Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's attack ads on rival Bill Peduto's mayoral bid will continue up to the May 21 Democratic primary.

Ravenstahl's "Committee for a Better Pittsburgh" placed an advertising buy for the week of May 13-20 that was posted last night by WPGH-TV. It looks to be a $69,672 buy marketwide, largely on the three network channels.

Jack Wagner's mayoral campaign raised $1.2 million this spring, spent $927,000 and had $309,000 left as of Monday.

Wagner's haul is comprised of $371K brought forward from his Auditor General account and $865K in new giving.

Notable PAC contributors included: Jim Ferlo ($10K); IBEW Local 5 ($27.5K); TC PAC/Trumbull Corp. ($10K); EQT Corp. ($10K); Local 66 Operating Engineers ($19K); Boilermakers ($10K); Thorp-Reed ($10K).

Large individual contributors included: Indiana, Pa., insurance executive Josheph Reschini ($5K); Downtown attorney Louis Caputo ($5K); Washington Landing wind power exec James Spencer ($10K); construction exec Robert Mistick ($10K); realty exec James Rudolph ($10K); retired US Steel CEO Tom Usher ($5K); Pittsburgh Penguins C.O.O. Travis Williams ($5K); Pitt-Ohio trucking exec Charles Hammel III ($25K); philanthropist Henry Hillman ($2K); businessman/Pittsburgh Power owner Lance Shaner ($10K); political consultant Bill Green ($8K); investor Murray Gerber ($10K); developer Ira Gumberg ($10K).

Total giving for individuals and PACs would have been capped at $4K and $8K respectively in the mayor's race, before a county judge suspended them on a technicality in April.

In recent giving -- since Monday -- a separate report shows Wagner collecting another $58K, which includes $10K from Reed-Smith and another $15K from Local 66.

UPDATE: Early version of this post said $8K was from political consultant Bill Green. It is in fact a real estate developer from Mars with same name. Sorry about that.

Wagner May Report

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's PAC poured $151,000 into the committee attacking rival Bill Peduto on TV -- and is funding another mayoral candidate, Jake Wheatley.

After Ravenstahl dropped his reelection bid March 1 his PAC remained active, spending $19K on polling in mid-March, sending money to the anti-Peduto Committee for a Better Pittsburgh (which Ravenstahl of course chairs), and just last week forwarding Wheatley's campaign $10K.

His PAC still had $564K to spend as of Monday. His latest report is below:

Ravenstahl PAC May 2013

Tim Schooley at the Pittsburgh Business Times takes a long look at the legacy of former Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy (who's going to do a monthly PBT column). The whole thing's a must-read (check out Joe Mistick's comment on the difference between Murphy and Luke Ravenstahl), but here's a bit from the top where Schooley captures Murphy's still-pugnacious style:

Pittsburgh has indeed changed plenty since Murphy's time as mayor, with downtown redevelopment progessing under those who followed him, Bob O'Connor and Luke Ravenstahl.

The central business district office market is at a historic high, housing values are up in neighborhoods throughout the city and new residents are flocking to downtown in unprecedented numbers.

"Pittsburgh has a buzz about it now," Murphy says, putting it at not quite the same level of other up-and-coming cities like Seattle and Austin, Texas. Yet, he adds, there's more work to be done.

"We're way behind in terms of the numbers that I see in other cities," says Murphy, noting, for example, that 45 percent of the building permits in metropolitan Chicago are in downtown.

Photo: Joe Wojcik/Business Times