Incumbent Pittsburgh Mayor Loses Primary
By Bob Small
Ed Gainey, Pittsburgh’s incumbent mayor and the city’s first Afro-American mayor, lost in the May 20 Democrat Primary to Corey O’Conner.
O’Conner is expected to win in November. The last Republican to run the city was John S. Herron and his term ended in 1934.
O’Connor won with 55 percent of the vote and Gainey’s loss is considered a blow to progressives
O’Connor had a big advantage in mail-in ballots.
O’Conner, the son of a former mayor, poured sizable contributions, particularly from developers, into advertisements critical of Gainey’s performance. As for his vision “To me, it starts fresh. Tomorrow starts a whole new election in the fall, and we’re going to need everybody to take that message of growth and opportunity to our fall election”
Tony Moreno, a former police detective, is the Republican candidate.
Ed Gainey came into office on “a years-long progressive winning streak of elections in Western Pennsylvania.
Now it looks line “control of the city” returns to the “old establishment wing”.
O’Conner attacked Gainey on “frequent turnover” at the police department, which lost hundreds of officers.
Meanwhile, Gainey’s campaign boasted that he “hired the city’s first unarmed community service aides” to respond to non-violent situations.”
It should also be mentioned that “ O’Connor raised three times as much cash as Gainey ahead of the election, the Post-Gazette reported. “
“We campaigned on opportunity and growth for everybody in Pittsburgh,” O’Connor said. “And I even said it last night: we have to build a city where we’re believing in ourselves again,”
Pittsburgh has a population of 303,255 (2023) but the Pittsburgh region has a population of 2.45 million. Does that mean most people want to live outside the city?
Lastly, Pittsburgh has had championship teams in Major League baseball, the NFL, and the NHL.
However, Pittsburgh Pipers Team History their only professional basketball championship was in the old ABA.
