Democracy Has Prevailed.

December 7, 2006

A Tale of Two Campaigns

As the Progress Pittsburgh blog put it:

"...the Post-Gazette is doing a great job of reprinting Ravenstahl’s press releases."
That comment was made about this P-G article which reports that people are signing up to volunteer at Luke Ravenstahl’s campaign website -- http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us.

Oops! Sorry! That's the URL for the City of Pittsburgh's website but one could be forgiven for mistaking it for Luke's own site as the home page contains his name three times as well as a revolving gallery of pictures of the mayor and a featured picture of him.

His actual campaign website is http://www.lukeformayor.com.

To call it short on content would be kind as it consists of a picture of our young mayor looking like he's borrowed his father's suit jacket (he's swimming in it). Other than a sign up page for volunteers, there's nothing else there. It's about as no frills as was his campaign announcement. As Bill Green noted on John McIntire's Flip Side show earlier this week:

No big crowd, no balloons, a surprise to reporters... what up?
According to the Ravenstahl’s campaign coordinator, Necia Hobbes, 300 people have signed up to volunteer for the campaign of a sitting mayor who is supposed to be considered hot, hip, and popular.

So let's contrast that with the pre-campaign efforts of someone who hasn't even announced yet.

Last month, a crowd of 250 people actually showed up in person at the Shadow Lounge to support Councilman Bill Peduto for Mayor. They overwhelmed the venue and spilled out into the street. They each promised to find 20 other supporters.

That did not make the papers.

This Monday will see a second pre-campaign Peduto event:

Bill Peduto Pre-campaign Event
Monday, December 11th
7:30 - 9:00
Cafe Phipps
Phipps Conservatory
One Schenley Drive
Pittsburgh, PA 15213


Expect another big crowd, but probably not so much in the way of the press . . .

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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

So are you going to post information regarding Mayor Lukes events?

This blog sucks anymore. You are backing the wrong candidate. Peduto has no shot at winning. Take it to the bank.

How is he going to get votes on the North Side of town? How is he going to get the black vote? How is going to get the O'Connor backers behind him? How is he going to get votes in the West End of the city where he doesn't relate to ANYONE?

Jonathan Potts said...

I don't think your blog sucks. But I do think Peduto is going to need to make a far greater effort than he did in his last campaign to reach out to parts of the city that are beyond his natural constituency. As Chris Briem has said, the next mayoral election will be won in the bingo halls. Peduto, who I'm inclined to support, doesn't strike me as a bingo hall kind of guy.

Anonymous said...

We all know how and why Opie got O'Connor's dogs to work for him, but are we sure O'Connor supporters will all have the Pavlovian response anonymous-1 expects? Maybe I have too much faith in voters. I don't have the crystal ball that anonymous-1 has.
P.S. I think your blog is great:)

Anonymous said...

We all know how Opie got O'Connor's dogs to back him, but are O'Connor voters the Pavlovian dogs anonymous-1 assumes? Maybe I have too much faith in voters in general?

P.S. I love the blog. Keep up the good work!

Maria said...

Jonathan,

I understand your concerns. I would say that there are some significant differences between this time and last time around:

1. Peduto started pretty late in the race last time (3 or so months) --not true this time.
2. He had to spend a chunk of his time/$ fighting for his council seat last time -- not true this time.
3. He has more cash this time to specifically target other areas.
4. He's starting out with a large group of enthusiastic volunteers this time instead of five people in a basement.
5. He's starting out with more name recognition having already run citywide.
6. He is going everywhere this time, including the bingo halls and anywhere and everywhere else 3 or 4 events a day.

What I'm saying is he's starting out in a much stronger position with the time and money to broaden his base.

***************

Anon,

Thanks!

Maria said...

Anon. #1

So are you going to post information regarding Mayor Lukes events?

Highly doubtful.

What I find more and more curious is how Luke supporters here always defend how he will win but never seem to say why he should win...

Anonymous said...

Remember: Just last year Bill, with his late start & less money than either Bob or Lamb, came in 2nd in a city wide race.

Luke managed to win election to council only with MAJOR help from party heavy weights who pulled out all the stops to get him on council. Of course the fact that everyone hated Murphy & Barb Burns was Murphy's candidate, didn't hurt Luke either.

I believe the motherlode of votes are in the East End - Peduto will get even more of those than he did last year. And he is relating quite well, thank you, to folks in the West End. Maria's correct, Bill's not ceding any ground in this campaign, hello Northside!

Bill is intelligent, he's had time to review last year's campaign & knows what needs to change & what needs to stay the same.

I don't think the Dem. Cmte. will will march in lock step on this one, I've heard there's a bit of dissent going on.

Finally, Anon. 1, why should 2PJ post info. on Luke? Isn't it enough for you that Luke's taking every opp. to get on TV with visiting movie stars, is using our taxes to plaster billboards with his name & 10' high photo of himself along roadways in Pgh., is using more of our tax money to print & mail postcards to residents about the "Ravenstahl Response Line", etc., etc.?

Luke's using his incumbency to promote his campaign, while on city time.

As a resident & voter of this city I am more concerned with his actions on issues such as Regan's blatant bullying of the police dept. & Luke's ease with ignoring/getting rid of female staffers.

Diregarding recorded evidence of wrong doing, Luke can find nothing to pin on Regan, yet demotes Cmdr. McNeilly & claims she doesn't deserve the protections afforded by "whistle blower" status. And whatever happened to the investigation of Regan's threats to Zone 3 Cmdr. Rachelle Brackney?

B.J. Leber & Susan Malie are gone. Have any women been hired to significant positions since Luke took office? Oh, I forgot, he did let Regan's sweetie, La Cassidy, keep her higher pay grade, even though she's working at a lower level job than she did when hired by O'Connor.

Luke even kept La Cassidy working IN HIS OFFICE during the investigation into Regan's wrong doing. It's certainly not possible that some investigation info ever got back to Regan is it? Or that he, from the love shack he shares with La Cassidy, could've possibly, maybe, somehow influenced the outcome of the fruitless investigation?

Please do tell us why we should vote for Luke. If you're going to bring up the lien deal, which I believe is a good thing, first bring up its history. Who put the ball in motion on this deal? Who negotiated it? In other words who did the heavy lifiting, as opposed to who's 26 yr. old face made the announcement when the deal was done.