Thursday, October 22, 2009

Ravenstahl: "Yeah, I would assume that he's asked folks to contribute."

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"Mr. Acklin has failed to connect the dots," Mr. Ravenstahl said. "He knows it." (P-G, Rich Lord)

12 days left. Or actually, there's no time limit...
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28 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 22, 2009 at 7:41 PM

    The secondary story Bram... how did Kevbo get ahold of some of Lukes dirty laundry? Lets speculate :) Looks like the leadership we dont need, otherwise go see a puppet show.

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  2. AnonymousOctober 22, 2009 at 8:09 PM

    The fact that the dirty laundry exists, with what is alleged to be evidence, is more the issue. That kind of leadership is what we have not needed and all we have received to date.

    The existance of those emails should concern us more than how the Acklin campaign came into the alleged emails.

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  3. InsideAgitatorOctober 22, 2009 at 8:09 PM

    Could've been a whistle blower that brought 'em to him. Maybe a whistle blower that smokes pot.

    The over riding issue is that Luke and Co. don't think they've done anything wrong! Look at his handling of the g20, f'rinstance. He's dirt-dumb proud of his leadership, thinks he did a bang up job.

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  4. ILuvLukeOctober 22, 2009 at 8:13 PM

    I am SO MADDDD!!! I am back.

    Leave Luke allown. He is a good kid trying the best that he can. You are so filled with HATE you can not even enjoy all the nice things that have happened to Pittsburgh. We have a green conevction center which everyone wants to see. Don't forget that we have 2 green statiums that don't need no air conditions or heaters.

    I haven't Blogged in a long time ,but as my husband would say "you have stepped on my balls".

    Strawberry Way

    http://iluvluke.blogspot.com/2009/10/i-am-soooo-mad-i-have-to-fight.html

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  5. DotsConnectedOctober 22, 2009 at 8:16 PM

    *Repost*
    Failed to connect the dots?

    Interesting choice of words by Mr. Ravenstahl. As if you acknowledge there are dots to be connected.

    Here is a starting point:
    Mr. Verbanac said yesterday. "My partner and I, Charles Zappala, were big believers in the potential of the project,"

    Here is a connection that occured under your watch Mr.Ravenstahl. This city contract was handed out to Mr Verbanic's business partner at the same time you were actively "bouncing ideas" and "soliciting advice" from "your friend" Mr. Verbanic.

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  6. UnknownOctober 22, 2009 at 8:56 PM

    I think that the dots comment is pretty innocuous at best. The dots were the emails. Connect the dots to me means that he didn't draw the picture with the emails that he said he was going to draw.

    Second, I kinda agree with the emails comment posted earlier. How did he get them? How long did he have them? Why wait till the debate? Just another twist. Ain't politics fun?

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  7. GloriaOctober 22, 2009 at 9:05 PM

    Strawberry Way, really good to have you back.

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  8. Bram ReichbaumOctober 22, 2009 at 9:34 PM

    The hard copies of the e-mails I have arrived in a variety of different fonts and formats. It immediately suggested to me that it all wasn't from the same source. Little wonder -- there is no shortage of folks the administration has outraged or ticked off over the years. And as to why now, it takes some serious guts to pass that kind of stuff along or go public with it, and nothing focuses the mind like a deadline.

    Not that the question isn't a weak and transparent diversion.

    The real questions are why doesn't Luke pay for his own political consulting services, and why does Verbanac do all that work for free? Actually, those two questions answer each other nicely, the next is why does the Mayor value this Verbanac's counsel (or whatever he offers) so highly. What is it about him.

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  9. AnonymousOctober 22, 2009 at 9:41 PM

    Interesting about the emails, just wondering when was the last payment due to Ford? That may answer why the emails are released now.

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  10. AnonymousOctober 22, 2009 at 10:02 PM

    The last payment was in June. I also believe there is a $25,000 liquidated damages provision for breach of his confidentiality agreement. The PG has the agreement, but I cannot find it right now. He did agree not to disclose information about his allegations, directly or indirectly.

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  11. Bram ReichbaumOctober 22, 2009 at 10:08 PM

    How come Verbanac never contributed $5 to Luke? You'd figure if he's such a friend, if he's that frequent an advisor, if they share a common vision, if he raises money from others for Luke (or at least Luke seems to think that's possibly likely to be the case, wink-wink) ... not one dollar direct from Verbanac to Ravenstahl? Why would that be?

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  12. 1October 22, 2009 at 10:39 PM

    @ILUVLUKE: That comment was a joke right?

    Also: explain to me how does it reflect poorly on a candidate who only airs the laundry? What would be troubling is if Acklin came into receipt of these emails and did nothing. Then I think we could worry.

    @Bram: +1 -- I also get the feeling something is plain wrong here. Pittsburgh is not and should not be Tammany Hall and LukeR is no Boss Tweed.

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  13. InsideAgitatorOctober 22, 2009 at 10:50 PM

    He's Rod Blagojevich, Tacitus.

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  14. DotsConnectedOctober 22, 2009 at 11:15 PM

    "Marc"-

    innocuous at best? Try again.

    couple of million dollars is nothing to sniff at no matter what your net worth. It’s certainly a suitable peace offering, certainly a respectable consolation prize.

    Verbanic and Co. didn't get the casino deal they wanted because it was out of Luke's hands. This was the next best thing.

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  15. AnonymousOctober 22, 2009 at 11:40 PM

    No surprise, you don't have to donate in your name, you only have to receive allocations in an alternate method. The Plot thickens.

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  16. InsideAgitatorOctober 22, 2009 at 11:48 PM

    Then the little local gets acquired by Constellation. I wonder who knew what when.

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  17. AnonymousOctober 23, 2009 at 8:43 AM

    So by lying twice about Verbanac being just a "friend" with "no business" with the City and a guy he "bounces ideas off of from time to time" we now hear -- only after the emails are made public -- that Verbanac is a fundraiser, a lobbyist to Orie (but, of course, no one will call him that) on the pension issue? Even if Acklin can't "prove" corruption...he aleady has proved that Mayor Ravenstahl isn't competent enough to do his job. I didn't vote for Verbanac to be my mayor. And they were attacking Harris for voting in Sewickley while living in the City!

    At the very least, it's just more and more evidence of the Mayor's poor judgment.

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  18. InsideAgitatorOctober 23, 2009 at 9:08 AM

    What interests me most is that Verbanac, or one of his business cronies, sits on various advisory commissions that control the multi-county big-vision regional plan.
    Isn't this attempt at over reaching influence what lead to Pat Ford's resignation via the letter from HUD?

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  19. AnonymousOctober 23, 2009 at 9:14 AM

    Anyone know how Mrs. Ford is doing and what might be keeping her busy as her husband works. Is she loving any chairs?

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  20. AnonymousOctober 23, 2009 at 10:36 AM

    A little of subject here, but if someone lives some where and votes some where else? Isn't that voter fraud?

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  21. AnonymousOctober 23, 2009 at 11:13 AM

    Wow. Just read an article in the PG from 2006 questioning Verbanac's role in O'Connor's administration. O"'Connor has business friends who wield clout,"
    Sunday, August 13, 2006
    By Dan Fitzpatrick, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (naming Zappala and Verbanac as well as Glen Mahone and Bill Lieberman). Conveniently for Verbanac (and Mayor Ravenstahl), he was able then to make the same remarks: no formal role, no money exchanged hands, I'm just an adviser, I have no business with the city, I'm able to help so I do. Curious how it's the same names over and over...and yet, nothing more than an article or 2 every once in a while. No wonder the press isn't running with this -- they've had this story of undue influence and potential corruption for at least 3 years and did nothing with it. I'm glad Team Acklin has had the guts to bring it to the people (as much as he can), but it's apparently going to be viewed of just how things are done. How sad.

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  22. Mark RauterkusOctober 23, 2009 at 12:38 PM

    Update: WTAE TV is rumored to have emailed a friend with notification that debate #2, earlier this week, will be posted to the web site, in full, later today. I was upset that the full debate wasn't uploaded.

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  23. Mark RauterkusOctober 23, 2009 at 12:41 PM

    My recent rant: When the mayor plays the role of developer then the developers play the mayor. See my blog for real solution.

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  24. AnonymousOctober 23, 2009 at 12:52 PM

    Anon 10:36 -- No. See, e.g., Symm v. United States 439 U.S. 1105 (1979) (per curiam) (affirming without coment district court opinion upholding the right of students to register either at permanent or temporary address).

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  25. AnonymousOctober 23, 2009 at 4:55 PM

    one could argue that the Symm v. U.S. applies to full time undergraduate students.

    having a lease in your name does not make you a resident of the city of pittsburgh.

    where is harris saying his residence was?
    did he pay city taxes?

    sounds fishy.

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  26. AnonymousOctober 23, 2009 at 5:31 PM

    Symm vs. U.S. most obviously applies to full-time undergraduates. Harris had graduated from Princeton and worked three years in D.C., then moved back to Pittsburgh, took up residence in Shadyside, but still wants to claim his permanent residence is at home, with Mommy and Franco, while he goes to two different grad programs? What a crock.

    He paid city taxes the whole time. Or at least that's what he said in the debate.

    It's fishy alright. Fishy as hell. But not nearly as fishy as this Verbanac stink.

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  27. AnonymousOctober 23, 2009 at 8:40 PM

    @ the two anons:

    If you can demonstrate a principled basis on which to distinguish graduate students living in proximity to their studies from undergraduate students living in proximity to theirs, I'd love to hear it. Do you have to continue from college to graduate school unabated? What if you move home for a year between college and graduate school? Does marital status figure into this? Employment in a "permanent" capacity? What if you lose your home?

    Not only can you not answer those questions with a workable standard, there are policy implications to what you propose. First, if you so choose to register in the locality where you attend school, you should be able to do so, and reap the benefits of the public services provided by your preferred officials. We'd have a skewed system indeed if Pitt/CMU students couldn't register here. By contrast, you'd limit a person's choice in educational opportunities if you required them to give up their permanent domiciliary to go to school. Voting is a fundamental right in this country and we tend to err on the side of protecting those here.

    You may not like that Harris didn't register in Pittsburgh. You may not like what that says about his sense of togetherness or commitment to local issues. But to call it fishy or illegal is just not supported by the law, nor do I think it would be supported by social norms (e.g., did Acklin change his registration to Washington DC or Cambridge MA? Did Luke register at his podunk alma mater? I know my registration didn't change until after I graduated from grad school.) If you don't like Harris, even because of this issue, say so. But don't play armchair Jack McCoy.

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  28. AnonymousOctober 23, 2009 at 11:26 PM

    I have to agree with anon 8:40 about the voter registration deal. I remember many years ago, the same thing happened to me. Moved several times before I settled in. Left my voter registration the same, Mom & Dad's house until I was settled. I still voted, even as a young person.

    Many students and young people do the same. I am still voting for Acklin, but not because Dok wasn't registered in Pittsburgh. I like Dok, I think he is very energetic, but I really like Acklin, he is also energetic and a little more in tune with real Pittsburgh issues.

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