Two new ads are out today in the city mayor's race.

Jack Wagner's mayoral campaign released its third ad, and it goes the ultra-positive route in a week dominated by headlines about Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's negative attack on Bill Peduto. The Peduto camp issued its third as well, repeating criticisms of Wagner from their second ad.

Wagner's spot talks rather vaguely about his plans for office, saying he's the only candidate talking about issues in the race -- which is a stretch, given all the policy the candidates have talked at numerous forums and the wonk-fest happening on Peduto's website.

Here's the script:

"There's a lot of noise out there right now, but which candidate is talking about what they will do for Pittsburgh? Only Democrat Jack Wagner. He's kept government honest, strengthened Megan's Law. Jack Wagner has a plan: good-paying jobs, keeping the best and brightest here at home; safe, green and clean neighborhoods; UPMC paying its fair share; fixing city government, modernizing services; a City Hall with civility and diversity. Jack Wagner. Sounds pretty good doesn't it?"

The Peduto spot, below, is an echo-chamber: it repeats lines from a Jim O'Toole fact-check story on Wagner's rebuttal to Peduto's last ad. The first quote it uses from Jim's story -- regarding state spending -- is actually a paraphrase of arguments by the Peduto team, not a conclusion by the P-G. See for yourself:

Enough -- that's the collective message of the Democratic candidates for mayor who have been debating seemingly nonstop for the past two months.  While they continue to bicker on any number of issues, the four managed to reach an accord to cut down on the number of debates in the closing weeks before the May 21 primary.  Political junkies needn't despair, however, they will still meet at least seven times from Monday through the primary.  The details, in a release from the Peduto campaign, after the jump.

Good morning from a gorgeous spring day here in Pittsburgh. 

1. My daughter is obsessed with female superheroes -- I could just about play one of the goons in the YouTube clip where Batgirl makes her debut, I've watched it so many times. ("Before caterpillars come cocoons, Boy Wonder"). The P-G's version, Moriah Balingit, leads the paper today with an expose of those behind an anti-UPMC campaign that's all over the city.

2. The paper's masked editorial writers take on Luke Ravensthal's Facebook rant. POW! SPLAT!

3. Only one thing matches the sweetness of spring -- a letter from former coroner Cyril H. Wecht. This one is on the Pa Turnpike Commission probe. A taste:

Why has the commission chair, William Lieberman, not been dismissed from his position? One would think he should have had sufficient grace and good sense to have submitted his resignation by now in light of this ongoing expose.

The proposed abolishment of this commission by several state legislators makes a great deal of sense. The termination of this incredible boondoggle is long overdue.

4. Dr. Wecht also makes appearances in stories about the mysterious cyanide death of a UPMC doctor, and more to the point of our political meanderings, Jim O'Toole's story on the staggering number of mayoral debates. By the way, did you know there's a televised debate Monday? In case you miss it, there's another one Tuesday.

5. How about something light? Here are stories on the financial positions of Allegheny County and the city of Pittsburgh.

"We learn the influence of our will from experience alone. And experience only teaches us, how one event constantly follows another; without instructing us in the secret connexion, which binds them together, and renders them inseparable." -- David Hume, "An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding"

The latest brouhaha in the Pittsburgh mayor's race concerns perceptions of reality, and specifically whether a statement posed in the Luke Ravenstahl attack ad on Bill Peduto that the mayoral hopeful "voted against living wage, hurting workers citywide" is truthful. The best answer, familiar to all of us who suffered though undergraduate philosophy classes, is: It's complicated.

A collection of labor groups rallied for Peduto at the City-County building today, calling the attack a "smear" and a "lie" and noting that the councilman led fights seal the approval of a city "prevailing wage" law (over Ravenstahl's opposition) in 2009-2010.

"When, in the midst of a political camapign, outside influences decide that they're going to try to rewrite history, when they're going to try to put out a smear ad campaign to benefit one candidate over another, it falls to those of us who remember our history to tell the truth," said Sam Williamson, assistant director of 32BJ SEIU of Western Pennsylvania, the property service worker union. "In this city, it has been Bill Peduto over and over again standing up for working people."

Peduto did help lead that prevailing wage fight -- but he also voted in favor of a bill in 2002 that, while it didn't explicitly kill a similar "living wage" measure, essentially did so.

And, as usual, it was affected by mayoral politics.