Progress Pittsburgh

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 a fake political committee, “Sensible Constituents of District 6,” to distribute some negative materials.  This Fall, she was at it again.  See below for a flyer that she passed out (again, illegally using another fake political committee — “Neighbors Against Dirty Politics”).

She also had the flyers below–which accuse City Councilmember Bill Peduto of racism–distributed in his district.

The Neighbors Against Dirty Politics also sent around the following email:

From: neighbors against dirty politics 2
Date: Sun, Nov 1, 2009 at 11:01 PM
Subject: IS TRUMP FINANCING LAVELLE?

IS TRUMP FINANCING LAVELLE?

Is Trump financing Robert Daniel Lavelle’s campaign in District 6? No, not really,  but I am confused where Lavelle received his money to add “extra” bonuses to his campaign workers.  I know if I truly believe in a candidate I do not have to be paid!  Why would he have to pay 130 workers $100.00 each?  Why would he have to pay workers breakfast, lunch, and dinner?  Who paid for his Rent A Cars? Who paid for his color brochures?  Who paid for his postage?  Who paid for his color postcards? Who paid for his t-shirts? Who paid for his parties? Why did he not put these expenses on his campaign report? Why did he drop his first name and change his campaign name now to Daniel instead of Robert.  Wasn’t his father, Robert,  fired from The Dwelling House Bank and under FBI investigation?

The Post Gazette’s article stated

the following about the bank;

“it suffered a severe blow to its stability late last year when federal auditors discovered that about $3 million had been drained out of its capital account and the bank..  Pittsburgh police and FBI agents are investigating the case.”

“Former Dwelling House president and CEO Robert M. Lavelle, who was fired in November by order of the OTS, also was fined $5,000 last week for his role in the gross negligence that ultimately brought down the bank.”

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09227/991047-28.stm

Where is this money? Robert “Daniel” now flip flops his name so people will not put two and two together. Call him Daniel now, not Robert .Does he think we are stupid?  Is this where the money comes from for his campaign?   The apple does not fall far from the tree.  I would “write in” TonyaPayne, her workers do not have to be paid to campaign for her!

She does not change her name to hide. Our group Neighbors Against Dirty Politics are starting an official “write in” campaign for Tonya Payne!  When you go to the polls just go to the “write in”section and write her name in the spot.

ON NOVEMBER 3, 2009

ELECTION DAY

“Write In”
Tonya Payne
Don’t Write Her Off!

District 6 City Councilwoman

“Let justice remain in your district!”

“Keep her REAL name in your decisions.”

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
NEIGHBORS AGAINST DIRTY POLITICS

Finally, if you still have any question about who the “Neighbors Against Dirty Politics” actually are, there’s a facebook group called “URGENT!! WRITE IN Tonya Payne for City Council District 6″.  The administrator and creator of the page?  Tonya Payne.

Of course, this election is history.  So why does it matter?  Two reasons:

1. To date, Jim Burn, chair of the Allegheny County Democratic Committee, is turning a blind eye to the City Chair staging a campaign against the duly nominated Democratic nominee for office.
2. It’s really not clear what Tonya Payne was hoping to gain from these hijinks, but she is rumored to be preparing for a run against Jake Wheatley for State Representative next year.  Even her most staunch supporters must be turned off by her embarrassing behavior.

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 today:

Problem solved?  Glad to see that the mayor is still getting it done.

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 election.  In this map, basically,

• The bluer the district, the worse Ravenstahl did against Harris & Acklin than against DeSantis
• The redder the district, the better Ravenstahl did against Harris & Acklin than against DeSantis

• The bluer the district, the worse Ravenstahl did against Harris & Acklin than against Dowd & Robinson
• The redder the district, the better Ravenstahl did against Harris & Acklin than against Dowd & Robinson

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 doesn’t matter how much Luke won by, because it won’t force him to govern any differently.  I agree with Potter, in that I doubt that Luke will take heed for his rapid deterioration in support.  The administration will likely govern with just as much bravado as they always have.

I disagree that the results are completely irrelevant, however, because Luke has relied on his strong electoral support (in the past) to lend his capitol to other candidates.  We have already seen in this year’s primary that Ravenstahl has no coattails.  These results may be good news for Bruce Kraus and Patrick Dowd, who are both likely to see well-funded challengers whose best argument for election will be their close relationship with the mayor.  This may also give some political cover to Theresa Smith and Darlene Harris to act with more independence.

What is remarkable is the near-uniformity across the city where Luke’s support has decreased.  In the map below, I’ve shown the change in Luke’s win % from 2007 to 2009.  The more intense the blue, the greater the decrease; the more intense the red, the greater the increase.

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

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.*

More »

1. “After three years as mayor, he has yet to articulate a vision for the future.”
2. “He does not have a reputation for working with the state legislative delegation.”
3. “He needs to put some distance between himself and the party machine, to generate independent thinking for Pittsburgh’s growth and progress.”
4. “ethical lapses after taking office upon the death of Bob O’Connor”
5. “his service as mayor remains a work in progress”
6. “It is incumbent on the mayor to assemble more top talent on the city’s behalf”

An investigation by KDKA turned up information suggesting that Dok Harris may be ineligible to be mayor.  The home rule charter lays out the requirements for taking office as mayor:

The mayor shall have been a resident of the City for at least three years immediately preceding election

Harris held a press conference today, where he admitted (1) he only registered to vote in Pittsburgh this year, (2) he has never voted in the City of Pittsburgh, and (3) he had an apartment in the City of Pittsburgh, while voting in Sewickley.

More »

The short answer to that question is – Nothing.  The PGH Lesbian Correspondent added another post about the yet to be announced Pittsburgh LGBT advisory committee.  She has blogged about this occasionally over the past year so we thought it would be interesting to see just how long this LGBT Advisory Committee has be discussed.  Here are a handful of posts from The Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents about the LGBT Advisory Committee/Panel that span the past year:

• 6/22/2009 – Luke Ravenstahl’s LGBT Advisory Committee. On Friday, April 24, the Mayor’s Deputy Chief of Staff Kristen Baginski told us that they were in touch with potential members and would announce when that process was complete. That was almost two months ago. You can email her to ask how many more months (it has been 7 since it was announced) will be needed to form the committee that will advise the Mayor on LGBT issues. You could mention the significant issues outlined above as proof that we really can’t afford to wait too much longer
• 5/22/2009 – What happened to plans for a LGBT liaison in the Mayor’s office? Or the LGBT advisory committee?
• 4/3/2009 – Kristen Baginski and Joanna Doven won’t return my calls or respond to my email messages about the LGBT Advisory Council.
• 2/26/2009 – email from Joanna Doven “There is nothing new to report re the LGBT advisory panel. We’re getting ready to choose the panel – once that happens we will have the inaugural meeting. Charles Morrison, the head of the City’s Human Relations Commission will be monitoring the process to make sure the panel is representative of the community.”
• 12/11/2008 – “the Mayor of Pittsburgh, Luke Ravenstahl, is launching a LGBT Advisory Council to provide an open line of communication between his office and Pittsburgh’s LGBT community. The planning meeting held on December 10 was chaired by Deputy Chief of Staff Kristen Baginski and the Mayor’s personal liaison to the LGBT community, Gary Van Horn, a local businessman and President of the Delta Foundation. 25 people were in attendance, along with two members of the media. The room was fairly even between men and women, but almost entirely Caucasian and middle to upper middle class. It was a pretty elite group and that didn’t surprise me for a 5 PM meeting held downtown. “
• 11/29/2008 – Pittsburgh is a great example — our gay community is as diverse as any other Pittsburgh group, except for the younger crowds. The next big opportunity to get this right is the Mayor’s soon to be appointed LGBT Advisory Committtee. Let’s hope his team finds a way to create a dynamically diverse group of folks who do not have deep pocket ties to his office.
• 6/19/2008 – “his promise to appoint a LGBT liaison and an LGBT advisory committee remain unfulfilled.”

Propel Pittsburgh?

All of this made us wonder what ever happened to the Propel Pittsburgh Commission.  Here is a description of the commission from the City of Pittsburgh Website

Function:
The 35-member Propel Pittsburgh Commission is dedicated to meeting the concerns and needs of the City of Pittsburgh’s young adults and young professionals. Composed entirely of members aged 20-34, and chaired by the Mayor himself, the objective of the Commission is to encourage greater participation in government, identify or create programmatic or policy opportunities in issues affecting young adults and young professionals in Pittsburgh, and to inform various elected and appointed officials representing young people about issues specific to them. The Propel Pittsburgh Commission will help to give the young adults and young professionals of Pittsburgh a major role in moving the City of Pittsburgh forward.

Also from the City’s website – the commission is to meet every other month – as of today the website says the next meeting is May 21, 2008.

Blog Mentions of Propel Pittsburgh

• 7/10/2009 – Get Involved!
• 11/25/2008 – The Angry Drunk Bureaucrat
• 10/26/2008 – The Pittsburgh Comet
• 9/15/2007 – The Pittsburgh Hoagie - Matt H is a member of the Propel Pittsburgh commission – it doesn’t look like he has posted any other blog updates on their meetings.
• Alik who was a member of the commission but no longer lives in Pittsburgh also posted some updates on the Propel Meetings that were held in 2007 at Pittsburgh.Metblogs.com – the last post on this was 8/17/2008.

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?

We have been trying to keep tabs on the Race for PGH 2009 here and noticed that there are some interesting posts from not the usual political bloggers about the upcoming mayoral race.  Here are a few of the new blogs who are stepping into the Pittsburgh political blogosphere…

• Politics and Place - A Rare Foray into the Political: If He Loses, This is How He’d Lose
  • Let me be perfectly honest. I don’t think Luke will lose. But, I think he couldlose. And if he does, this is how he would lose:
• What Would Vannevar Blog – G-20 in Pittsburgh: Luke’s Real-World Moment
  • If I may, the conditions described set the stage but don’t ring the bell; they’renecessary but insufficient. For Luke to not be elected, there needs to be an event, either (1) a significant, understandable scandal (a bag of cash rather than complex financial derivatives), or (2) an obvious failure of leadership attributed to the Mayor’s office.Holy Cow, Batman! What’s that? The G-20 in Pittsburgh on September 24 and 25th? Zowie!
• Pittsburgh Polemics – The Mayor’s Race: Strange Football Connections
  • Luke Ravenstahl, the incumbent mayor, rode along with the Pittsburgh Steelers during their Super Bowl Victory parade last February. Camcorder in hand, looking somewhat dwarfed beneath the Steeler’s Quarterback, “Big Ben” Roethlisberger.

Know of any other blogs who are writing about Pittsburgh politics – please share the link below in the comments

This just in from the Harris Campaign…

Harris Mayoral Campaign Raises over $105,000 - Says fundraising total shows vast support for campaign

Mayoral candidate Franco “Dok” Harris today announced that he has raised over $105,000 from over 200 individuals to date. Harris is the only candidate who is employing campaign contribution limits, which are modeled after the Federal rules.

“I am greatly honored by the outpouring of support we are receiving,” Harris said. “With the strong financial backing – in spite of self-imposed contribution limits – and the vast number of people supporting our cause, we are building the momentum necessary for victory this November. ”

Harris said that the broad base of support is a sign that Pittsburghers want to depart from the politics of the past and are ready to forge ahead with new leadership.

“Pittsburghers want a mayor who represents them, not big campaign contributors,” Harris said. “They want a leader who will fight to reduce violent crime, and create a city which embraces small business. As your mayor, I will be committed to transparency and good government – our City deserves better than business as usual.”

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.