Pittsburgh City Council will get two new faces as a result of Tuesday’s election. One is a political outsider, the other is no stranger to Grant Street.
The voters of District 8 overwhelmingly chose Democrat Dan Gilman (89 percent) to represent the district over Republican Mordecai D. Treblow (10 percent). Gilman is the chief of staff for current District 8 Councilman Bill Peduto, who opted not to run so he could focus on his mayoral campaign.
Gillman said he knows this will not be an easy job.
“We have a massive problem looming with our school system facing bankruptcy, and it’s going to take a partnership between our city and the school district to make sure that we solve that problem," he said, "because you can’t have a great city without great schools and you can’t have great schools without a great city.”
Voters also chose nonprofit consultant Deb Gross to fill the unexpired term of former Councilman Patrick Dowd, who left his District 7 seat this spring to take a job at a newly founded nonprofit.
Also up for election were the three other even numbered districts. In the 2nd district, Theresa Smith was unopposed. The same was true for Daniel Lavelle in the 6th District.
In the 4th District Incumbent Natalia Rudiak was able to easily fend off the challenge by Republican Samuel Hurst by a three-to-one margin.
“The work never ends,” she said. “So I look forward to hopefully closing the deal on a lot of things and putting more irons in the fire to start great new projects.”
Gilman and Rudiak are expected to be strong allies of the newly elected Bill Peduto as he tries to build ties between the mayors off and the council chambers.
