Endorsement Endoscopy

I have never, ever done one single thing in my life because any political party told me that I should. I don't own a gun because the Republicans told me to do so. I don't limit my automobile use because the Democrats told me to do so. And if I don't listen to political masters on even minor issues like these, there is no way in hell that I would ever allow any political party to make an important decision for me. Especially one as important as whom I should vote for in the upcoming Pittsburgh mayoral election. So from a personal standpoint, this weekend's Democratic party endorsement decisions are more or less irrelevant. But Pittsburgh voters -- and Pittsburgh's Democratic voters in particular -- often behave like passive little sheep, and these endorsement results may very well be harbingers of stupid voter decisions yet to come.

As reported in the mainstream press (Post-Gazette and Tribune-Review), and in local blogs such as The Burgh Report (which I'm proud to note broke the news before any other outlet, mainstream or otherwise) and 2 Political Junkies, Interim Mayor Luke "Flip Flop" Ravenstahl trounced his only opponent, City Councilmember Bill "Cojònes" Peduto for the Democratic Party's mayoral endorsement. The final vote was 602 brain dead, moronic party hacks for Ravenstahl, and 163 mostly brain dead, nearly moronic party hacks for Peduto.

As you can probably tell, I don't hold the members of the Allegheny County Democratic Committee (ACDC) in high regard. My feelings have nothing to do with the outcome of the endorsement race. I've never held them -- or their Republican counterparts -- in high regard, and I would still see them as brain dead, moronic party hacks even if they had endorsed myself to be the next mayor of Pittsburgh. Endless decades of one-party rule here within the city limits have twisted the ACDC into something that most Democrats from the even the most marginally competitive regions of this country would find simply unfathomable. It is a collection of people where family ties and ancient feuds are far more important than any ability for original thought, and where a strong group-think mentality drives away nearly everyone with an IQ approaching the triple digits. Nobody with an ounce of intellectual integrity could stand to spend any length of time in this kind of environment, which is why the vast majority of the population -- even here in Pittsburgh -- not only plays no role, but pays absolutely no attention to internal party politics.

I don't honestly know, therefore, just how important the endorsement itself is to the typical Pittsburgh Democratic voter. It's so meaningless to me that it's extremely hard for me to imagine it being very important to anyone else. But there will be those who are swayed by it, especially those who are paying absolutely no attention to the election, and who will only turn out to vote on May 15th after being reminded to do so by an ACDC phone call, being driven to the polls by an ACDC volunteer, and having an ACDC "how to vote" card pressed into their hands on the way into the polling place.

But the biggest effect of Master Ravenstahl's endorsement victory -- which was rather accurately described as a "landslide" by the Post-Gazette -- is likely to be more subtle. An off-off-year primary like this one doesn't draw a great deal of attention from the typical voter, but they still hear bits and pieces of the news leading up to it. Last night and this morning, these voters are hearing terms like "landslide" and "endorsement" used in connection to Luke Ravenstahl's name. And that will pretty much take care of all the research and study that most of them intend to put into their vote -- if they vote at all -- on May 15th. This weekend's endorsementment doesn't just "lend the air" of inevitability to Master Ravenstahl's election. For many voters, it has built a massive stone fortress of inevitability that Mr. Peduto will have an enormously hard time tearing down.

For interested and informed citizens like myself, Luke Ravenstahl is clearly a disaster. After months of pleading, by myself and others, throughout the burghosphere, I still have yet to encounter a single worthy argument in favor of retaining Master Ravenstahl as the Mayor of Pittsburgh. At their worst, the few things written in support of him fall into the "give the kid a chance" or "isn't it cool to have someone so young" line of thinking, and are oblivious to what our interim mayor has done with the chances that he has already had. At their best, these arguments voice support for the self-interested benefits that one's own group, neighborhood, or even self will reap in the wake of a Ravenstahl victory. But not one statement has described even one positive result for the city as a whole that Luke Ravenstahl has either provided or promised as mayor. His actions thus far have largely consisted of a string of failures, and his promises for the future are either all-but-exact copies of Mr. Peduto's plans or simply remain unpresented by the interim mayor's campaign.

If we end up with an election where there is no real competition, there will never be any reason for these future plans of Master Ravenstahl's -- assuming that he actually has any -- to go anything but unstated. He can just hide behind his incoherrent generalities about "moving Pittsburgh forward", and never have to worry about irritating anyone at all with the specifics of his proposals. That would a real tragedy for everyone.

This is supposed to be an election, and not a coronation. We need real competition to bring out the best in both mayoral candidates. And this weekend's endorsement vote did a great deal to weaken that process, much to the detriment of our city and our region. The ACDC exists to serve its own interests. I'm not entirely convinced that its members did a good job in this regard yesterday, but they certainly did absolutely nothing that was in the best interests of Pittsburgh.

While I don't know what paperwork has been filed by the Peduto campaign at this point, I would suspect that there is still time for them to change course. A victory in the May Democratic primary is now looking less and less likely. There isn't a great deal of time, there isn't a great deal of general interest among the citizenry, and the most likely primary voters are those who are beholden to the party's machine. Those are precisely the ones who will never vote for Mr. Peduto, whether it's because of his stance on the city's Act 47 bankruptcy or his clearly-announced plans to take on the most powerful city employee unions, such as those which represent firefighters and police officers.

If Mr. Peduto is going to continue his quest for the Democratic nomination, he needs to attract non-traditional primary voters to the polls. The only way to do that is to come out swinging hard on issues that will energize this non-traditional group. But to be perfectly honest, I am at a loss about just what kinds of issues these may be. Identifying those issues, getting the message out about them, and allowing that message to sink in seems likely to take far more time (and far more money) than Mr. Peduto has prior to the May 15th primary.

A Democratic primary victory may be -- indeed probably already is -- beyond Mr. Peduto's grasp. But there may still time to try a radical and far more energizing course, one that would send a clear message to Pittsburgh's typically lethargic electorate that Bill Peduto, and not Luke Ravenstahl, is the young man with bright ideas for our city's future. Mr. Peduto, now that he sees what the party establishment thinks of his candidacy, should at the very least consider pulling out of the Democratic primary altogether, and instead mounting an independent bid for mayor in November's general election. Doing so would give him more time to campaign, to present his ideas to all city voters (and not just the Democratic base), and to raise money. It would also gain him a flury of indignation from the party elite, which would generate tons of free publicity and also signal that he is clearly the candidate of change.

If Mr. Peduto really wants to be the mayor of Pittsburgh, that may be the only way to give everyone who supports him a real chance to vote for him. I'm not saying it's the ideal solution. But it may be the best one for Pittsburgh.