Screenshots from the 24th Legislative District Candidates Forum
District 24 Democratic candidates Martell Covington, Delia Chatterfield, La’Tasha D. Mayes, Lamar Blackwell, Will Anderson, and Randall Taylor
All invited candidates were in attendance, which included Martell Covington, Delia Chatterfield, La’Tasha D. Mayes, Lamar Blackwell, Will Anderson, and Randall Taylor. Each candidate was invited to introduce themselves before taking turns answering questions from the moderator.
However, Chatterfield did not file a letter of intent or pay the $1,000 filing fee by the deadline of 4 p.m. on Feb. 1, according to WESA, making her ineligible to receive the Allegheny County Democratic Committee's endorsement. The Committee is scheduled to vote on which Democratic nominee will appear on the ballot for the special election on Sat., Feb. 5 at the Kingsley Center in East Liberty. District 24 includes Wilkinsburg and Eastern Pittsburgh neighborhoods, including Homewood, Highland Park, Garfield, and East Liberty.
“Basically my entire life I have worked in the community and have been a community servant,” said Martell Covington, a legislative aide to state Sen. Jay Costa, who currently represents some of the 24th District, and the vice president of the Young Democrats of Allegheny County. “My family started Community Empowerment Association in the mid ‘90s,” in order to prevent gang violence and develop after school programs, he continued.
Covington said he was born and raised in the Homewood area. “I went from being one of those children of the after school program to managing and coordinating the after school program,” he said, adding that he also volunteers as a football and softball coach in Homewood.
Next was Delia Chatterfield, who said she works as a school bus driver in addition to her community work in the 24th District. “I have been a community liaison for the Larimer [Consensus] Group, I have worked with Pittsburgh Public Schools’ afterschool programs,” and the PTA when Westinghouse High School had one, Chatterfield said. She is also a long-time judge of elections, she said, and has lived in Larimer for the past 18 years.
“I would like to continue being a voice in the community. I think community work is important,” Chatterfield said, expressing her desire to “move forward going upwards in helping see this city grow to the city it can be. I know it takes all of us to be able to do that, and my goal is to be a part of the new,” she added.
La’Tasha D. Mayes introduced herself as a “passionate local statewide and national leader with over 22 years of experience and service to the greater Pittsburgh community.” She spoke of her work founding and leading New Voices for Reproductive Justice, an organization working in Pennsylvania and Ohio to promote reproductive justice and the health and well-being of Black women and girls.
“My work has always been about health and well-being,” Mayes said. “That means healthy and safe communities. For me, that has meant service, it has meant organizing, and it has meant leadership and the opportunity to change policy while we engage the people who are the most impacted” by issues like violence, access to health care, and access to jobs. She identified COVID-19 relief and recovery and workers' rights, “especially in the time of COVID” as key issues for the district. “How do we make our community stronger, all segments of our community?” Mayes asked.
“Nearly every decision that I have made to this point was done so with the understanding that I would lead a district that mirrored mine,” said Lamar Blackwell, who works with returning citizens through the Center for Employment Opportunities, in his introduction. “From turning down Princeton University and enrolling in Morehouse College to being accepted into the ninth ranked dual degree JD and MBA program in the country, to serving as the youth and adult sunday school teacher at the Faith Center Church of God in Christ, every decision was made with the understanding that I would represent my people,” Blackwell said.
Blackwell described several experiences from his childhood in Larimer that he said made him aware “that I was being raised in an area that was undesirable.” In particular, Blackwell shared the story of a shooting he and his mother and siblings witnessed in 2003 from his family’s kitchen. He said that experience made him want to represent the people of Larimer. “Why couldn't that man in 2003 go to his state representative and find resources for individuals who are returning from jail?” Blackwell asked.
“Our district is going to be more progressive, our district is going to be an open door resource center for everybody, and our district is going to be safer,” Blackwell said in closing.
“I have blood in these streets,” said William Anderson, owner of a Homewood auto body shop and a longtime activist. “Too often our kids are left hopeless, too often our kids don't have a role model. They need someone that can help them find a way. We need opportunities in our community,” he said.
“I have been involved in politics my entire life … I know what our community needs. I know how to fight for our community, as I do every day," Anderson said. "I have been a part of every community organization from BPEP, the Black Political Empowerment Project, from mentoring with the Urban League of Pittsburgh for the last six years and lobbying in Harrisburg regularly. This isn't something that I need to learn. This is something that I do every day without a paycheck."
The last candidate to introduce themselves was Randall Taylor, a former school board member and an advocate for affordable housing. “I have a lot of wonderful memories of this community. Just being and living in Homewood a little bit teaches you some life lessons that you keep with you,” he recalled. Taylor described his work on the school board and the impact of his eviction from Penn Plaza, a now-demolished East Liberty housing complex that spent 30 years as a federally-regulated, rent-controlled residence.
“I was displaced with hundreds of my residents,” Taylor said. “That began a journey about affordable housing, about gentrification, about displacement, about redlining and why communities like Homewood look like they look.”
“I swear, when I get to Harrisburg, I'm gonna get every dime I can, I'm gonna see what I can get passed through them Republicans, but in every spare moment I have, my first focus is going to be the rebuilding of this neighborhood,” Taylor promised. “I believe within 10 years, this is going to be a community of 30,000 people like it once was.”
Candidates answered questions about their strengths, history of positively impacting the district, and how they would go about turning an idea into a law. You can find a recording of the full event here: District 24 Candidates Forum
Communications professional Ashley Comans, who was formerly running for the District 24 seat, pulled out of the race in January once she found out preliminary redistricting maps showed that Wilkinsburg, where she lives, would potentially move her out of the district next year.
NaTisha Washington, an environmental justice organizer for OnePA who also lives in Wilkinsburg, is also seeking the endorsement from the Democratic Committee. She pledged to still stay in the race as of Jan. 25, according to a Facebook post, and filed a letter of intent on Feb. 1, but was not in attendance at the forum.
This story was updated at 10:30 a.m. on Feb. 2 with an update on the candidates who filed letters of intent for the endorsement.
