Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Ravenstahl Salute to Robinson, Slight to Dowd... Coattails...Teenage Wasteland


A conspicuous omission begged the question to Mayor Ravenstahl in his post victory speech interviews. Here's a link to video of my Q&A with Mayor Ravenstal during Channel 4 Action News election coverage. It comes about 2 1/2 minutes in:


Q: "You saluted Carmen Robinson, one of your competitors -- didn't mention Patrick Dowd. There's bad blood there?"

A: "My mom always told me 'if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all', so that's what I chose to do tonight. I think Patrick crossed the line in this campaign. I asked for -- a couple of times -- an apology, he didn't want to offer it. Hopefully, in the very near future he will so that we can continue to work together, ideally, to move the city forward."

You can see the full victory speech here at The Pittsburgh Channel.


During his remarks, Mayor Ravenstahl said:

"..finally, I want to give a special note of thanks to Carmen Robinson tonight. She did a fine job in this campaign. I give her a tremendous amount of credit for entering into this mayor's race. I thought she ran a tremendous campaign. She talked about the issues, she talked about what was important to her. Let's give Carmen Robinson a big round of applause this evening."


He closed on this note:


"I can't tell you how excited I am to begin that work, as early as tomorrow morning. To roll up our sleeves and rebuild this city, just like those that were before us did. We just celebrated our 250th anniversary last year. This is a great, great city. This is a city that's on the brink, as I said, of our third renaissance. And I can't tell you how excited I am to be the Democratic nominee for the office of the mayor for a full four year term. I can't wait to work on those eleven points in our eleven point plan. I can't wait to take this suit coat off and roll up my sleeves like each and every one of your do in the city of Pittsburgh every day when you go to work. Because that's what it's all about. This city has been built by the people of this city. This city will continue to thrive as a result of the people in this town..."


Ravenstahl proved not to have political coattails to carry his two key allies in Pittsburgh City Council races. Natalia Rudiak beat the candidate the mayor backed -- Anthony Coghill -- as well as party committee-endorsed Patrick Reilly in District 4. Rudiak is now the Democratic nominee to replace the mayor's friend and mentor Councilman Jim Motznik, who beat Michael Diven in a primary race for district judge. Another Ravenstahl ally on council -- Tonya Payne -- was upset by challenger Daniel Lavelle. At council's Wednesday meetings next year, Motzik and Payne will be missing from the opposite end of the table for face-offs with Bill Peduto and with Doug Shields, whose council presidency appears more secure.

One footnote. I'm not a musician, but I have an ear for melodies. One lingering question kept coming to me during the drive home last night. Whose idea was it for the band to play The Who's "Teenage Wasteland" as mayor entered for his victory speech? The passage they used comes about forty seconds in to this clip.






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8 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Coghill campaign was weak with very weak campaign management and a weak message. I am not surprised that he lost with such handicaps. If he only would have come clean about his involvement in the BMA and showed some integrity, he migh have had a shot.

Richmond K. Turner said...

The purist in me insists that I correct your use of the title, "Teenage Wasteland". The correct title of that track by the Who is "Baba O'Reily". This was a particularly important point in any number of late-night college dorm room debates from my past.

Somehow, it doesn't seem quite so important anymore, but it seems worth mentioning.

Maria said...

It's Zober's favorite air guitar song.

Bram Reichbaum said...

I don't have to fight, to prove I'm right
I don't have to be forgiven, no no no no"

Bob Mayo said...

I've deleted some comments because they don't abide by this blog's ground rules. You can express opinions here about the value or shortcomings of public officials, but please don't post unsubstantiated allegations against anyone. Also, please don't use language you wouldn't expect to read or hear in a mainstream newspaper or broadcast. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Bob, thanks for the reminder - Will you be doing a story on the District 4 election? Coghill lost by such a wide margin I think it would make an interesting story.

Anonymous said...

The song is older than Luke but is part of pop culture thanks to CSI.

Bob Mayo said...

To Admiral Turner: good to see you back. Thanks for the Baba O'Reily note. The Wikipedia entry has an interesting account of the history of the track.

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To Anonymous, May 20, 2009 8:52pm: I had hoped to do a full story this past Wednesday on Districts 4 & 6. Because of conflicting deadlines and availability of interviews, we had an anchor-read story with a sound clip of Rudiak instead.

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To Anonymous , May 21, 2009 2:19 AM: I think The Who qualified for making the song a part of pop culture before CSI.