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Choosing our next mayor


TheGerbil

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Just as I feared - Lamb and Peduto are splitting the non-O'Connor vote. More people are voting against O'Connor than for him, but if their votes are split like that, O'Connor will win. Argh! I do wish Lamb or Peduto would drop out at the last minute and support the other. Then O'Connor would almost certainly lose.

Yeah, it is true, they could all run indepentantly in November. But let's face it, they wouldn't stand much of a chance. :(

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^^I don't know being that these #s are basically only democrats and I'm not sure how many young people really vote in May (though given the one party history of this town it might be a non-issue). Caligiuri did pull out a huge upset in 1977 when he defeated the very powerful Forester (who went on to become the long time County Executive and was the leading force behind the new airport). The only difference there was that Caligiuri was serving as Mayor in the months leading up to the election so he had a bully pulpit (though Foreester was much more well known and Caligiuri viewed as an unknown seatwarmer between the Forrester campaign the recently "gone to Washington" Mayor Flaherty).

Not impossible but yes your gonna need some luck to win as an independent.

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So I go to the Post-G and this image pops up!

Hey Pittsburgh we elected the STARBUCKS SIGN! ;)

20050518ds_oconnor_port_hzPJ_450.jpg

Pittsburgh Mayor Dem. Primary 98.8% reporting

Bob O'Connor 27,727 47.7%

Michael Lamb  13,007  22.4%

William Peduto 13,880 23.9%

Louis Kendrick 1,939 3.3%

Lester Ludwig 707 1.2%

Gary W. Henderson 470 .8%

Daniel F. Repovz 380 .7%

State Senator 96% reporting

Wayne D. Fontana (Dem.) 18473 55.1%

Michael Diven (Rep.) 12589 37.5%

Mark Rauterkus  (Lib.) 2489 7.4

Combine Row offices 95.1% reporting

Yes 119095 73%

No 44059 27%

Unofficial results updated at 11.46 p.m. from the Allegheny County Elections Web site.

Glad to see they are combining the row offices finally!

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Well, as feared, Lamb & Peduto basically split their votes. It would've been a real race if one would've pulled out to strongly support the other. Peduto at least has a job to go back to. Wonder what's next for Lamb?

Row office reform, growing greener.....dare I say, or even predict, there may be some real change on the horizon. City-county merger & consolidation would benefit the entire region a hundred fold.

The O'C's ballgame now. If he doesn't back up what he's claimed to say the past 3+ years, it'll be "one & done". Mario - i'm concerned, fella. Hopefully, the Station Square casino funds the arena you & the region sorely need.

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Sigh, I am so sad that O'Connor won. We missed an opportunity on this one, and instead elected "more of the same." If people actually payed attention to the debates they'd have seen O'Connor was the worst choice!

I am strongly considering voting Republican this November. I need to see more of Weinroth's ideas before I decide though.

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^^ I could picture Marlon Brando shouting STELLA down Forbes Avenue lol.

Yeah Weinroth doesn't even have a website up yet . . . he's kept saying he's not that engaged in the election until he knows who his opponent is . . . Gerbil although I tend to lean Republican on most issues, voting for one in the november city election is an act of futility, unless something radical changes it is just way too many Democrats in the city to give hope to a GOP candidate. Sorry to say that about democracy Pittsburgh style . . . hopefully when we consolidate that playing field will be leveled some (some because Allegheny is still heavily Democrat but has been shown to go GOP at times . . . at least on that scale its a horse race).

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Any chance that Peduto would run as an independant in Nov? If he could pick up Lamb's votes, the few %pts from the other Dem candidates and if some republicans voted for him knowing a republican vote is futile - he could win....maybe?

He probably doesn't have the $ to continue a campaign. Plus, I don't know if that is a politically smart move. Thank God he is still on city council. Hopefully he can be really effective and slap O'Connor around a bit. :)

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I may be wrong, but I have a feeling many Dems will vote for Weinroth in November. Here is why:

a ) Many people seem to think it is simply time for a change.

b ) Many Peduto and Lamb supporters will, like me, prefer him to O'Connor.

So we'll see!

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What Pgh needs is a mayor who's a complete break from the past. For that, the guy must be Republiacn and young (under 40). It seems that Pgh always goes for the old grey-haried union-supported Dems. Even Caligiri was a Dem. He just became Independent for that one run in 1977 because the Dems had nominated someone else. Pgh needs someone like Giuliani. Maybe Richard King Mellon (if he were alive today) would have made a good mayor.

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I may be wrong, but I have a feeling many Dems will vote for Weinroth in November. Here is why:

a ) Many people seem to think it is simply time for a change.

b ) Many Peduto and Lamb supporters will, like me, prefer him to O'Connor. 

So we'll see!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hopefully they won't just stay home and say the heck with it . . . never got a straight number on the % turnout that would be interesting.

Urban, you are correct though technically his first term was as an Independent Caligiuri was just using it as a master stroke to defeat the party machine man Forester. Caligiuri although alienated some from the local party never really left the Democratic party.

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http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05144/509423.stm

Interesting story in the Post-Gazette about the drive to eliminate almost ALL row offices (for those outside of the Pittsburgh area these are the 18th century hold overs that constitute around 10 elected officials with their own bureaucracy and staffs. Most of these have just now been consolidated with the overwhelming referendum victory this past primary but the few remaining (with the exception of the DA and Controller) are now being pushed to be consolidated into only a few appointed cabinet positions for the county.

Why is this important? Though not city/county consolidation it does work the same way it consolidates and streamlines clumsy and money wasting bureaucracy that was set in place when the region was the 5th largest metro west of Europe and before computers, streamlined govt. and even the telegraph. Most of these offices are obselete hold overs from the 1840s or 1880s. Interesting read on further consolidation in the Pittsburgh region. ;)

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  • 3 weeks later...

LOL. Poor Murhpy. I think people are a little too hard on him. Seriously, 30 years from now he will probably be remembered as the mayor who brought us our new convention center and redevloped the north shore. No one will care about the firefighter issue and such.

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Gerbil, I like to pick on the Murph (always have :P), I don't know if it's the Peace Corps thing brought out by State Senator Wagner when he ran against him or what but TM has always been a fun target for me.

On the serious side though I think generations from now he will be looked back on as the Mayor that probably did as much to move the city forward as Lawrence did and maybe even more then Caligiuri. Besides the things you mentioned, Murphy isn't seen in contemporary views as a "great leader" in the guise of a Caliguiri or Lawrence but actually he is repeating their very misgivings on the low occupational tax for suburban commuters and the vital need for the city to annex or grow or consolidate. All three men were strong proponents for those 2 things, greater taxing powers over the "users" of city services (and why not? if you are going to run to the city to make your money then escaped off to a low tax burb to spend it, isn't that stealing?) and the need for Pittsburgh to graduate to the 20th or even (god forbid) 21st century where Phoenix and Dallas and Atlanta have all gobbled up swamp and farmland and prarie and desert tripling themselves in size where Pittsburgh is locked into 1794s 55 sq. miles (don't you know it takes a whole days trip to go to Mt. Lebanon sonny! Unfortunately that phrase became obsolete with roads and cars over 100 years ago, and with it the reason why Pittsburgh could not possibly govern Mt. Lebanon or Shaler or Monroeville).

I feel Murphy's fatalistic kamikaze nosedive into default was politically brilliant, and will be seen as such years from now. The way American politics works for better or worse is that no one cares and no one changes until its too late. Murphy knew that another generation of the status quo would make us so weak there was no recovering, so better to shock the system now when this town still has a chance at healing up!

:)

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Haha, I like your theory. But in truth I don't think Murphy did all that much to speed along the financial "shock to the system." I firmly believe things would have come to a head soon anyway. We could only get by on the antiquated tax system for so long before it all went wrong. If it hadn't been under Murphy it would have been under the next mayor.

I just hate that the city is getting all the blame. Cost cutting can only go so far. We NEED some form of consolidation or tax sharing. Pittsburgh has a very low proportion of the metro area population living in the city, compared to other metro areas in the US.

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^^As you know Gerbil, I'm with you on those points, probably even more extreme (Cranberry, Southpointe, MonValley, OhioValley, Murraysville all should be consolidated as well! ;) ).

Did realize something today IT'S NOW A HORSERACE FOLKS! That's right for weeks now I've been putting in "Joe Weinroth" into google and guess what! He actually has a site now!

http://www.joeweinrothformayor.com/index.htm

Looks like the GOP is at least gonna make a serious bid for mayor (that was disappointing that over the primarys there was a site for everyone BUT Weinroth).

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I would assume that he didn't have a site during the primaries because he was the only Republican candidate. He didn't need to compete, really. It looks like he is ready to get into it now, though.

Haha, maybe O'Connor, assuming he has it in the bag, won't put forth much effort in the upcoming election, and Weinroth will win because he'll actually work for the votes. :lol:

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^^ I take great comfort in the fact that that other one-party dictatorship that lasted 70 some years fell down one october night when the CIA was even taken by surprise. There is a Berlin in Pa. and we do have some walls around :lol:

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  • 4 months later...

UPDATE:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05299/594843.stm

A breakdown of yesterday's mayoral debate, I was kind of shocked to see so many candidates still involved in the race, many like Ludwig defectors from the Democratic primary back in May. Any opinions on the winner and loser of the debate? Looks like O'Connor is virtually guaranteed the vote since winning the primary in May, hope I'm wrong though.

20051026as_mayoral_candidatesPJ_580.jpg

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This is so pathetic, I am so ashamed of my party on this one, Wienroth has a real chance with all thats going on in Pittsburgh's fiscal situation, police staffing etc. and yet the state party has no help at all for him. What do we need to do in this town to have a competitive race in November and not just May? Consolidation might be a good answer.

Here is how those fatcats in Harrisburg are letting all of us down:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05296/592896.stm

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