Barb Warwick was sworn in a little more than a month ago, but she’s already gearing up for a re-election campaign to hold onto her City Council seat for a full four-year term. It appears she won’t be alone this primary: 27-year-old graduate student Lita Brillman plans to mount a challenge.
“District 5… is at an inflection point,” Brillman said in her announcement last month. “My priority is to ensure the safety and durability of the existing communities … and make sure that all community development benefits those residents first and foremost.”
My name is Lita Brillman, I'm a true progressive, a Squirrel Hill native, and I'm running for City Council. Visit https://t.co/amPPm2gYWK for more information about what I stand for, and how I'm going to help District 5. pic.twitter.com/SrGHHCNiBs
— Lita Brillman for City Council (@LitaForPGH) December 15, 2022
District 5 includes the city neighborhoods of Glen Hazel, Greenfield, Hays, Hazelwood, Lincoln Place, New Homestead, Regent Square and Squirrel Hill South.
Brillman lives in Greenfield today but grew up in Squirrel Hill. “I’ve spent more time at the JCC participating in their musicals and summer camps for basketball than anywhere else in Pittsburgh,” she told WESA. “District 5 really is my home, and I've really been shaped by the Jewish and queer communities here.”
This is Brillman’s first campaign for public office. But she said her position in a mix of communities in Pittsburgh — including the city’s LGBTQ and Jewish communities — will enable her to build a collaborative group of supporters.
“I have grown up in queer spaces, in Jewish spaces that really make District 5 and Pittsburgh as a whole what it is,” she said. “I am interested in inviting those people to the table more so than I am handing down policies based on what I think is best.”
Brillman said her academic experience would inform how she would approach her work at City Council. She’s currently enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs to complete a master’s program in public administration.
“I have a data background that I think will be really helpful in evaluating what programs really work,” after they've been implemented, she said. "Are we looking back a year later to say what has changed?”
Among the issues facing Pittsburgh’s fifth district, Brillman cited development at Hazelwood Green as a top concern.
“We know what we don't want to Hazelwood to become. We don't want it to become the next East Liberty, the next Lawrenceville, with people being displaced from their homes as a result of economic development,” she said.
She stressed the need for community involvement in development decisions across Pittsburgh, but especially in her district.
Brillman said her campaign isn’t a criticism of Warwick’s brief tenure in office, which began in December.
“I don't believe in pausing my run, or putting my campaign on hold just because another qualified person has the seat,” Brillman said. “I think everybody deserves to have a crack at it and the voters can make their own decision.”
“I am interested in making an impact where I think my skills are the most useful,” she said. “And right now, I think that that's this particular seat.”
Warwick herself was an early entrant in the race to replace Corey O'Connor: She announced her intention to run for it even before it was clear O'Connor would be named acting county controller.
Brillman will officially launch her campaign with an event at J. Gough’s Tavern on Murray Avenue on Feb. 4. More information can be found here.
