Councilman Dowd finally stepped up and raised issues about which the Comet has been screeching for over a year. Sometimes I think if it weren't for elections, democracy totally wouldn't work. (P-G, Rich Lord)The D-2 candidate with the lowest self-imposed campaign donation limits --by far -- has amassed the most cash. Looks like she makes it around the district after all! (P-G, Rich Lord)
Speaking of which: Community Theater Night in Elliott! Drink every time any candidate says, "District 2 is the most overlooked district in the City of Pittsburgh"! (Hoagie)
Two quarrels with this article: the Rev. Johnny Monroe never, contrary to popular and inexplicable belief, actually fought against construction of the new hockey arena; he did fight for improvements in the surrounding neighborhood to coincide with it. And the Hill District hasn't received squat yet but promises. (P-G, Ann Rodgers)
Okay, we may have been a bit disparaging towards bread and circuses, but that shouldn't be taken to apply to wings and circuses. (P-G, Team Effort)
Federal attorney's offices are not the largest of offices and you have to believe what they spend time on is chosen with intent. Some speculation I have is not even worthy of blogging yet, but I wonder if the ongoing investigation already has tentacles in some seemingly unrelated news stories of late, some local and some far. (Null Space)
Null Space is not among the worst of blogs and you have to believe that the words it publishes are chosen with intent. On Friday I happened to catch some of Nighttalk, during which Bill Peduto and Chelsa Wagner appeared jointly, being all seditious. Peduto went so far as to say he's heard that some city employees have been and are being asked by investigators to have investigatory conversations. It didn't seem like he was talking about Mr. Katz.
The Slag Heap has a concise primer up on 2009's political x's and o's. For the sake of argument, the Comet's own Ouija Board is telling us that Dowd will in fact run; I don't believe that he and Andy Sheehan would have stayed up all night producing that campaign spot for nothing. But what do we know -- maybe he'd prefer either Luke or Doug to emerge with a victory and run Pittsburgh for four years.
Null Space link is dead for me.
ReplyDeleteFixed. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteToday I rec'd an invite to a Dowd mayoral campaign fund raiser.
ReplyDelete"Today I rec'd an invite to a Dowd mayoral campaign fund raiser."
ReplyDeleteYes, so did I. I was utterly sure Dowd was going to run last week. Some stuff I heard later made me slightly less sure, but I'd still bet on it happening.
-- Chris Potter
Odd thing is, Potter mentioned that in his blog post. He seems to chalk it up to "supporters" organizing it, I guess to try to draft him into the race.
ReplyDeleteAs long as we're being speculative, thought that the one slight new addition to patrickdowd.org was the "Donate" button, which may have only appeared a week ago last Friday, but I could honestly be mistaken about that.
Jinx, you owe me a coke.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually not sure what the hell to chalk it up to. On the one hand, it's hard to imagine how there could be an "evening with Patrick Dowd" -- whose express purpose was to "elect Patrick Dowd for mayor" -- unless Dowd was running. I wrote about his candidacy last week because I thought it was happening. But shortly after that, I heard some stuff that made me a bit less certain. I tried to reflect that note of caution today, whilst noting that activity was still taking place.
ReplyDeleteI was more interested in glossing the council races today in any case, but I'll check it out.
-- potter
Patrick Dowd is to city council as Chuck McCullough is to county council. I don't want either of them to make attempts and become elected to higher levels of local politics. We need people like them crafting legislation and keeping the executives in check.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, I could do without proclamations regarding the return of the three stooges.
Patrick Dowd helped to kill Schenley High School. The tailspin there still lingers greatly for many hundreds of kids.
ReplyDeleteThe district's shrinkage accelerates and that is also on his watch.
He is the chair of urban recreation -- and I've not seen a peep from that front since he's been on Grant Street.
Guess it is good kids don't vote.
If he opened a closed indoor ice rink or created some robust afterschool activities or made successful intergernational programs or worked to move the city school sports into the WPIAL ... then we'd have a donkey of a different color.
Potter - That's the source of some common reservations about Patrick Dowd. Is it all too orchestrated? Is it always too cute by half? Personally, I'll grant a politician some liberties with the construction of their political narrative if I feel they're the best person to do a job. It's just that Dowd isn't quite free and clear from those woods yet.
ReplyDeleteRauterkus - That's another thing Dowd will have to confront. Since he left the board, he's been making many and various noises that what went down with Schenley maybe shouldn't have went down. As though he takes credit for making a good performance contract for the Superintendent, and supports high school reform in broad strokes, but doesn't think the Board did their due diligence on oversight. Then again, it's been just noises. I'd hate to see a serious mayoral contender get bogged down in revisiting Schenley, but I really think he has to.
Thanks for coming tonight Bram!
ReplyDeleteA great time. D-2 does democracy really well.
ReplyDeleteDowd just play acts at being a progressive to blind youg professionals you buy the rhetoric.
ReplyDeleteHe is an office climber. And the whole - no I didn't want to run but people enlisted me - is more manufactured spin.
I for one am tired of mayors who spin rather than govern.
"Dowd just play acts at being a progressive to blind youg professionals you buy the rhetoric."
ReplyDeleteThat is certainly the negative narrative that we will see exploited by Dowd's rivals.
"He is an office climber."
Ain't that America. I'd rather lasso an office climber and try to make what I can out of him or her if possible. I like that he seems constitutionally committed to correct governmental procedure and to consensus-building. Also, I like that he's not as clearly beholden to some of the traditional centers of Pittsburgh power. So yeah; I provisionally don't have a problem with that.
"And the whole - no I didn't want to run but people enlisted me - is more manufactured spin. I for one am tired of mayors who spin rather than govern."
Spin is something at which all three candidates excel.
Okay, consensus building was not the right term. Middle-forging.
ReplyDelete