I’ve written previously about the complicated (read “disastrous if your last name isn’t ‘Ravenstahl’“) dynamics taking place in the 20th legislative district race, which is a combined special-and-primary contest to replace now-judge Don Walko. The presumed front-runner is Adam Ravenstahl, the mayor’s brother and the endorsed Democrat in the race. But his biggest advantage may be the fact that he faces a divided field of opponents.
And things just keep percolating over there. A short time ago, the Service Employees International Union announced its endorsement of Dan Keller. Per the release:
“We’re proud to get behind a strong candidate like Daniel Keller,” said Gabe Morgan, SEIU Pennsylvania State Council President. “We need people like Dan to raise the voices and concerns of working people to Harrisburg.”
Keller has gotten the support of numerous union groups, but this one has to sting a bit for at least one of his rivals. When candidate Tim Tuinstra launched his campaign last month, he did so with an announcement touting his work with Pittsburgh United — a community-advocacy group that is heavily supported by the SEIU:
As President of Observatory Hill Inc. Tuinstra helped start a neighborhood watch and has worked with Northside United and Pittsburgh United to help ensure Northshore development provided benefits to the greater Northside community.
I’ve got calls in to the SEIU and the Tuinstra campaign to see what’s up with this endorsement. And I’ll post updates here.
(UPDATE: In response to my query, an SEIU spokesperson told me the union is backing Keller not just because he supports its values, but because he has “broad support from labor and the community, where he is already well-known.” Translation: The union thinks Keller has a better shot of actually winning.)
(UPDATE #2: As if to further muddy the waters, the Tuinstra campaign tells me that Tuinstra has been endorsed by the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 23. The UFCW and the SEIU have worked closely together on the city’s prevailing wage bill and other matters. Once again, we see how the opposition is dividing itself.)
In the meantime, there’s this from another candidate in the race:
Mark Purcell, candidate for State Representative in the 20th legislative district of Pittsburgh has been asking any interested parties, including the media, and citizens he talks to as he goes door-to-door with his campaign to, “Take a walk with me to Harrisburg.”
Purcell said he made this commitment for two reasons. First and most importantly he wants to carry a message to his colleagues in the state house that, “The legislature has lost the confidence and trust of Pennsylvania citizens and its ability to properly represent them.”
As a freshman legislator the first official act after you are sworn in is to make a short speech before the entire legislative body Purcell said.” He wants to deliver the message to the legislature that at 64 years of age, (as of August 31, 2010,) he has walked the entire 210 miles from his home in Pittsburgh to Harrisburg, to underline the seriousness of his request to allow the citizens of Pennsylvania to put into action these words in our Pennsylvania constitution.
Specificially, Purcell wants to put a referendum before state voters, so they can decide whether Harrisburg should hold a Constitutional Convention dedicated to government reform.
Well, good luck with that. I have to say, though, that right now it looks like the only person doing much walking — cake-walking, to be more precise — is Adam Ravenstahl.
This article appears in Apr 15-21, 2010.
Hasn’t the SEIU and Gabe Morgan endorsed Adam’s brother Luke in the past, for no immediately apparent reason? I feel like I read about it in your fishwrap. Maybe it’s because whenever someone asks the Mayor if he’s met with the protesters, he always says “Yeah we’ve met with Gabe Morgan.”
But anyway, yeah, tough situation at this point.
Yes, Ravenstahl had the backing of Gabe Morgan’s local in 2007. At the time, Gabe Morgan cited Ravenstahl’s support for the CBA process in the Hill, as proof of the mayor’s commitment to blue-collar needs.
http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A37507
Obviously, that hasn’t QUITE turned out the way the SEIU hoped.
Also, note the updates above — this race is dividing even the unions backing “Pittsburgh United.”
Chris:
You are seriously skeptical!
Where does the media play a role in this? You act as though only these progressive candidates play a role in an open primary and have to come together and nicely bow out, but what about your role at this progressive newspaper?
Why can’t you and your colleagues put forth a concerted effort and eliminate one or three of these chuckle heads in an editorial?
On the one hand, you are disgusted Ravenstahl is going to win on his name with absolutely no credentials (which I don’t buy), and you bitch and complain there are no progressives who run any more. Then now, there is a field of progressives running and now you complain there are too many and they should come together and pick which one among themselves (count the voters out–they are unimportant in this process) to run against the “clear” front runner?
What a bunch of shit.
Each candidate brings with him a set of skills that are different, and the voter has to decide what they want in a candidate.
Keller is older, a business man, no children at home, certainly never been connected with SEIU, connected with the Luke Administration as well as with the Murphy administration.
Purcell works for Representative Bill Kortz, older, former Ross Twp. commissioner.
Tuinstra is younger than both, a former auditor for the state, three young children at home, a community activist, really not connected to any political entity.
Ravenstahl, younger, no children, not married, no real career, although works at UPMC, directly connected to Ravenstahl administration.
There are your four candidates in a nutshell.
What do voters want this time around? Three of them are directly connected to the current political scene in one way or another.
Just my two cents.
The district is dominated by City voters, which makes this amateur hour. One group of candidates correspondingly sabotages each other — Harris-Acklin on steroids — clearing a path for the empty vessel being propped up the semi-pros. The Infindorsement for the special election — a write-in for “Abolish This District” — is the sole sensible choice, but half the electors would struggle to spell two of the words. It is difficult to identify an Infindorsement for the primary, because no candidate has shown he (or, counting the screwball, she) deserves support. City voters should be ashamed, the City and County Democratic Committees should be humiliated, the candidates should be embarrassed, and anyone who cares about this region should be horrified.
In other words, another day in InsolvenCity. Remind me again why the rest of the region shouldn’t be tossing the drowning City an anchor tied to an anvil?
A couple years ago, a massive Luke Ravenstahl sign appeared on an empty lot on Federal Street at the bottom of Henderson on the North Side (1525 Federal St), and now there’s a slightly less massive Adam Ravenstahl sign on the same lot.
At other times, there have been URA signs relating to the Federal Hill project on the same lot, and the county’s real estate website names the property’s ‘use code’ as “MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT” (although it also names the property’s owner as Guy Schutzeus, whose listed address is that of Team Construction & Dev Inc. on the South Side).
A vacant lot, which is not actually recorded as ‘vacant’ by the county, which is or has been under the control of a city agency, has been actively involved in campaigning for the reelection of the mayor and the election of his brother. Does this seem sketchy to anyone else, or am I just being paranoid?