Mayoral Debates

WPXI carried a live broadcast of a mayoral debate this past Sunday (available on Comcast on Demand). As I'm firmly for Bill Peduto (and volunteer for his campaign), I thought it might be interesting to publish a take on the debate from someone who hadn't made up their mind going into the show and who is more of an average voter than your typical politically obsessed blogger.

My sister, Gina, fit that bill. She is a manager at a business-to-business sales company and is in the 25 - 35 age range. She votes regularly, but is not the CSPAN addict that I am. She knows that I am for Peduto, but we've disagreed on candidates before (most notably, she can't stand Gov. Rendell and voted against him in the primary).

Being highly opinionated must run in our family. Here's some of her unvarnished commentary:

On Republican Joe Weinroth: "He looks like a sleazy politician!" "He reminds me of Rendell." "He says 'umm' to much."

On Michael Lamb: "Meek and mild." "A pussy who would crumble under pressure. That's why he attacks everyone."

On Bob O'Connor: "He's talking in circles." "He keeps talking about himself instead of the city and the issues."

On Bill Peduto: "I like the way he compares himself to the others. He doesn't do it negatively. He'll mention when he agrees with another candidate." "He comes off as smart." "The Clinton hand thing doesn't look natural -- he needs to loosen up more."

As we're sisters and not professional political commentators, there was a good five minute discussion where she tried to think of the name of an actor in the movie "Lost Boys" that Peduto reminded her of. Google to the rescue and the answer is:

Edward Herrmann
Hmm...not sure how the campaign would feel about that, but he did play FDR and Lou Gehrig. ;-)

If you want to help out the candidate that Gina liked best:

Peduto for Pittsburgh
1100 Smallman Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15222

412-338-1460 - phone

And, if you found this post to be less than helpful or interesting:
Remember, it's Gina's fault, not mine. :-D