The district was changed a bit with redistricting this past year and it appears to be a little tougher of a win for a Democrat than before, but should still be held by the Democrats.
Two Democratic candidates have emerged to replace Jim Burn. One is named Mary Gibson a lawyer for Giant Eagle that appears to have a long list of Democratic Party activities. The other candidate is Shawn Flaherty. Mr. Flaherty is the son of former Pittsburgh mayor Pete Flaherty and also served as a State Representative for a few months back in 2006.
I liked Mr. Flaherty when he won a seat in the State legislator and was disappointed to see him lose to now State Senator Randy Vulakovich in November of 2006. However, Mr. Flaherty turned his back on the Democratic Party in the fall of 2011.
Shawn Flaherty was disappointed that his cousin, Mark Patrick Flaherty, lost to Rich Fitzgerald in the Democratic Primary for County Executive. This bitter lost led Shawn Flaherty to support Raja, the Republican candidate in the General Election:
So my question is why would the Democratic Committee want to support Shawn Flaherty for a post that if elected could make life pretty tough on the Democratic County Executive? I think the Democratic Committee and the Democrats in the 3rd County Council District should really think hard about who to support this spring.
On another note, the only Republican candidate for this council seat that I have heard about it Mike McMullen.
I have to share this comment that Rich Fitzgerald said at the debate earlier this week about some of the campaign staffers for Raja. (h/t PoliticsPA):
“Mike DeVanney has been part of what’s wrong with politics. Mark Harris is what’s wrong with politics,” blasted Fitzgerald. “They’re bottom feeders. They like to play in the mud.”
“They found a cash cow with this guy [Raja], and conned him out of two million dollars. It’s the biggest con job since Bernie Madoff.”
First off, I have to wonder why the Raja team didn't spin this into a racist comment since Fitzgerald mentioned cows and they are sacred in India. The Raja team has taken every other comment that Fitzgerald has made and tried to spin it in to a racist comment.
Second off, I have to agree with Fitzgerald. Who pays that much money to have a campaign team send almost identical post cards out? His team also didn't have the mailers spread out over multiple days. For how little time people spend reading these post cards, I have to wonder how much Raja wasted on having 2 days this week where there were multiple mail pieces hitting on the same day.
More Raja mailings were sent out yesterday. More abortion attacks on Fitzgerald sent to Republican/Non-Partisan households:
These 2 mailers were sent to Democrats:
As I have said before, for someone that says he isn't a 'politician' all we have seen from him are the usual political tricks. Half-truths and quotes that out of context look worse than they are.
Reading these mailing, anyone that understands what County Council does will see through these false claims. Allegheny County Executive does not have any authority over abortion issues. Allegheny County Council has very little to do with the unemployment rate when it is tied to a national unemployment spike. But I have to ask, where did they get their numbers that claim unemployment has doubled since Fitzgerald was elected as a part-time Allegheny County Council member? In January 2000 when Rich Fitzgerald started his first term on County Council, unemployment was at 4.6% for Allegheny County. The most recent data shows Allegheny County at 7.6% as of August 2011. That is not double. Even the highest Allegheny County unemployment has reached during Fitzgerald's tenure is not double (8.6%) of 4.6%. Also if this was sent to Democrats don't many of them believe our unemployment problems are because of Raja's supported candidate President George W. Bush.
Many of us hate that money is so involved in our political campaigns, but it is a necessary evil. Anyone that takes the time to read the actual email that Fitzgerald sent shows that it is a firmly worded request and the pull out quotes used in this mailer appear to be in jest and sarcastic in nature.
So again I ask, does Raja and his campaign have anything positive to say about issues that the Allegheny County Executive actually has authority over?
It appears political mailings are not the cool thing to do anymore. You know what else isn’t cool? Abortion. Abortion is so not cool that the Republican County Executive candidate has to let you know that he is pro-life. What will Raja do about the abortion problems in Allegheny County? Nothing. You know why? Because the County Executive has no authority to overturn Roe vs. Wade.
Raja keeps deflecting his poor record on outsourcing by saying Rich Fitzgerald doesn’t want to talk about the issues. Are these the issues that Raja wants to discuss?
The other point about Rich Fitzgerald’s ‘liberal agenda’ is another Supreme Court issue and has nothing to do with the Allegheny County Executive. Raja might want to go back and read the Constitution. Keeping the religious symbols out of government buildings is something our Founding Fathers put in our original Bill of Rights. Why anyone gets up in arms about this is beyond me. The Republicans say they want less government, but then they want to spend our tax dollars to put up religious symbols.
My last critique of this mail piece is that it was sent to Non-Partisan voters. The Pro-life and liberal agenda bullet points probably work well with the Republican voters that vote in every election. Is it a good piece to send to the independent voters of Allegheny County?
Just saying 'I'm not a politician' is not enough to convince me you aren't going to act like the stereotypical politician.
Example 1: Misleading negative ads
I have been very frustrated by the attack ads that Raja have been running against Rich Fitzgerald. One of the most frustrating claims that I have heard Raja repeat over and over is that Rich Fitzgerald is a 'career politician.' I would like to know what Raja believes the definition of the word career is. Fitzgerald graduated from college in 1981 so I will give him about a 30 year professional career. He has been on Allegheny County Council since 1999. 11 years out of 30 is hardly a political career when most of the first 19 years were spent not working in politics. On another note, a county council member makes $9,000 a year. I don't know anyone that would call a job that only pays $9,000 a year a career. Let me re-word that, I don't know any American that would call a job that pays $9,000 a year a career. Maybe that is good money to workers in India that work for Raja's company.
Example 2: More misleading negative ads
I also can't stand the ad with lies that no one, including the media, will take the time to fact check.
The Corbett campaign even would give credit to the Tribune Review as the source for this so called 'fact.' If you take the time to actually check the article you will see that the 'largest tax increase in Allegheny County history' quote is nothing more than a comment made by an uninformed lobbyist that had an agenda. Glad to see the Tribune Review fact checked that one.
Example 3: Forcing us to read between the lines while denying an accusation.
So the Fitzgerald campaign has gone hard after Raja's company for outsourcing, not paying the minimum wage to his workers, and for suing his employees. I have yet to see a response that either actually denies these accusations or gives enough of an explanation to make me doubt the Fitzgerald camp's attacks.
Some of Raja's responses:
My opponent is trying to distract you from my awesome plans!
My opponent should be ashamed of attacking me about my cutthroat business decisions!
94% of my payroll is in the United States! (No, I'm not going to tell you how much of that 94% is mine, and how cheap it is to employ people in my hometown in India)
I have created thousands of family substaining jobs! I think you are stupid enough to ignore that I don't have to pay as much in India to substain a family.
I could have taken my company anywhere, but I choose Allegheny County! However, I'm also going to tell you how horrible it is here because of 80 years of Democrats being in charge. Wait, why did I pick Allegheny County again?
At the end of the day, Raja sure looks, acts, and talks like a politician. One that is having a hard time not tripping over his own feet.
Mark Patrick Flaherty's campaign sent our an invite a few weeks ago inviting everyone (I'm guessing Democratic Committee Members only) to a Spaghetti dinner last Friday. Below is the invite:
But something went wrong! Flaherty's campaign decided to reschedule the event (I blocked out the date since it wouldn't be fair if everyone that read this blog could crash the event that is still in the future):
But wait! Something else went wrong. Okay, so you can't really see it because I bocked it out, but the 2nd invite had a date that didn't' match up with the day of the week that was listed. So a 3rd mailing was sent out:
It seems like a bit of an expensive and embarrassing mistake by the Flaherty campaign. The Democratic candidates for Allegheny County Chief Executive have stumbled a bit early this campaign season. A reader of this blog pointed out that Rich Fitzgerald sent a letter with his website address, but the website is 'coming soon.'
Let's hope they get their act together, since both Patti Weaver and Raja look to be serious candidates from the Republican side.
