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Harris went Indy on deadline

Published by Tim McNulty on .

Darlene Harris

Will 422 be Darlene Harris's lucky number?

Allegheny County voter registration records confirm the Pittsburgh City Council president changed her registration to independent on April 22, preserving her ability to run against Democrat Bill Peduto in the November mayor's race. The documentation was officially stamped at 4:22 p.m. that day, just 38 minutes before the party-switching deadline.

Mrs. Harris confirmed the party switch to the Post-Gazette yesterday but would not elaborate on her political intentions.

She was previously a Democrat. State law requires independent general election candidates to be disaffiliated with their parties at least 30 days before the primary. Since the 30-day deadline was Saturday, April 20, she had until April 22 to make the switch.

She has until Aug. 1 to make a decision. To get on the ballot she would need 485 petition signatures from registered city voters -- that total equals 2 percent of the votes cast in the last citywide election for controller in 2011.

No other Democratic names previously associated with the mayor's race -- including Controller Michael Lamb, state Sen. Jim Ferlo or city councilman Ricky Burgess -- switched their registration, according to the records.

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Burger Brunch: Five stories to read this afternoon

Published by Andrew McGill on .

1. O'Toole and Smydo pick apart Peduto's campaign, analyzing his sucess and quoting the candidate in between mouthfuls of victory Doritos. (For more policy, see Moriah's story.) And the spectre has been raised: Will Darlene Harris run as an independent?

2. For that matter, no one knows what Jack Wagner's plans are, though he's barred from running in November as an independent.

3. Gov. Tom Corbett has no Latino staff members, but heck, if you can find one, let him know! Giess what: That is an actual quote. Karen Langley has the story on his non-apology. (My favorite bit: "When the woman responded that she was 'sure' there were Latinos, Mr. Corbett turned, apparently toward an audience, and asked: 'Do any one of you want to come to Harrisburg?' People off-camera laughed, and the governor raised his hands and said,'See?'")

4. Pittsburgh inches up an itty-bitty bit in population.

5.  And Rob Rogers closes out the day:

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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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