This is WESA Politics, a weekly newsletter by Chris Potter providing analysis about Pittsburgh and state politics. Sign up here to get it every Thursday afternoon.
For political reporters, it’s hard to make a cohesive narrative out of a week like this — a week in which a handful of Republicans backed a Democrat for Speaker of the House in Harrisburg, while Republicans in D.C. are struggling to select a speaker from their own ranks. And we’re in the part of the political cycle where new candidates announce bids seemingly every other day … amid a turbulent media landscape that isn’t making anyone’s job easier.
So in the absence of a traditional political narrative, and to prevent me from feeling too sorry for myself, this newsletter draws inspiration from Dr. Seuss’ Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are, which reminds us “you ought to be thankful a whole heaping lot, for the places and people you’re lucky you’re not.”
After all, you could be running for county exec, where another rival is always on deck …
Including a guy who signs all the checks.
The race to replace Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald is wide open, with no obvious heir and a Democratic field that is likely to grow to a half-dozen next week, when Allegheny County Treasurer John Weinstein appears poised to enter the race.
Weinstein has held his current office since 1999 and is up for re-election next year. But he’s expected to announce a bid for county executive at a fundraiser next Thursday. Invitations to the event say he plans “A Special Announcement” that evening. When asked in a brief phone conversation Thursday if his intention is to run for county executive, he didn’t exactly say yes but confirmed “I am going to make a special announcement” and spoke about having “a cross-section of support from all over the county.”
“It’s all coming together,” he said.
Democrats I’ve spoken to are divided about whether Weinstein will see a campaign through, in part because he flirted with a run for state treasurer back in 2016 but didn’t pull the trigger. But his presence would rejigger the calculus for the other candidates, including presumed frontrunners Michael Lamb and Sara Innamorato.
Be glad you’re not a reporter who works for the Blocks, having to dodge when officials throw rocks. … And think of the candidates looking for press, but hoping not to get caught in that mess!
Political coverage last year was shaped by the fact that some high-profile Republicans — particularly GOP gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano — refused to talk to reporters.
This year, though, coverage of local races is being altered by the fact that some Democrats are wary of speaking to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The paper’s ownership, Block Communications, is locked in a bitter labor dispute with striking workers.
Of course, where Republicans were showing contempt for the media, Democrats are showing sympathy for striking journalists and the labor movement generally. (And in the spirit of full disclosure: I’m a former Post-Gazette employee.) But whatever your feelings, the dispute is clearly affecting coverage.
Already there is a county council race where both candidates have declined to speak to the paper. That’s not always an easy choice for office-seekers trying to get their names out there. And things may be complicated even further by the fact that a Block subsidiary purchased City Paper this week — another source for local political news (where I previously worked as well).
This isn’t just a campaign issue. Pittsburgh City Council this week effectively told the P-G to cancel its subscription, declining to pay a bill to renew the paper at the urging of council newcomer Barb Warwick. There was also talk about trying to find alternate places to place legal advertisements that governments are required to publish.
And you should be glad you’re not a House rep named Guy, who wakes up each day with new reasons to sigh.
He has to sell McCarthy and his leadership traits, while appealing to logic with the likes of Matt Gaetz!
As noted in this space late last year, Guy Reschenthaler enters his third term in Congress as the GOP’s chief deputy whip. His job is to help party leadership count and sway votes within their caucus … and he’s been tossed into the deep end of the pool, trying to corral votes for Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House.
But a sharply divided GOP isn’t making that easier, due to fewer than two dozen hardliners who include Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz. The fight has raised Reschenthaler’s profile a bit, at least: When one Republican proclaimed that McCarthy needed to clear the field by the end of the day Wednesday, for example, Politico spotted Reschenthaler “standing off camera, waiting to …. try to muscle him back in line.”
By contrast, Republican leaders in the state House were able to select a Speaker in concert with Democrats. We’ll see how that works out. But it’s not a good sign for D.C. Republicans if, even for a week, they make Harrisburg look like a model of good government by comparison.
And poor Mr. Potter, T-crosser, I-dotter. He has to cross t’s and he has to dot i’s, and finish his newsletter before his editor cries.
