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Mark DeSantis

TheGerbil

By TheGerbil
in Pittsburgh

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TheGerbil Burg

TheGerbil

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If I were running for mayor and they asked me how to keep young people in the city, my response would begin with the fact that we *aren't* losing young people. Then go on to say we need to build on our strengths, and address tax and job growth issues to attract in more people from outside.

I definitely don't think having a 27-year-old mayor is automatically better for young people. It's a shame that some people seem to think it is. We need to choose the best candidate regardless of age or party. This will be a very interesting election.

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Evergrey Hamlet

Evergrey

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I dislike the question more than the answer. The desire to keep young people in the city (beyond them moving to the immediate suburbs) is so misinformed. Until Pittsburghers start asking how we attract more young people to the city, we will continue to get backward policymaking and insipid answers such as the one Mayor Luke provided.
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Evergrey Hamlet

Evergrey

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The Post-Gazette endorses Mark Desantis is Sunday's paper... their first endorsement of a Republican mayoral candidate since 1969. While the editorial describes Mayor Luke's many failings... the bulk of it is devoted to Mark DeSantis and his qualifications to lead.

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Evergrey Hamlet

Evergrey

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In a rather bizarre editorial, the Trib also endorses DeSantis.

Here's the KDKA report from the latest debate... I love how Mayor Luke keeps never refers to DeSantis by name... but instead "this individual". What a dork. I suppose his campaign spokesperson devised this strategy to never acknowledge your opponent. DeSantis is an inconsequential nobody.

http://kdka.com/video/[email protected]

Hopefully the citizens of this city realize the fate of the city is infinately more important than party loyalty. Luke is basically the worst candidate the Democratic Party could put out there for Mayor... but in a cruel irony... he enjoys support due to what I call the "George W. Bush Phenomenon". He's anti-intellectual, unqualified, boorish, arrogant, ethically challenged and revels in it, has never accomplished anything significant in professional or political life, puts on a "guy next door" facade, responds to policy questions with smarmy grins and deflective non-answers, and uses fear tactics ("this individual sold the city down the river for the FOP endorsement").

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TheGerbil Burg

TheGerbil

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What I find ironic is that this unqualified candidate also happens to be the youngest mayor of any major US city. On the surface he seems to be just what this city needs (if you believe the cries about losing young people). I just hope people can look past the surface when they decide who to vote for.

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mjcatl2 Hamlet

mjcatl2

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It's actually relatively common to not mention your opponent by name, though I think that the advantage to that is over rated and the reality of it is less than classy.

What I find ironic is that this unqualified candidate also happens to be the youngest mayor of any major US city. On the surface he seems to be just what this city needs (if you believe the cries about losing young people). I just hope people can look past the surface when they decide who to vote for.
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tooluther Whistle-Stop

tooluther

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You can all hate me if you want, but this is why I'm not voting of a Republican Mayor...

"His opponent, incumbent Mayor Luke Ravensthal, has stood by Democratic mailings, noting that Mr. DeSantis is indeed a Bush supporter. Mr. DeSantis, a Republican staffer on Capitol Hill and the George H.W. Bush White House, has contributed to the second Mr. Bush and voted for him."

I'll be the first to admit I'm being a closed minded Yellow Dog Democrat...but I moved out of South Carolina to get away from the pervasive influence of the Republican Party and the Religious Right. I fully respect everyone else's viewpoints...just wanted to explain my position before you all blast me for it on Tuesday ^_^

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Kasper Unincorporated Area

Kasper

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You can all hate me if you want, but this is why I'm not voting of a Republican Mayor...

"His opponent, incumbent Mayor Luke Ravensthal, has stood by Democratic mailings, noting that Mr. DeSantis is indeed a Bush supporter. Mr. DeSantis, a Republican staffer on Capitol Hill and the George H.W. Bush White House, has contributed to the second Mr. Bush and voted for him."

I'll be the first to admit I'm being a closed minded Yellow Dog Democrat...but I moved out of South Carolina to get away from the pervasive influence of the Republican Party and the Religious Right. I fully respect everyone else's viewpoints...just wanted to explain my position before you all blast me for it on Tuesday ^_^

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tooluther Whistle-Stop

tooluther

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Local politics may not line up with national...but they are directly linked to the state.

In the case of Pittsburgh, we not only have to worry about the relationship between the mayor and city council, and between the republican legislature and democratic governor, but also TWO partisan financial oversight boards.

So, yeah maybe Desantis is a moderate republican, but somewhere down the road he has to deal with the state Republican Party who is contributing to his campaign. And lets be frank, the Republicans in Pennsyltucky aren't moderate SUV mom republicans. That is the inherent flaw of the current two party system. Once you're in, your in it all the way.

So, as I said I respect your particular political views. I have a political science degree from a ridiculously conservative University...I wouldn't have been able to function if I did.

The bottom line is that I believe a party switch is not in the best interests of the City of Pittsburgh. I've heard the Republican's run government like a business before, but given our current "CEO" I'm not keen to embrace the philosophy.

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Evergrey Hamlet

Evergrey

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Tooluther, I have great respect for you and am aware of your passion for this city and your role in improving it. But vote for the person, not the party. Vote for what's best for the city, not the party. There is no way an free-thinking intelligent person could come to the conclusion that Ravenstahl is a better choice for this city than DeSantis.... although someone could prefer Ravenstahl due to some selfish personal interest. This is why the liberal-leaning Post-Gazette, the conservative-leaning Tribune-Review, the college-student-serving Pitt News and the black community's Courier have all endorsed DeSantis. Regardless of political affiliation, these diverse publications can all see that DeSantis is the superior choice.

It seems that a lot of Democrats around here (especially the Allegheny County Democratic Council) are more interested in ths success of the Democratic Party than the success of the City of Pittsburgh or the greater region. When Bush was re-elected to my horror in 2004, I vowed to never vote for another Republican... but even I can see that Ravenstahl and his ethically-challenged cronies are a disaster for the city. It is also important to recognize that the Democratic and Republican labels mean much less at the local level. And while DeSantis may have voted for Bush and made a small contribution to him in 1999... Bush has NOTHING to do with this election. This tactic is nothing but desperation and deflection by the Ravenstahl camp. Instead of talking about real issues, Ravenstahl is fear-mongering. Additionally, parties change over time... so there is no sense in telling yourself you'll never vote for a Republican... 50 years ago, the Democratic party was the party of Southern Backwardness and the Religious Right.

This election should be about the best person for the job... not short-sighted political party allegiences. And let's be honest... I like DeSantis and think he can do great things... but just about anybody would be better than old-school Mayor Luke... who has little more than a "cult of celebrity" due to his frat boy hijinks and youthful arrogance.

As Kaspar already pointed out... DeSantis is much more liberal/progressive than Ravenstahl... whose social views are more akin to Santorum and Dubya. In fact, Ravenstahl embodies the worst aspect of both the Democrats and the Republicans. Socially backwards yet fiscally-reckless and beholden to interest groups and the city political machine. Ravenstahl is the epitome of a dumb-luck ascension to our highest office... akin to Gerald Ford (but much worse). And concerning tooluther's point about DeSantis' Republican-ness and the Republicans in state government... well perhaps a Republican Mayor of Pittsburgh might be a good thing for Pittsburgh's relationship with the state... which notoriously frayed under Murphy. While I agree that many Republican state lawmakers are idiots that have enacted policy that has punished the state's urban areas... a Republican Mayor of Pittsburgh may let them know that Pittsburgh is not a lost-cause Democrat stronghold... that it is a place that has both Democrats and Republicans... and place that the Republican leadership needs to care about. If Republicans realize they have a stake in the future of Pittsburgh... they may be much more receptive to cooperation with Pittsburgh. And who knows... maybe Jane Orie will stop acting like the Arch-Demon of Suburbia.

This city is great... and there are great things happening in Downtown and in our neighborhoods in spite of the inept one-party governance over the past 50 years. But the city is a financial basketcase... and it needs fiscally responsible leadership in order to chip away at its Pacific Ocean of Debt. This city will continue on a path towards fiscal paralysis due to its massive unfunded pension liability. Tough financial decisions need to be made. Ravenstahl's plan is business is usual... doing the minimum required by the state.. and then going into the red again in a few years. DeSantis has a plan to reduce spending and maximize efficiency. Additionally, he plans on selling city-owned landed instead of sitting on it and speculating until they can give a big hand-out (TIF) to a developer. If DeSantis can enact policies and cut taxes that result in organic growth in development and job-creation, the city will no longer have to be a TIF-whore. There are a lot of taxes that make Pittsburgh uncompetitive with its suburbs... and there are taxes that the city can cut that will barely be felt by the City... yet can have a big impact on business growth... such as DeSantis' proposal for eliminating a certain tax for young companies.

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tooluther Whistle-Stop

tooluther

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I'd like to think Pittsburgh is less than 64% Yinzers.

Both candidates gave good speeches tonight. It was interesting to see Onoroto's comments on DeSantis' campaign considering DeSantis became the front runner to replace him as of 9:57 PM Today.

Per Luke's speech, its nice to see him finally able to stop campaigning and strictly be a mayor. I liked his challenge to the pessimistic yinzers and negative biased media to get with the picture and realize that we are all the cusp of something great happening in the region.

This is how the world sees Pittsburgh. Its about time Pittsburgh sees the real Pittsburgh--paraphrase, but I think I got it close

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Evergrey Hamlet

Evergrey

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yes... because "wishing" and "feeling good about ourselves" will fix the unfunded pension liability

*cue the country music yee-haw!

I'll stop before I say something offensive, tooluther. Act 47 should prevent Mayor Luke from doing anything too stupid (other than wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars on the Catherine McNeilly settlement)

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TheGerbil Burg

TheGerbil

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I did like both speeches last night, despite my disappointment in the election results. It's nice to see that DeSantis got more than a third of the vote, at least.

What we need is Luke's positive attitude combined with DeSantis' solid ideas and planning. If we can only have one, I wish it could have been the latter.

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mjcatl2 Hamlet

mjcatl2

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Luke is a childish, clueless, classless ass (think Joe Lieberman, Zell Miller). God help Pittsburgh. It most every level of government, Republicans are a problem, but when you have a bright, sound, progessive one or a 27 year old DINO, voting the R is a way to go. Again politics on a local level doesn't mean the same thing. It can when you have wingnut school boards who vote against science etc, but the majority of issues of which I would never vote for a Republican were not at play here. Instead we have a democratic party controlling the city, who is absolutely NOT the Democratic party.

We have a young mayor who only wishes to be yet another selfish ass who's part of a machine, not part of a party who works for the working man and minorities and what's best for the city.

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TheGerbil Burg

TheGerbil

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Exactly. Ignoring all Pittsburgh's problems is not going to make them go away. What planet do these people live on? It is important to be optimistic but it also important to be realistic. I feel like I am surrounded by morons in this town. Pittsburgher got what it deserved.
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