We don't want to put words in the Councilman's mouth ... but we must.It is apparent to us from context clues that one-time Democratic mayoral contender Bill Peduto would rather see you vote for Mark DeSantis than for Luke Ravenstahl -- or even than for himself.
When we interviewed him back in June, here is how we reported the conversation:
Getting back to politics briefly, we mention Mark DeSantis. "No, no, no. I'm not getting involved."
Peduto had told us earlier "it would be hypocritical" for him to come out and support Ravenstahl, considering his recent opposition. Yet that was not what we had in mind.
We asked if it wouldn't break his heart, if he had to watch some of his strongest supporters, his web-based policy-action committee and his progressive reform network, come out in favor of a Republican for mayor.
He had to think about that for a few beats.
"Would it break my heart?" he asked. "No. Not in a non-presidential year."
That was significant enough. Then came the interview on WQED yesterday evening, which aired before the final debate.
Peduto was chewing the fat with a reporter in Bloomfield, when it just so happened that DeSantis walked past with a cadre of supporters (woops -- we meant reporters -- Freudian slip!) across the street.
Bill popped up and outside to holler, "Hey, find your own neighborhood!"
Hahaha. The thing was, he then crossed the street to make a joint appearance.
Of course when the reporters asked him if he was supporting DeSantis, he repeated his line of "No no no, I'm staying out of it" -- but he definitely allowed himself to get embraced by the challenger.
Mark teased him by saying into the cameras, "I want to thank you so much for all your support!"
Hahaha. This was an eminently avoidable situation, if Peduto was really that uncomfortable with DeSantis. Instead, they looked as friendly as siblings.
And why not? Both of them are geeks at heart. Both of them are good-government reformers. Neither of them are the biggest Luke fans in the world.
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From a pure gamesmanship standpoint, when the Councilman makes his run in '09, the narrower Luke's margin of victory this year, the better. A vote for Mark accomplishes this twice as effectively as a write-in for Bill.
You may be thinking, what if Peduto can manage to make an impressive showing with write-ins? Unfortunately, that's not really possible. Anything less than 5% looks extremely negligible -- we all already know Bill has his partisans -- and anything greater than 6% is thoroughly inconceivable -- too few voters will recall his name on the spot.
Besides -- if Peduto was angling for, or interested in, write-ins -- we would have heard about it by now.
Some of the hard-core Pedutoites might still be itching to tap out the name of their hero. The Comet, however, is reasonably certain that The Man himself is looking forward to voting for DeSantis.
