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The Pittsburgh mayoral race obviously had to start some time later, but many Democrats would have been willing to postpone it a little longer.
“I’m scared for next year,” one party activist told me when it became clear that Allegheny County Governor Corey O’Connor would be challenging Mayor Ed Gainey next year.
After all, Democrats across the country are still nursing their wounds after Donald Trump’s presidential victory. And the possibility of a split in next year’s mayoral election is particularly high.
Mr. Gainey is the city’s first Black mayor, and his victory over Bill Peduto in 2021 was the first of three highest-profile victories for the region’s emerging progressive movement at the time. Ta. (Following this, Summer Lee ran for Congress in 2022, and Sara Inamorato won last year’s election as county executive.) The outcome of the race with O’Connor, rightly or wrongly, is that It will be seen as a referendum on the movement.
But strangely, while Democrats may not be looking forward to the fight, many find it hard to dislike either player.
“We don’t have bad people fighting each other,” said Brandi Fischer, a longtime police accountability activist. She is a longtime supporter of Mr. Gainey and believes his re-election is key to creating a more just city. But while she “doesn’t want to go back to the old guard,” she said, “Corey is a decent human being.”
If his campaign doesn’t seem to be selling itself on some variation of “Pittsburgh deserves better” (a phrase I’ve heard about 167 times this week), then “Cory is a decent human being” is a campaign slogan. It might be appropriate.
In a series of campaign stops on Tuesday, Mr. O’Connor appeared poised to attract both old-school Pittsburghers and some reformers seeking to replace them. For example, I saw at least one Costa and several refugees from the Peduto regime.
Although such a coalition may seem unlikely, it is often the case that it is successful. (For example, progressives like Bethany Hallam took control of the Allegheny County Council by making common cause with old-school Democrats like former Treasury Secretary John Weinstein.) It may be paying off.
According to the old political saw, Pittsburgh is divided into three parts: north of the river, south of the river, and between the rivers, and you need to win two of them to be elected mayor. O’Connor is likely to get off to a good start with one of them. All three City Council members representing the southern third appeared with Mr. O’Connor Tuesday night.
“This city needs you right now,” Beachview City Councilor Anthony Coghill told an awestruck crowd in the West End. “Thank you for stepping up.”
Mr. O’Connor may even be what some Republicans think a Democrat should be, but as a City Council member, he supported mandatory paid sick leave for many Pittsburgh employers and amended the Constitution. He proposed gun reform that Article II absolutists opposed.
You can’t be all things to all people in a contentious election, and Mr. O’Connor has never had to lose badly in a contentious, high-profile election. (He was appointed county commissioner to fill a vacancy and easily won a full term.) But if his aggressive campaign launch speech is any indication, he criticized the mayor. I wouldn’t hesitate to do that. High on the list of targets would be Gainey’s decision to hire Police Chief Larry Sirotto, who may ultimately be more interested in guarding college basketball courts than city streets. It turns out.
Gainey welcomed O’Connor’s participation in the race and took the high road in response. And as scandals go, Sirotto may not be Watergate at all. (It’s not a good thing for a basketball-loving police chief to get caught traveling, so to speak. But Mr. Sirotto isn’t going to be sent to federal prison, as was the case with one police chief recently.) The politicians speaking, some of them sympathetic, told the mayor — I think Gainey has a job ahead of him next year. His biggest challenge may not be any purported cheating, but the belief that he has too much left unfinished business.
Problems like the stagnation in police hiring extend far beyond Pittsburgh’s city limits (and it remains to be seen what solutions O’Connor will offer them). Election results in other cities may indicate voters are losing confidence in how progressive leaders will address crime, even after turnout has fallen from COVID-era highs. It suggests that there is a sex. And Mr. Gainey has failed to accomplish some important goals. For example, his promise to extract more revenue from large tax-exempt nonprofits was a centerpiece of his 2021 campaign, but he has made little measurable progress during his time in office.
Ms. Fisher opposes some of Ms. Gainey’s moves. (“I didn’t care about Mr. Larry Sirott in any way, shape or form,” she said.) But she said the mayor “kept me on my toes.” . “Making sure everyone is truly part of the economy and community” and the decision-making process, that’s Ed Gainey for me. ”
She praised his efforts to assign social workers to police calls involving health issues and other crises, and his firing of police officer Keith Edmonds after the death of Jim Rogers, saying: . This administration has taken a strong stance that it will not tolerate any such actions. ”
There is no doubt that the enthusiasm behind these protests helped propel Gainey to victory. The Fisher Alliance for Police Accountability sponsored a pair of ballot questions, including one that would block the use of “no-knock” warrants by city police, which likely helped boost turnout among Gainey’s base.
A key question for next year will be how activists come together at a time when, like everyone else, they are tired and preparing for the incoming Trump administration.
There may be only one consolation for them, or for Democrats who aren’t ready to do this again anytime soon. That means they may be exhausted long before the May 20 primary. But you’ll never be bored.
