the canvasser repeatedly that she would be supporting Natalia, the woman had to then ask the canvasser multiple times to leave her alone.  No–she wouldn’t take her sign down, no–there was nothing that the person could do to make her vote for Coghill, no–she didn’t care who else was supporting Anthony and “needed” her to vote for him, and “how many times do I have to ask you to leave?”

Also–suspiciously–nearly all Rudiak for Council signs disappeared from one section of Beechview the same night that the Coghill signs appeared.

According to the Trib piece about the hundreds of signs in Coghill’s own yard, he is in violation of city zoning laws.

It’s unclear exactly how much support a campaign should expect to be able to pick up in a district through intimidation and theft, but you may remember that we have a history of seeing desperate, illegal campaign tactics punished at the polls on Election Day.

Just an FYI that we have updated The Big Endorsement Chart with the endorsements from the Sierra Club and the 14th Ward Independent Democratic Club.  We will also be adding interviews with the candidates to the Interviews column.  If you are a local blogger who has interviewed a candidate please leave a comment here with a link to the interview.  Click here to see the entire table of endorsements.