Clippings from May 14th – May 21st

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.