The mayoral race for Pittsburgh will test the powers of incumbency, the grit of labor union powerhouses that have long bolstered the region’s Democratic establishment and the palatability of the city’s progressive movement that has routinely overcome long odds to oust powerful favorites.
In interviews with several power-players who are integrally involved in the three-month campaign blitz ahead of this May’s primary election, a picture of the mayor’s race emerged with incumbent Bill Peduto as the odds-on favorite to win a third term. But it’s one in which a challenger, state Rep. Ed Gainey, D-Lincoln-Lemington, appears to be pulling the right political levers to mount the most formidable contest the mayor has faced yet as an incumbent.
It also features a third candidate, retired police officer Tony Moreno, who is described as a workhorse who could shake things up by continuing to appear at every neighborhood event he can. And a fourth, Will Parker, who is gathering signatures to run.
Mr. Peduto has the built-in advantage of incumbency in a city where mayors seeking re-election have never lost. He’s likely to reap the benefits of high name recognition and a support network of unions and politicians who have helped him before. He could be assisted, too, by ultra-low voter turnout in a municipal primary held during a pandemic.
With this network comes an advantage in fundraising, which is crucial to running a mayoral campaign across the city’s 90 neighborhoods. As one Peduto insider said, “you can’t mail your way through” a citywide race. It takes airtime and door-knocking. City councilman Ricky Burgess, a Peduto backer, said it takes about a half million dollars to run a competitive mayoral campaign here.
“The mayor is on track to far exceed that,” Mr. Burgess said.
Mr. Peduto’s years in City Hall grew his network into a formidable force of local Democratic politics. An East End council member throughout the 2000s, he was seen by his earliest supporters as a fresh-faced insurgent at a time when Pittsburgh was hemorrhaging young people. He eventually would beat Jack Wagner, an institution in his own right, in the 2013 mayoral primary, then defend his seat easily in 2017 against former North Side councilwoman Darlene Harris and the Rev. John Welch.
But Mr. Gainey — a local Democratic committeeman who has represented the 24th legislative district in the state House since 2013 — is no fundraising slouch or afterthought, insiders say. His campaign said he raised $134,000 in the first five weeks of his bid through more than 700 individual donors, a strong showing for a challenger to a two-term incumbent.
“I think [Mr. Gainey] has represented his area well. I just think it's not the right time to disrupt what's going on as far as my district is concerned,” said state Sen. Wayne Fontana, D-Beechview, a supporter of Mr. Peduto’s whose 42nd district overlaps with parts of Pittsburgh.
Mr. Fontana is a symbol of Mr. Peduto’s incumbency advantage; a state lawmaker who has financially supported Mr. Gainey’s runs for the state House in the past but decided to keep the nexus of Pittsburgh-area Democrats intact when faced with the decision of who to endorse.
“We can all sit down and break bread together,” Mr. Fontana said of himself, the mayor, state Sen. Jay Costa, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald and U.S. Reps. Mike Doyle and Conor Lamb. Their partnership has helped bring funding to the city, he added.
But some local elected officials don’t see themselves as members of the club and view Mr. Gainey as an outsider who could bring bold change to the status quo. Bethany Hallam, an at-large Allegheny County councilwoman, said Mr. Gainey has personally contacted her to partner for their shared constituencies, while Mr. Peduto hasn’t. She said Mr. Gainey is in-touch with the grassroots, too.
“Every time I’ve been at a protest, Ed Gainey’s there. Every time I’ve been at a rally, Ed Gainey’s there,” said Ms. Hallam.
Now, the outsiders hope to return the favor. While Mr. Gainey’s camp describes his army as a broad collective that spans from the Young Democrats of Allegheny County and painters union to the Steel City Stonewall Democrats, its artillery will mostly come from SEIU Healthcare and One Pennsylvania, which bring their own David vs. Goliath success stories.
With their support, Mr. Gainey has what Mr. Peduto’s 2017 challengers didn’t have: a political apparatus and guaranteed fundraising help, conceded one high-ranking supporter of the mayor.
One PA regularly mobilizes hundreds of supporters around causes, and its endorsement brings digital help and a membership ready to contribute and volunteer. Its members are motivated by a disdain for institutional Democratic Party politics and are “looking for real champions for the working class who are going to center the experience of regular folks in their campaigning, agenda and all of the decisions they make,” said executive director Erin Kramer.
The organization has never endorsed in a Pittsburgh mayoral race, Ms. Kramer said, but it has helped notch regional wins against incumbents in other races. Its members supported Summer Lee and Sara Innamorato’s progressive candidacies against Democratic state House favorites and see Mr. Gainey as next in line. He “speaks values that mirror what we value as an organization,” said Karen Lyons, a member of the group’s political committee.
“I would dare to say that our current mayor is more comfortable being in a room at the top of the tower than down in the streets with the people who have a problem with the people in that tower,” Ms. Kramer added.
Dominant infantry
Mr. Peduto has assembled a dominant political infantry that’s about as well-connected as it is eager to spend. He has strong backing from the building trades, and this past week was endorsed by longtime ally SEIU 32BJ, the straight retail political arm of the union — separate from SEIU Healthcare — that’s well-versed in mobilizing members for its preferred candidates.
It’s rare to see 32BJ and Healthcare split — both are under the state council and typically fall in line on endorsements — but the race is symbolic of a fissure between health care workers trying to unionize UPMC and a mayoral administration that sometimes is critiqued as being too submissive to the nonprofit’s wants.
In the eyes of 32BJ and the newfound PAC it pulled together with Pittsburgh’s largest teachers union, the Laborers’ District Council of Western PA and IBEW Local 5, Mr. Peduto has done more for low-wage workers than anyone, said Gabe Morgan, 32BJ’s Pennsylvania state director. Mr. Morgan cited the recent paid sick leave bill for essential workers and said 32BJ will fight for him in return. The troops will be the same workers who live in working-class neighborhoods and have improved their working conditions by laying down in traffic and handcuffing themselves to buildings, Mr. Morgan noted.
The mayor also has the backing from a majority of the city council and is credited with collaborating with members on a governing body that can hardly advance an agenda unless he’s on board. Councilman Corey O’Connor, whose father ran twice against an incumbent mayor and lost, said that although the legislative body doesn’t always vote for everything the mayor wants, there are rarely 5-4 votes.
“That shows that people are willing to work things out, and I think that’s important,” said Mr. O’Connor, who is publicly supporting Mr. Peduto.
The council’s two Black members — Mr. Burgess and Daniel Lavelle — have stepped up to defend the mayor over what’s become a key point of contention in the race: what his office has done — or has failed to do — to alleviate inequities facing the Black community. Mr. Peduto’s work to invest in developments in Garfield, Larimer and Homewood “have created goodwill among the African Americans in the community I represent,” Mr. Burgess said.
Path to victory
Mr. Gainey’s best path to victory is through winning a solid majority of Black voters, splitting south of the river 60-40 and cutting into the Peduto-friendly East End, political insiders say. But he may have difficulty running as a state lawmaker who doesn’t have the local apparatus of a councilperson or as much name recognition in the areas of Pittsburgh outside his district.
To State Rep. Jake Wheatley, D-Hill District, perhaps it won’t matter for Mr. Gainey, whom he supports.
“As legislators, we’ve been so inundated with our own legislative districts that very rarely do we come outside of them. The difference between Ed and I is that Ed is a native of Pittsburgh. Ed already worked for two mayoral administrations,” said Mr. Wheatley, who ran for mayor in 2013 but lost to Mr. Peduto. “He’s been in different areas of the city. His name rings in different areas of the city.”
Mr. Gainey could be hindered, though, by having to let his “superpower” — as supporters call it — stay idle. He’s developed a reputation for giving rousing in-person speeches, a task made difficult by the pandemic. It doesn’t worry his campaign, though, as advisers say they are well-prepared to use social media to deliver his message. Plus, some say it’s even better for campaigning in the long run.
“Someone like Ed who maybe is used to speaking in a room full of 200 people can now have 500 people on a Zoom [call] — people who wouldn’t be able to make it because of work obligations to in-person events or because of child care responsibilities,” Ms. Hallam said.
Insiders concede that it’s tempting to label the race as a progressive insurgency versus an entrenched incumbent, but Mr. Peduto’s supporters stand by his progressive bonafides and Mr. Gainey’s team insists his support is much more broad.
State Rep. Emily Kinkead, D-Allegheny County, a Peduto supporter, said as a progressive, the movement’s ability to succeed, largely, “is very much the legacy that Bill Peduto is leaving for the Pittsburgh region.”
“I think people will lose sight of the fact that we couldn't even have a conversation about how progressive Pittsburgh can be and what kinds of progressive policies we can accomplish until Bill Peduto came along,” Ms. Kinkead said. “He was the first progressive person and the only progressive on City Council when he was there. … He's largely Pittsburgh's first truly progressive mayor.”
Mr. Gainey insists his support “crosses a lot of bridges,” welcoming progressives but also reaching conservative Pittsburghers who appreciate a pragmatic platform on issues like paving roads and fixing sidewalks.
“There's a lot of neighborhoods from the conservative and moderate bases that feel forgotten under this administration,” Mr. Gainey said.
Julian Routh: jrouth@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1952 or Twitter @julianrouth.
First Published: March 7, 2021, 11:30 a.m.
Updated: March 7, 2021, 1:18 p.m.
