Details available from votePGH HERE.

In the most recent one, she delivers Jack Wagner’s talking points against Peduto into his own district.  Wagner has long been making the argument that Bill Peduto does not get along with others on council, based on statements made by Darlene Harris and Ricky Burgess.

It’s an odd argument for Wagner to make.  Peduto was part of a coalition on council that passed some of the most progressive legislation that the city has seen in most of our lifetimes:  prevailing wage, clean air and clean water, to name a few.  And it also doesn’t line up with the long list of elected officials who have endorsed Peduto.  On Council:  Patrick Dowd, Bruce Kraus, Natalia Rudiak.  In the County: Rich Fitzgerald, Chuck Martoni, Bill Robinson, John DeFazio.  In the State:  Wayne Fontana, Jay Costa, Ed Gainey, Erin Molchany, Dan Frankel, Paul Costa.  Our friends at p2pac were part of a press conference with over 40 elected officials & organizations that support Peduto and are excited to be a part of a new governing coalition in Pittsburgh.

But back to Jeanne Clark’s mailer.  Here it is:

Without listing Peduto or Dan Gilman (who is also running for the seat) by name, she takes a swipe by repeating the Wagner talking points.  And this in a district that’s likely to vote 3-to-1 or more for Peduto in the mayor’s race.

Is Jeanne Clark really trying to help Life PAC-endorsed Wagner chip away at Peduto’s base vote?  The timing of the mailing came the same day that Wagner released an ad featuring his daughter claiming that he has “evolved on social issues” and tops it off with an awkward fist bump.  With Ravenstahl putting a couple of hundred thousand dollars into attack ads against Bill and giving $10,000 to Wheatly to prop up Wagner, while Wagner plays dumb, stranger alliances-of-convenience have happened.

Will it help Clark?  I don’t see how it does.  It doesn’t make a clear argument either for voting for Clark or against Gilman.  Will this hurt Peduto?  Probably not.  At this point, everyone has heard the Wagner attacks against Peduto, and—if you believe the latest polls—people either aren’t buying it or don’t care.

Screenshot of the Hillombo blog

Here is the final paragraph but the entire post is worth the read about some of the dynamics of the candidates in the race…

So, could the candidacy of a Hill District based African American candidate and a process led by long-term Hill District political activist could play an important role in helping to elect Jack Wagner, the man who received the fewest votes of the Democrats participating in the Pittsburgh Black Political Convention? Again, I think so. I will vote for Bill Peduto. I like the creativity and policy wonkishness he shows in his 100 position papers , one of which is about his support of the Dollar a Car Campaign, an effort being led by the Hill District Consensus Group of which my wife is co-director and I am also a member.  However, of these 100 papers I do not see one with a focus on the  general issue of racism, which has negatively impacted the Hill District for centuries. Rather there are couple focused on diversity initiatives, so I won’t delude myself about the kind of leadership Peduto will provide on the systemic issue of racism facing this city.  Still, when I went to see a Mayoral debate a few weeks ago, Wagner seemed completely absent of ideas on African American neighborhoods, like the Hill, was clueless about the ban the box movement, and, his support from organizations like the Fraternal Order of Police doesn’t suggest he will be first or second out the gate to be forthright on the issue of police brutality, still a serious Pittsburgh issue, particularly for African American men and boys. Interestingly, Wagner might be Ravenstahl all grown up, a more well spoken, professional version of a man who will do business as usual. Pittsburgh needs some shaking up, and that includes the Hill.

According to the finance reports that were filled at least 2 of the staffers from Ravenstahl’s campaign staff are now working on Jack Wagner’s campaign.  Both Danielle McGrath-Hermann and Lydia Humenycky were on the payroll for Ravenstahl’s campaign in March and then on Wagner’s finance report for April.

From the Ravenstahl Finance Report:

From the Wagner Finance Report:

Wagner’s finance reports have some other interesting expenditures

• Two $12,500 payments to a  Richard Bryers in New York City for “consulting”
• Several payments to VDLY Consulting in Canonsburg for “commission” – the only thing we know about VDLY is that it was established as an LLC in December of 2012.

This looks like it was taken at Bill Peduto’s 2011 holiday party.

At 4:14pm today – the Post-Gazette published an article about the recent attack ads in the mayoral campaign - Chairman of secretive group behind ad attacking Bill Peduto: Luke Ravenstahl

Less than 2 hours later – Luke Ravenstahl responded with the following in the comments (Screenshot with URL is included below)

Luke Ravenstahl · Mayor at City of Pittsburgh

Breaking news: One of America’s (self-proclaimed) greatest newspapers actually takes the time to pull the records of an account that’s been in existence for years! Congrats to Tim McNulty and the tremendous work of the entire team from David Shribman on down. You really blew the cover off of this one. Yawn… Truth is no one is hiding anything, nor has attempted to. I have personally been the Chairman of this committee since its inception. In fact, its Chairman and intentions are much more transparent than your rag of a newspaper. At least I’m honest and truthful about my support and don’t attempt to hide behind a mantel of a “newspaper”. It’s actually laughable to think that you print your newspaper everyday with a straight face. It doesn’t take much to see who the P-G supports and doesn’t support. — Back to that in a minute… I was honored to receive tremendous financial support from hundreds of donors who believe in all of the wonderful things happening in our city. They (and I) want to see that continue. This effort is based on that — and that alone. It’s 100% factual and begins to expose the real Bill Peduto. Future ads will do the same. Finally – I love how the “haters” love to preach about the law and following it….. Except of course…. When it doesn’t benefit th! The facts are that this is legal in every sense of the law and nothing more than a committee expressing it’s first amendment rights. You 14th warders should love that right? Anyway – back to the P-G bias… The only question that remains is whether the P-G will endorse Peduto this Sunday or next. Curious about your thoughts… My guess is this Sunday — gives their man two whole weeks to talk about it!