Pittsburgh GOP Has Much Work To Do

November 11th, 2007, posted by genuinejake

Everyone knows you can’t have two winners in one election, so why are Luke Ravenstahl and Mark DeSantis both crowing about victories?

Pittsburgh’s Democratic mayor, with 63 percent of Tuesday’s vote, has the math on his side and will get to serve the remaining two years of Bob O’Connor’s term. He says he’s learned some lessons in the last year, and we hope they’ll make him a more responsible, more boldly thinking leader.

Mr. DeSantis, the Republican upstart, came too late to the race (skipping the primary), had too few funds (despite raising several hundred thousand dollars) and lacked a party organization (the city GOP is comatose). Yet the Post-Gazette endorsed him and 35 percent voted for him because he was an impressive, articulate candidate who made strong points about jobs, business and efficiency being the key to Pittsburgh’s future.

His showing was better than any Republican mayoral candidate since 1965, but in a city where Democrats dominate by 5-1, it was not nearly good enough. If the GOP, either through Mr. DeSantis or another candidate, expects to put up better numbers in 2009 it needs to begin the serious job of party building. Otherwise Pittsburgh’s next mayoral race will be decided, once again, in the Democratic primary.

Republicans in the broader Allegheny County can’t afford to be smug either. Their party offered no candidate for county chief executive, county controller, district attorney, treasurer or five County Council seats. Its winner of an at-large seat is seeing his management of an elderly client’s trust fund being investigated by the district attorney. Its loss of a district seat gives Democrats an 11-4 vise grip on council.

The Republicans can’t spin their way out of this grim reality. Despite the solid candidacy and credible showing of Mark DeSantis, the GOP is not ready to compete in the city and it’s even losing ground in the county.

That’s bad news for all Pittsburghers. The two-party system is a potent force around the country for refreshing and renewing government, but here, unfortunately, it’s not getting traction.

Filed under:

Grand Old Pittsburgh?

On November 11th, 2007 thegentlemanfro... said:

You bring up several (and mostly correct) points. We must also add to the woes of the Allegheny GOP the fact that their county party chairman just resigned amidst an ethical probe. Broadly speaking, city Republicans are in much worse shape than county Republicans (and have been for decades), but depending upon the actions of the city GOP in the near-future, that could very well change. DeSantis managed to breath at least temporary life into a city party that has been operating under “token” status for years. As I mentioned in a post last week, the future of the Pittsburgh GOP depends on how they build off DeSantis’s momentum. To an outsider, DeSantis’s defeat seems like a typical Democrat-led electoral rout in the city of Pittsburgh. However, realize that DeSantis started late, did not raise substantial money until mid-October, and faced a 5-to-1 Dem registration edge. Now consider a hypothetical ’09 mayoral race that has a well-funded, even more well-connected DeSantis in a rematch with Ravenstahl who (if he survives what should be an extremely nasty and costly primary) may or may not have gained respect or credibility with city voters. City Republicans have an opportunity to build a viable and competitive party around Mark DeSantis. Whether or not they take this opportunity is another question. While things may be looking up for the city GOP, the county GOP appears to be crumbling. True, Republicans have traditionally been much more competitive throughout the county as opposed to the city, but lately local Republicans haven’t even been able to get that right. They dropped yet another seat on County Council last week (although the seat is considered Dem) and couldn’t even field a sacrificial lamb against County Executive Onorato. What ails the county GOP? In short, horrible organization (that starts at the top with the soon-to-be ex-Chairman Glancy), weak candidate support, and a national backlash against the GOP in general. Once the Republican Party at all levels gets itself righted, you’ll begin to see a more competitive atmosphere in Allegheny County once again. Hopefully the city follows suit as well.

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