With Pittsburgh’s highly contested mayoral primary a month away, Democratic challenger and Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor is staying on message.
“Our city is managing a decline instead of talking about growth,” he reiterates to Pittsburgh City Paper at the campaign’s East Liberty office, which O’Connor describes as a classic Pittsburgh building. Underlining tensions reflected in the election, the former Holland Specialty Shop — once a T-shirt store and still enclosed by a tin ceiling — was part of a controversial redevelopment proposal by McKnight Realty Partners in 2022.
O’Connor’s challenge to incumbent Mayor Ed Gainey was spurred by what the Controller describes as a difference in “core values” regarding the city’s future — encompassing broad long-term planning issues from creating affordable housing and increasing public safety (including hiring a permanent police chief) to improving day-to-day operations and budgeting. Speaking to the latter, O’Connor has variously mentioned the city’s shortage of snow plows and emergency medical services, alleged misuse of the parks tax, potholes, and “not being able to turn water fountains on all summer” as visible indicators to run, citing his experience on Pittsburgh City Council and as County Controller.
“Day one, we can start turning this around,” he says. “You’re voting for change in Pittsburgh, because we know we have to change this city. It’s not going in the right direction.”
It’s a message that’s apparently resonated, with O’Connor leading by 15 points among likely Democratic voters according to a recent poll conducted on the campaign’s behalf, and 18 points if undecided voters are factored in.
O’Connor’s win could signify a pendulum swing, representing a split among self-described progressive Democrats who have surged in the region in recent years. In addition, Pittsburgh’s mayoral primary has garnered national media attention, most notably amid Gainey calling out O’Connor for accepting fossil fuel and GOP campaign donations, including at a private equity-backed event at the Duquesne Club; and receiving significant contributions from local developers. Some national outlets are watching to gauge if Pittsburgh’s mayoral race could be a test case for unseating Democratic mayors and realigning cities with conservative interests nationwide.
But O’Connor insists he remains a progressive Democrat, and at stake this election cycle are local bread-and-butter issues.
“I’ve always been [a progressive]. Look at my record,” O’Connor tells City Paper. “I passed the affordable-housing trust fund, early childhood education, took paid sick leave all the way to the state and fought it at the Supreme Court. I wrote that bill … Even as County Controller, auditing the jail, looking at criminal justice reform, auditing the Clean Air Fund. Those are things that are very progressive, [and] they actually impact residents in this region.”
“We’re going to have a growth mentality in Pittsburgh, but ensure that progressivism is at the forefront of it,” he adds.
CP spoke with O’Connor about some of the campaign’s key issues and the state of Pittsburgh’s mayoral race.
Affordable housing
Addressing perhaps the race’s most contentious issue, O’Connor contends that, despite his opponent’s assertion to the contrary, he wants to see affordable housing in every Pittsburgh neighborhood — a question Gainey put to him directly during the April 17 televised mayoral debate. Both O’Connor and Gainey have emphasized the need to create affordable housing in Pittsburgh and support zoning code reform that would allow more accessory dwelling units and remove parking restrictions.
While Gainey has proposed inclusionary zoning — which would mandate new or renovated developments of 20 units or more include 10% as affordable housing — O’Connor contends “every market is different,” preferring a neighborhood-by-neighborhood approach with possible tax abatements and subsidies (and drawing criticism about being influenced by developers).
“You have [the Local Economic Tax Assistance Act], you have [Tax Increment Financing], you have state tax abatements that we can use,” O’Connor says, also citing what he says are 11,000 city-owned parcels, including vacant lots, that could be rehabilitated and used for new development and housing initiatives.
“This mayor doesn’t actually want to do the work and meet with community organizations and meet with council members to have a constructive bill that works for everyone,” he says. “[Imagine] we could empower communities to do development themselves. Imagine if you had shovel-ready sites all across Pittsburgh to do affordable housing units … We have great community organizations that want to impact their neighborhoods. That’s who we should empower, not a flat zoning ordinance.”
Taxing local nonprofits
The city’s decades-long effort to get contributions from its largest tax-exempt organizations — most notably, “the Big Four,” the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, UPMC and Highmark Health — has re-emerged as it approaches a budget shortfall.
“I fought them all the way through, and I’ve always said that they need to pay their fair share,” O’Connor says.
O’Connor criticizes his opponent for backing out of the OnePGH initiative, reached by former Mayor Bill Peduto in 2021, which he says would’ve secured $115 million over a five-year period.
“Why did you not accept hundreds of millions of dollars?” O’Connor asks. (Gainey recently told CP he thought he had reached a tentative Payment in Lieu of Taxes [PILOT] agreement with UPMC last year.)
O’Connor aims to reach an agreement by coming to organizations “with a specific ask” that appeals “to their mission, [that’s] going to benefit everybody in the city of Pittsburgh.” He envisions negotiating with nonprofit hospital systems to purchase ambulances, which would simultaneously alleviate shortages, support hospital operations, and free up city capital. He imagines a similar appeal to the universities for city park or trail improvements or infrastructure repair for bridges like Panther Hollow, which has been closed since October, and would restore a key route to campuses.
“That’s where it takes a leader to say, here’s my request — I’m not going to differ from it,” O’Connor says.
Public transit
The one policy area where O’Connor and Gainey find common ground is the need to fund the region’s public transit. Pittsburgh Regional Transit faces a budget shortfall that would result in historic service cuts to nearly half its bus lines.
“The transit line cuts that they’re talking about are going to hurt every city resident,” O’Connor says. “And if you want to grow a city, you have to be able to get people around using public transit.”
O’Connor says he’s optimistic he can work with state leaders to find funding as well as develop a long-term strategy.
“It can’t just be a Band-Aid for one year,” he says.
Local focus, national stakes
Despite the national spotlight, and pulling no punches in an often heated race, O’Connor maintains, “This is a Pittsburgh-based election.”
Some have compared the race to St. Louis’ recent mayoral election, where, earlier this month, Alderwoman Cara Spencer defeated incumbent Mayor Tishaura Jones in a landslide, in part by criticizing the quality of city services such as snow removal and trash pick-up. The race also included personal attacks about Spencer’s high-dollar campaign donations from developers and other business interests.
“This campaign was built on the simple idea that St. Louis can do better,” Spencer said during her acceptance speech, mirroring O’Connor’s campaign slogan, “Pittsburgh Deserves Better.”
Now, with energy high, national reporting is looking to see which way the political winds are blowing for Democrats in one of the bluest areas of a swing state, once again keeping Pittsburgh at the center of the political universe.
“The reality of it is, I’m worried about Pittsburgh,” O’Connor says. “I’m not worried about St. Louis or Cleveland or other cities that are going through elections. This is Pittsburghers coming together to talk about issues that impact them on a daily basis. And Pittsburghers right now want to see it. [They’re] looking for a different vision, because we don’t have it right now, and that’s got to be the focus of this election.”
This article appears in Apr 23-29, 2025.
