Posted on 10/30/2007 4:20:40 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
The actual city of Pittsburgh is a heavily Democratic area of about 325,000 people. The last Republican Mayor was elected in 1926. In 2005, Bob O'Connor (D) won an open race for Mayor over the Republican, 67-28. Mayor O'Connor died in office and current Mayor Luke Ravenstahl (D) inherited the office at the age of 26. Since that time, Ravenstahl has encountered several ethics and corruption problems.
As evidence that responsible Democrats are considering abandoning Ravenstahl's leadership of the city, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette endorsed Republican Mark DeSantis. This is the first Republican the Gazette has endorsed since 1969. In their words:
Call it youth, inexperience or simply lack of judgment, Mayor Ravenstahl began treating the city to a series of well-publicized disappointments, embarrassments and outrages, and he was slow to accept responsibility for some of his actions.
On the substance of governing, too, Mayor Ravenstahl has left much to be desired...
The 48-year-old former aide to the late Sen. John Heinz is a high-tech businessman and consultant. With a Ph.D. in public policy, he is an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University, but he's no ivory-tower geek....
He wants to approach long-standing problems in a different way. Besides extracting more voluntary contributions from tax-exempt institutions, Mr. DeSantis says Pittsburgh should look beyond cash and, for instance, negotiate a deal with UPMC, the region's most profitable nonprofit, to provide health care for city retirees. He wants an ethics policy for city officials and employees that prohibits all freebies and uses an ethics compliance officer for enforcement. He wants city departments not just to operate well but to be judged against other cities' performance.
Mr. DeSantis, who lives Downtown and works on the South Side, is articulate, forceful and persuasive in his goals for change.
(Excerpt) Read more at redstate.com ...
This is surprising news. I hope DeSantis wins.
DeSantis was endorsed by the Police Union, and both local papers. He is quite articulate...Lukey is cute. Luke will win due to the machine voting of the City Dems. DeSantis should run for something countywide, or possibly (aiming high) Congress (he would be wasted in Harrisburg). I don’t think this will be the last we hear of Mark DeSantis...and it won’t be the last of Mayor Lukey either.
Another Dennis Kucinich. Barf.
No, no, no. Kucinich is just plain weird. And troll like. Lukey isn’t the sharpest pencil on Grant Street, but he is good looking :)
You think he could win in the 14th (currently represented by Mike Doyle)? That wouldn’t be much easier than winning Pittsburgh.
the socialist rag the Pittsburgh Post Gazzette endorsed him-saw that and glad I was sitting down at the time. Pittsburgh better get it’s $hit together and get it together real soon.
Do you remember Bill Coyne? He represented the 14th for like about 500 years. How he got elected and re-elected was an amazement to me (and I lived in the City proper at the time). Coyne speaks volumes to the old time Dem machine. But the fact that DeSantis has come out of nowhere, to challenge the rubber stamp election of Ravenstahl makes me think he got his stuff together and has a future (beyond the hallowed halls of CMU).
Call it solid Democrat qualifications. Luke will win.
Shame.
Yes, and in those days the 14th District was smaller than it is today (not representing even the entire city of Pittsburgh if you go back to Coyne’s first term), and of course Moorhead before that...
So what, there’s 325K city residents — maybe 275K outside the city in the 14th now...I suppose it is possible but my recollection is that the 14th is still heavily Dem.
It sounds like Luke has some baggage that Doyle does not.
And....Luke is still cute.
The P-G does NOT and NEVER has represented "responsible" Democrats unless that is code word for Commies. There is something SERIOUSLY WRONG with DeSantis if the P-G endorses him. I can guarantee you Ravenstahl is nothing but a puppet of some Democrat hack and couldn't find his arse with both hands in a dark closet. (Remember when you were 26?) But DeSantis must be a wholly owned subsidiary of the P-G and other Marxists or they would treat him exactly as they do every other Republican running for anything.
Being a Pittsburgh Steeler fan hopefully some Steeler players will help him in his campaign. This is the first time since Chuck Noll began coaching that the paper has endorsed a Republican.
Pittsburgh during that time has went from a city of 500,000 and a strong industrial base to a city of 325,000 and industry has left but looks nicer.
Good luck but being a Heinz protege isn’t what it was years ago especially with his widowed wife backing leftist causes.
Even with all the endorsements, it’s going to be an uphill climb for DeSantis. If he wins, he’ll be the hottest GOP star in PA.
Doyle himself is probably too Conservative for the 14th, but that district was designed to pack in as many Pittsburgh area rodents into one seat as humanly possible. It’s not likely to ever elect a Republican as it currently exists.
When I see it I will believe it. Like almost every other big city the rat rules.
As far as governing the city, I don’t think Mr. DeSantis will be able to really accomplish that much with the Democrat cronies firmly entrenched in Council and all of the civil service positions.
However, it would be a definite plus politically for the 2008 election cycle in Pennsylvania for DeSantis to win, both psychologically and momentum wise, as well as to stem Democrat party antics in the 08 elections in the city.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.