Pittsburgh mayor

[cellio]

Tuesday Pittsburgh is having a special (off-cycle) election for mayor. The incumbent, Luke Ravenstahl, was the president of city council and stepped in after Mayor O'Connor died a little more than a year ago, so this election is for the rest of the term. Now, Pittsburgh has been suffering one-party rule for decades, with five times as many Democrats as Republicans registered, so usually the contest is in the Democratic primary, not the real election. But this year, for the first time in a long while, there's a credible Republican challenger, Mark DeSantis.

I was surprised to read this week that the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which leans pretty far to the left, endorsed DeSantis. So did the police union. (So did the more-conservative newspaper, but that's not a surprise.) DeSantis doesn't have as much money in his campaign fund as Ravenstahl, but he's got a decent war chest, and his contributions have been outpacing Ravenstahl's for the last few months.

The election is probably still Ravenstahl's to lose, so I'm a little surprised that he's gone in for negative campaigning (and pretty stupid negative campaigning at that), and that he doesn't seem to demonstrate the political acumen to deal with the public blunders he's made while in office. Yes, elected officials misuse public property and blow off their obligations all the time, but he got caught and, instead of apologizing, tried to justify it.

DeSantis has credible ideas for getting the city back on its feet financially, he seems to know that he's accountable to the public, and he's not part of the "same old, same old" club that's been running the city into the ground for years. Is he perfect? No, of course not -- but he's better than maintaining the status quo. And he's got momentum, which the third-party candidates I would otherwise pay closer attention to do not.

I know it will be hard for DeSantis to accomplish all that much directly if elected. I have no illusion that the Post-Gazette's endorsement is sincere; I think they hope to dispose of the current mayor, use city council to prevent the new mayor from doing anything, and then come back strong in two years with whomever the Dems have groomed while out of the spotlight. But even so, all that said, I'd like to see what DeSantis can do, both directly (fixing some of the city's problems) and indirectly (breaking the one-party mindset). I plan to vote for him on Tuesday, and I hope enough others will step out of the "I vote for my party" pattern to give the guy a chance to improve things.

Comments

I hope to get your vote too

[(Anonymous)]

I'm also running in a city-wide election -- for controller.

I hope to get your vote as well.

Mark Rauterkus
http://Elect.Rauterkus.com

http://Rauterkus.blogspot.com

Re: I hope to get your vote too

[cellio]

You'll have it, and I hope enough of the undecideds to make a difference swing your way.

[ariannawyn.livejournal.com]

I've never voted for a Republican for mayor before, but I'm considering it this time. I think Ravenstahl's youth is showing in is gaffes, and I especially thought he handled the issue with the heads of departments badly. Hildakrista's husband told me last week that after ousting the head of Public Works, who B thought was doing a good job, Ravenstahl replaced him with his (Ravenstahl's) cousin. Ugh.

I'm not so sure that the Post-Gazette is really quite as conniving as you make out, but our current mayor is certainly not my first choice.

BTW, if Doug Shields ever runs for mayor, he would have my full support. He's one of the few councilmen with a brain, and actually gets things done. Peduto, OTOH, is all talk and no action, as well as no brain.

[cellio]

Ravenstahl lacks relevant experience; I've met 27-year-olds who have enough business, political, and interpersonal clue to be mayor, so it's not a youth thing per se, but it's pretty uncommon. And Ravenstahl, err, isn't uncommon in that regard. I was surprised by him ousting the head of public works, and hadn't heard about the cousin. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

I agree that Doug Shields seems to have a brain, unlike many on city council.

[ariannawyn.livejournal.com]

My biggest problem with DeSantis is his close association with the Bush administration, which I despise. If I vote for him, it will be with my fingers clamped firmly on my nose...

[cellio]

His support (I'm not sure how close an association it is) of Bush is distasteful, but I don't see it as especially harmful. It would be a concern in a candidate for congress or governor, but the mayor of Pittsburgh just doesn't get the chance to play on the national level, and I'm having trouble imagining a favor Bush both could and would do for a mayor. There's the whole state government in between, for starters.