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Wander preps for doomsday

Published by Tim McNulty on .

A.J. Richardson, meet Josh Wander.

Wander, the Republican nominee from Squirrel Hill, is the next curiosity in the Pittsburgh mayor's race. He will get dutiful mentions in months of stories leading up to the Nov. 5 general election, probably invites to debates and plenty of interviews (like at the end of this story yesterday).

And he doesn't stand a chance of winning.

There are five times as many registered Democrats as Republicans in the city, so even in a low turnout race like yesterday's Bill Peduto got 23,597 votes to 2,017 to Wander. So Peduto already has 10 times as many votes as the Republican even if every single one of the 22,000 other Democrats who voted for Wagner/Wheatley/Richardson stay home in November.

Even when Republicans have plausible candidates with good organizations -- like Mark DeSantis, a former aide to late Sen. John Heinz, in 2007 -- they get crushed. (DeSantis lost to Luke Ravenstahl [!] by 30 points.]

To date, Wander is largely known for two things -- preparing for catastrophic terrorist attacks (see the clip above; story here by the P-G's Rob Owen) and lobbying to send the Statue of Liberty back to France.

Wander is the founder of "Jewish Preppers," a group that . . . well, hear about it in his words:

Jewish Preppers are often very family-oriented. We believe in taking the course of "what could happen", "what life may throw at us", and to be prepared for both man-made and natural disasters. Preparations include basic needs such as water, food, shelter, medical supplies and weapons supplies, as well as, the knowledge and skills to use these resources in order to sustain life, when our sources are not available.

He has remained active in the group, posting items this spring on finding the right insurance policies for "natural calamities and economical crunches" and the best hand protection "to manage in a survival-type situation."

Angered over France's position over the war in Iraq in 2003, Wander created a website called giveitback.org (Web cache here) seeking to send Lady Liberty packing. Realizing that would be pretty hard, at one point it was suggested they just send back her head. Here's a spot NPR did about it.

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Ravenstahl comments on mayor race

Published by Lillian Thomas on .

Peeking his head out, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl issued a statement this afternoon congratulating yesterday's election winners.

Despite the bad blood between the mayor and Councilman Bill Peduto, and the negative ads he funded targeting his longtime rival, Ravenstahl struck a conciliatory tone in his statement on Peduto's primary win.

"Congratulations to Bill Peduto and to all of the winners of yesterday’s primary election. I wish everyone the best of luck in the general election in November. We all share a common love for our hometown, and I look forward to working with the victor of the mayoral general election to ensure a smooth transition between administrations."

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Election results maps, part 1

Published by Andrew McGill on .

Here's our first election map, breaking down how the candidates fared by voting district. Blue is Peduto, yellow is Wagner, red is Wheatley. Gray indicates a tie.

Embedded below.

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Election night speeches

Published by Tim McNulty on .

In case you missed it (we did) here's video of Bill Peduto's acceptance speech last night. His longtime political guru Matt Merriman Preston (who helmed the wins of Peduto allies Natalia Rudiak, Ed Gainey, Bruce Kraus and Erin Molchany) is the tall guy with the red beard behind him.

Here is audio/video of Jack Wagner's concession from Rebecca Droke, including shots of Wagner supporters such as his niece Chelsa, state Sen. Jim Ferlo and council president Darlene Harris.

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On turnout and enthusiasm

Published by Tim McNulty on .

Null Space turnout graphic

Good number-crunching on the mayoral primary already this morning from the two Chrises.

Yesterday's battle was the most wide-open since 1989 when five candidates (including Tom Murphy and Tom Flaherty) fought over a nomination secured by then-acting Mayor Sophie Masloff. But turnout/interest in the mayor's race has plummeted since a generation ago, as Pitt's Chris Briem writes (that's his graphic above):

But for the long term perspective, I know 24 years ago is ancient history to many but in 1989 110K folks voted in the primary for mayor.  That is not a reflection of population loss.  Total population loss in the city of Pittsburgh since 1989 is around -18%, but the decline in ballots between 1989 and 2013 primaries looks to be -59%.  Big difference.

Here is the trend and note the 2007 race was completely uncontested. There was not a lot to motivate showing up to vote at all.

At City Paper, Chris Potter says Bill Peduto enjoyed an enthusiasm gap over Jack Wagner, piling up huge margins in his East End home base while voters were lax in the South Hills:

There were other signs of an enthusiasm gap. In Ward 14, I count nearly 7,500 Democratic voters casting a ballot yesterday. That's an increase of about 20 percent from the 2009 mayoral primary. Meanwhile, in Ward 19, roughly 200 fewer Democratic voters turned up when compared to 2009. This despite the fact that a native son was on the ballot -– one who would have been the first mayor ever elected from the South Hills.

City Paper comes out Wednesday morning and is printed before Tuesday polls close. Here's their latest hysterical cover re: the mayor's race:

citypaperAJ

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