"At the end of the day, the program is bigger than process."... Mayor Ravenstahl, on the Pittsburgh Promise
"When all else fails, read the instructions. We are a nation of laws, not a nation of men."
... Councilman Shields, on the status of fourteen Acting City Directors
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If you believe in vision of Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, and you want to work with him to achieve that vision, you should want Doug Shields to be our next City Council President.
The job is organizing the effective and timely processing of legislation. Doug Shields is the only candidate with the institutional knowledge, the experience and the temperament to do the job.
The Mayor's office has been pursuing initiatives with single-minded earnestness, eagerness and enthusiasm. Some would call that admirable. Others call it mad. We will simply call it youth.
Guide the agenda of Mayor Ravenstahl. Re-elect President Shields.
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As we understand it (and only in that sense), this is how the vote count stands. It takes five votes to win the presidency. A result is expected very early in the week.
Motznik/Payne: Motznik, Payne, Deasy (3)
Shields: Shields, Peduto, Burgess, Kraus (4)
Undecided: Dowd, Harris (2)
There is always the possibility of a "compromise" candidate!
None of the three new City Councilmen are likely to emerge as candidates, because well we know why. Dan Deasy is running for office on the state level, and the coming legislative agenda is strenuous. Bill Peduto is a jive turkey.
This leaves Darlene Harris -- an idea that makes a lot of sense -- and would not be the worst of all possible worlds.
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The thing is -- we're pretty sure Darlene's heart is already set on Doug Shields. If true, that would already be Ma-Jong.
Sorry Bram, I don't seem to have my decoder ring handy.
ReplyDeleteFirst Q: What is or who is Motznik/Payne? Are they going to make a hybrid? Co-chair?
BTW: Harris would be very bad. I give her credit for the vote to reject the sale of the property on the North Side to the library. Good for her on that. But, I have a hard time seeing her as council's president.
Heard Klinger (a North Side ward chair) told Darlene to vote for Motznik, and she supposedly agreed. Haven't quite figured out how one NS ward chair controls another NS ward chair's vote, but we'll see tomorrow if it's true.
ReplyDeleteInteresting what you say about ward chairs. There is a section on Patrick Dowd's website under "Issues" about how being a Councilperson and a Ward Chair simultaneously is a conflict of interest and bad for accountability. One would think that would make for an uphill battle for either Payne or Harris (or possibly Motznik).
ReplyDeleteHow do you know Kraus is locked for Shields? Doesn't everyone remember Ska's video "Jimmmmmmmmmmmy!!!!" I've been hearing Motznik was one of Kraus' big supporters in the race against Koch.
ReplyDeleteAlso what are the thoughts behind the Rev being with Shields. I don't know anything about him but I don't know what puts him in the Shields camp...I would think Dowd more in that camp than the Rev.
who is the rev? Also, what is this information based on?
ReplyDeletePress accounts, P-G Early Returns, other blogs, plus a little intuition. Like we said, this is only how we understand it.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to know who the Rev is, he's this guy:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=EtA_H40ZufE
http://youtube.com/watch?v=iab62WmOFMk
Why would Deasy vote for Motznik? Didn't Motznik publicly proclaim Deasy was "a weak link" after Deasy voted for Shields last time?
ReplyDelete