Progress Pittsburgh

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, voters will be asked to select Democratic and Republican candidates for the November election to a full term for the Congressional seat…if the Party leaders are good at their jobs, they will figure out a way to pick a candidate to fill the seat ’til January – a man or woman who stands a good chance of winning the Party Primaries on the same day…this is going to be very interesting…

Mary Beth Buchanan – former U. S. Attorney for Pennsylvania’s Western District – has filed papers to run as a Republican against incumbent Democratic CongressmanJason Altmire…she has yet to make a formal announcement…three others – Bob Klein, Keith Rothfus and John Vinsick – already have announced intentions to seek the Republican nomination…

Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty holds a news conference this morning to announcehe is dropping out of the Democratic Primary for Governor and instead seek the Party nomination to succeed the retiring State Senate Floor Leader Bob Mellow…the Democratic contest for the gubernatorial nomination continues forward without formal Party endorsement…State Auditor General Jack Wagner won a majority of the endorsement votes but fell short of the required two-thirds of the votes for endorsement…more and more the race is looking like a struggle between Wagner and Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato…

Harrisburg Online is a publication of Greenlee Partners, LLC. (It tends to be conservative-leaning but provides good information.)

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 Day O’Connor and William Rehnquist with  John Roberts and Samuel Alito, the ability of Roe v. Wade to withstand being overturned has never been so much in danger.  If this decision were overturned, abortion-rights would be in the hands of each state.  Pennsylvania is a neither a state that has passed a trigger law that would outlaw abortion if Roe v. Wade were to be overturned, nor have we passed a law to ensure that women’s rights are protected.

It is with that background on Roe v. Wade’s anniversary that the Hoeffel Campaign sent out a release announcing that Kate Michelman is endorsing Joe for governor and will head his Women for Hoeffel committee.  Michelman is the former president of NARAL Pro-Choice America.

The full text of Michelman’s endorsement letter is below the fold.

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Here is an update from the Pittsburgh Film Office about the PA Film Tax Credit Program – looks like this survived the budget process.  This was included in a recent email from the Pittsburgh Women in Film and Media.

Dear Supporters of the Film Industry in SWPA:

Thank you for all of your hard work and support of the Pennsylvania Film Tax Credit program.

We are thrilled to announce that because of the great support for this valuable program, the Film Tax Credit Act of 2007 will continue! The Governor and the Pennsylvania Legislature can see the economic benefits and jobs the film production industry produces for the Commonwealth. That said, in this very difficult budget year, the cap has been set at $42 million. Next year the cap will increase to $60 million, continuing the tremendous expansion of the film industry in Pennsylvania! More »

Last week as we left Loew’s and a sneak preview of Funny People, once again we found ourselves appreciating just how awful the design of the Waterfront is.  It’s as if the bad mall martians flew in from outer space, landing on one of the most key-critical, history rich and defining sites of Pittsburgh’s past, wiping it out – and in it’s place, leaving a bubble of bland, consumerism in an enclosure with little to no accessibility to the town from which is was annexed, not to mention, with little to no economic benefit as well.

And yet, I continued to wonder, as my husband was winding his way through this design-flaw filled space, how have we managed to do it again?  The Steelers have invited the very same developers, the same poor designers, to do their “magic” on a piece of public land central to our city’s north side.  Talking bad about the Steelers is kind of like insulting your mama in this town, but let me just point out that the Steelers are a privately owned commercial enterprise.  Why would a sports team have so much power and leverage in decision-making about public land?  After all, they are not elected, are they?  And why would this publicly owned land be sold for a song to a commercial enterprise with little to no public oversight or accountability?  Especially without any clearly defined benefits to people living in the surrounding communities the development will affect.  Aha!  you say what about about the over site boards, the Planning Commission and the Sports Authority– aren’t they publicly accountable?

Well, let’s just see:  The mayor appoints individuals to the Planning Commission, the Sports Authority, the Water and Sewage board, Port Authority oversight, and the Urban Redevelopment Authority, not to mention the the Zoning Board of Adjustment, the Historic Review Commission and the Shade Tree Commission. Millions, if not Billions, of dollars are in the hands of these individuals — not to mention the long term political and economic implications of their decision making.  Their appointments are supposed to be given rigorous scrutiny by City Council, and yet in the last July 2009 go-round, the Council gave the mayor 5-4 support without any hearings or review of his appointments.

At a May 2009 Planning Commissionmeeting, 170 people showed up, in the middle of a work day, to give testimony regarding the negative impact proposed development will have to their neighborhoods in Pittsburgh’s north side.  We are talking about the afore mentioned, Steelers proposed development designed by Continental Development of Columbus Ohio, the authors of the Waterfront.  Do you think the voices of 170 people made a bit of difference to the unelected, appointed members of the Planning Commission?  And do you think they made a difference to the mayor?  (who was essentially appointed and never has had to work his way through the rigors of an election campaign cycle, that is, be responsive to voters)  In the words of John Belushi, “noooooooooooooo”

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by what we are capable of tolerating, myself included. But there is some part of me that has to beg the question to my fellow participants in democracy, “Why are we putting up with this condition as a city and as a region?” We won’t tolerate pushing aside the democratic process of public accountability in our national government.  We proved that as a nation in our last election cycle.  But somehow, when this top-down, Executive dominant way of doing things that we associate readily with Bush-Cheney is at our own back door, we easily hold our collective nose and look the other way.   Just why, oh why, are we putting up with this condition?

This important bill for equality is receiving some resistance from local residents. Please call your representative to demonstrate support for the bill:

PROPOSAL/ EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: This legislation would amend the act of O ctober 27, 1955(P.L.744, No.222), known as the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, further providing for findings and declaration of policy, for right to freedom from discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodation; define “sexual orientation” and “gender identity or expression”; and further provide for unlawful discriminatory practices, for powers and duties of commission, for education program and for construction and exclusiveness of remedy.

Requiring voters to show ID every time they vote is a barrier to voting. Contact your state representative and senator, and members of the relevant committees, and ask them to vote against such a requirement.

You can find your representatives’ contact information here.

The Senate Bill in question can be found here.

Here are some helpful talking points on the issue:

It makes sense that voters identify themselves at the polls.  In Pennsylvania, we already require first-time voters to do that.

• Voter registration is up in Pennsylvania.  We should be making it easier for people to vote, not harder.

• Photo ID laws discriminate against the elderly, disabled, poor, and minority voters, many of whom do not have the kinds of identification required by the proposed law and may not have the resources to get it. Thousands of otherwise eligible Pennsylvanians could be disenfranchised by this law.
• Pennsylvaniaalready has a commonsense voter identification law that ensures that eligible voters are who they say they are on Election Day.
• There have been no documented instances of in-person voter fraud in Pennsylvania and adopting an overly-restrictive, burdensome law here in Pennsylvania doesn’t make sense. The legislature would be dealing with a problem that doesn’t exist in Pennsylvania.
• The photo ID law amounts to a poll tax. Costs can be a significant barrier to obtaining a photo ID. Even when the ID itself is free, there are hidden costs such as transportation to various agencies and fees related to acquiring supporting documents like birth certificates.
• Elections cannot be fair if eligible voters are not allowed to vote.

There is a ballot initiative in Pennsylvania to support a bond issue for water infrastructure. You should support it and here is why.

Clean water? Vote ‘yes’
Ballot question targets funding source

Sunday, October 26, 2008
BY TANYA DIEROLF

On Nov. 4, we will be deciding more than the next president. We in Pennsylvania can also cast a vote for clean water.

A ballot question will ask Pennsylvanians to approve a $400 million bond issue to fund the Water and Sewer Systems Assistance Act. Voting “yes” will cut the pollution in our local waterways and help rescue and restore our failing and aging infrastructure.

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Today the Post-Gazette came out in support of Ayanna Lee, Democratic candidate for the 44th District of the PA House. This is a change for the PG, having supported Republican candidate Mark Mustio in the last two elections. Central to its decision, the editorial states:

Ms. Lee puts people first in her agenda. She is passionate about the need for health care and education for working people, which she attributes to the plight of her mother who died when Ms. Lee was 9 and her own experience as a mother of two struggling to better herself and her family. She also supports cutting the size of the Legislature, backs tolling 1-80 and would have voted for the smoking ban, even though she opposed the exceptions.

While Mustio has championed reform of the legislature, Lee’s forward-thinking view on a comprensive set of issues is decidedly better for the Pittsburgh region.

Image via CrunchBaseJust 1 day left to register to vote in the great state of Pennsylvania to vote for the Presidential election in November, 2008.

If you are on Facebook there is an easy easy to make sure your friends are registered to vote. The Everybody Vote Facebook application! http://apps.facebook.com/everybodyvote/

Everybody VOTE is a non-partisan voter registration and mobilization campaign created to increase voter participation in Pennsylvania and dedicated to expanding the role of the state’s 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations in voting and elections.

This application allows you to register to vote, as well as verify if you and your friends are already registered.

Help spread the word:

• Add the Everybody Vote Facebook Application
• Be a fan on the Everybody Vote Application Fan Page
• Join the Everybody Vote Group on Facebook

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http://nullspace2.blogspot.com/2008/06/parsing-primary.html

by Chris Briem

So, I suppose it’s time to parse the primary data a little bit more. The problem with looking too deeply at the results from April is that there isn’t anything to really compare the voting patterns to. The obvious comparison to the spring 2008 primary would be results from the spring 2004 primary which was the last presidential cycle. The problem of course is that in 2004, the primary had been locked up by the time the Pennsylvania primary came around. Contrast that with 2008, and no matter whether you thought the electoral results were already won by BO, the media played up the whole election as the biggest presidential primary in Pennsylvania ever Given that, any comparison of the two elections (2004 vs. 2008) is by definition an overinterpretation. Nonetheless, maybe there is something to glean from comparing the two elections. More »

Today, Governor Ed Rendell signed the recently passed smoking ban into law (link). The state-wide ban will take effect in 90 days, or on September 11, 2008. Get ready to breathe easy.

Finally, after much to do, the Pennsylvania General Assembly has passed a smoking ban. A compromise bill, devised by a Conference Committee of House and Senate Democrats and Republicans, passed the House last week and passed the Senate yesterday on its second consideration. The new bill bans smoking in public places but includes a host of exceptions. More »

A few months ago, Mr. Super reminded us that “There are no undecided superdelegates–just undeclared ones.”  In otherwords, superdelegates–like most of the rest of us–have an idea who they personally support, but want to wait for the most opportune time to declare that support (or maybe they are hoping that they won’t have to declare their support until after a nominee is determined.)

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