Motznik: The Beginning of the End of an Era

The PG reports this afternoon:

Jim Motznik will give up his city council seat to run for district judge...

The Trib has more on the brewing political feuds.





Long before Allegheny County Executive
Dan Onorato began cybercasting...



... or Councilman Bill Peduto launched his
now-silent "Reform Pittsburgh Now",



Motznik briefly but memorably explored the wilds
of Pittsburgh's Burghosphere.

[Click to enlarge.]

His decision means Motznik's "boots on the ground" support of Mayor Ravenstahl in city council will be absent after December.


Not quite three weeks into 2009, it's apparent that 2010 will bring new alignments and alliances in the city council chamber.

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These Boots Are Made For Blogging

Councilman Jim Motznik jumps in with both feet

And so, I thought, it's time to take a break from more serious blogging. The first month of The Busman's Holiday blog has been dominated by government and court-related posts, so I added Sunday’s lighter entry. Then this link arrived in an e-mail to my BlackBerry.

http://motznikspeaksout.blogspot.com/

As the PG's Rich Lord puts it: "City Councilman Jim Motznik is blogging, and Pittsburgh politics is a more perilous place".


Pittsburgh blogs are buzzing with posts and comments on the news:









•2 Political Junkies writes "Welcome Aboard, Councilman Motznik!".


•The Burgh Report says "Motznik Is One of Us".


•The People's Republic of Pittsburgh says "every other political blogger in the city is baking pies and dropping off casserole dishes to welcome" the councilman's new blog.


•The Pittsburgh Comet is concerned that local bloggers are "getting a bum rap because of those moonlighters".


•The Angry Drunk Bureaucrat compares all of this to a tiff in a high school lunch room.


At this writing, the MacYapper response from John McIntire had not yet been posted. (Update: it's there now.)

Council is back in session this morning. At the end of the Tuesday meetings, council members can bring up any issues on their minds, unrelated to legislation. It can make for some of the livelier extemporaneous comments; I'd nicknamed it "The Improv". My guess is that they won't touch the councilman's entry into the "burghosphere". That will probably be left to reporter Q&A after the meeting.

Note: Thanks to the Honorable Judge Peckham for the kind mention in The Carbolic Smoke Ball.

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