Politics

This screenshot from the Post-Gazette today shows quite the contrast in approaches between two of our elected officials.  I’ll let the headlines speak for themselves.
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The Joe Hoeffel campaign announced today that they are joining Onorato and Williams on TV. Here’s the ad: It has taken a while for this race to really start getting wide attention.  With plenty of undecided voters still out there, the compressed timeline may serve to level the playing field.  If the other candidates are able...
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If you missed yesterday’s news in the governor’s race, you missed some really bizarre behavior from the Onorato campaign. Just before the close of business on the final day that petitions could be challenged, the Onorato campaign filed objections trying to block Joe Hoeffel from being on the ballot. The Hoeffel campaign fired back in a statement...
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The Allegheny County Democratic Committee is raising the fee for candidates for State Legislature to file for the ACDC endorsement (PG article). Apparently, the fees were too low, allowing for widespread competition (i.e. democracy). Perhaps this is a delayed reaction to the Clean Sweep movement of 2006 or perhaps its just good, old-fashioned old...
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Governor Ed Rendell has set a Special Election for the May 18th Primary Election Day to fill the unexpired term of the late Democratic Congressman John Murtha of Johnstown…Republicans and Democratic Party officials each will nominate a candidate for the May ballot to fill out the term…in addition to the election for the rest of Murtha’s term,...
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Thirty-seven years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that women have a constitutional right to privacy that includes a legal right to terminate a pregnancy for any reason during her first trimester and in order to protect her health after that.  With a U.S. Supreme Court today where George W. Bush filled the seats of Sandra...
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There’s a lot of campaigning ahead of us, but in the early stages of the race for the the Democratic nomination for governor, it would seem that at least two of the campaigns are acknowledging that winning progressives is the key to winning the race. Following Luke Ravenstahl’s infamous New Year’s Eve veto of the prevailing...
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From Chris Potter: You’ve probably heard of the “Anybody But Luke” crowd, right? Well, I can tell you where everybody who is anybody will be on the night of Dec. 3. They’ll be hanging out with city councilor Bill Peduto. Here’s the details on that party, from billpeduto.com: Here is how you can show your support for Bill...
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Over at Slag Heap, Chris Potter wrote a piece about Tonya Payne’s quixotic write-in campaign and the resulting challenge to her status as chair of the City Democratic Committee.  (Readers may recall that voters in city council district 6 chose to replace her with P2PAC-endorsed candidate Daniel Lavelle.) In the Spring, Tonya Payne (illegally) used...
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Trash Talk One complaint that we hear from time to time is that poor neighborhoods often get the leftover trashcans from other neighborhoods.  One example taken earlier in the year (Kevin Acklin used this particular example in the second mayoral debate, back in October): a trashcan behind the Homewood-Brushton YMCA labeled “Bloomfield”. Here’s a photo taken...
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I had a request to produce a map that’s similar to the last post, but to look at how Ravenstahl’s vote % changed from the primary election to the general election. This first map (a reproduction from the last post) shows how Ravenstahl performed in this election versus how he performed in the 2007 general...
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There’s been a little back and forth over whether the mayoral results show that Ravenstahl has weakened.  The argument that Luke 55% showing was something to be embarrassed by was made in the MSM by Jon Delano and Rich Lord.  Ravenstahl supporters point to Luke winning every city ward, as evidence of broad-based support. Potter says that it...
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Matt H has been called quite a few names from many around the burghosphere (including by me!)  Mostly, they centered around his role as the lone apologist for the mayor on the interwebs.  That’s why his endorsement slate is probably going to catch quite a few people by surprise: Mayor, City of Pittsburgh: Kevin Acklin There are going...
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With three days to go, these are the reports that we have been hearing from the mayoral campaigns: Dok Harris: Robocall from Franco Rally in Homewood Trick-or-treating in Squirrel Hill Kevin Acklin: Live calls from candidate and volunteers Carrick Halloween parade Canvassers seen in neighborhoods throughout the city Luke Ravenstahl: Weekend off? What campaign activity are you seeing this weekend?
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I just saw a tweet from Kevin Acklin that I found so hard to believe that I immediately went to the Post-Gazette to verify.  It’s not about corruption in the mayor’s office.*
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