Less than a year ago, it seemed the race in Allegheny County Council District 13 would be referendum on Liv Bennett, one of the body's most progressive members. Instead, voters next week will decide on how best to replace her.
Bennett had sought to run for another term in the seat, which represents Bellevue and a swath of the city that includes North Side neighborhoods, Downtown and neighborhoods to the south and east. She withdrew amid a county executive race and problems filing for the Democratic primary. That left Lawrenceville resident David Bonaroti, a first-time candidate and Google employee, as the only candidate on the ballot in the spring.
But as the general election drew near, independent Sam Schmidt emerged as Bennett’s spiritual heir: a candidate who identifies strongly with — and pledges to be a voice for — struggling working-class and poor residents.
“I think what I would bring to county council is that lived experience. I’ve always been a poor person,” said Schmidt, of Bellevue. “I really represent that group of folks who have struggled to make ends meet. [And] unless you are listening to community voices, there’s no way to know exactly what the need is.”
Schmidt, a U.S. Army veteran and activist who works with the homeless, is a Democratic Socialist who said her “main focuses are creating more equitable housing for all [and] being able to guarantee clean air and clean water.” She said she would pursue policies that include providing low-income tenants with free legal representation in eviction proceedings.
Council helps shape the county’s budget, which amounts to $3 billion in operating expenditures and other spending. Schmidt said she would prioritize housing solutions that would begin with “establishing [homeless] shelters, making sure that we have shelter available, instead of closing them without a plan for the future.” But she said longer-term solutions include establishing stringent affordable-housing requirements for new development.
“There’s opportunity here for us to help subsidize home improvements like lead-line replacement, which ties into my environmental initiatives,” she said.
Bonaroti said he shares some of those priorities, though his policies tend to be less sweeping.
On environmental issues, he favors a countywide ban on single-use plastic bags, better funding for pollution enforcement and efforts to make the county’s own energy use more sustainable. On housing, “We desperately need to continue to develop housing. It operates on the supply-and-demand curve,” he said.
But he also said the county’s aging housing stock — which is often prone to a lack of modern insulation — should be addressed.
“If you have to spend an extra $500 in gas to heat your home or $500 in electricity to cool it, that’s crushing your paycheck,” he said. One solution would be to build on a state “whole home repair” initiative that provides money for improvements to lower-income families, he said.
But fundamentally, Bonaroti said, the biggest differences between the two candidates are their resumes and the mindset he would bring to council.
Politicians “promise countless things, but they never deliver on it,” he said. “I’ve had a very successful career because I deliver on my promises.”
Bonaroti especially decried a lack of cooperation between levels of government, noting that much of District 13 overlays territory also represented by Pittsburgh City Council.
“I know how to answer to different stakeholders, and I think it would be really beneficial to introduce that type of model into government,” he said.
For her part, Schmidt agrees that the two candidates’ biographies provide a stark contrast.
“We need more diversity in politics, and electing another white guy is not the answer,” she said.
Schmidt volunteers with the homeless-support group Food Not Bombs, and she said that in the military, she often spoke out against waste, sexual abuse and violations of environmental regulations.
“The ideas I’ve built out are based on my lived experience and my work in the community,” she said. “I think that’s really what separates the two of us.”
Schmidt’s campaign has been able to compete economically with Bonaroti’s bid: She’s raised slightly more than $17,000 to his nearly $23,000 — and contributions to Bonaroti’s primary run and loans from his own pocket gave him a head start of roughly $18,000.
Bonaroti’s backers include a handful of unions including the Laborers and the operating engineers, outgoing County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, and Walnut Capital developer Gregg Perelman.
Schmidt’s bid has been boosted by donations from Bennett, City Council member Barb Warwick, and progressive political groups. And she’s running alongside fellow socialist Carl Redwood, who is challenging incumbent Dewitt Walton in a district next door.
“We’re at a point where we’re ready to see authentic people from the community elected to government, and so it’s really exciting to be part of this,” Schmidt said.
Democratic Socialists have already played a bit role in the county executive race, thanks to Democratic nominee Sara Innamorato’s prior affiliation with the group, and a controversial statement it made about the latest conflict in Israel.
Bonaroti largely avoided criticizing Schmidt on this score, though he said her ties to the Democratic Socialists of America “raises questions regarding [a candidate’s] stances on not just what’s going on globally but locally. That’s a philosophy that you subscribe to, and you’re going to make policy decisions based on that.”
Schmidt notes that council has limited authority to disrupt the workings of capital. But she said voters had nothing to fear from councilors dedicated to that agenda. While a county councilor may not be able to “upend the systems that exist, we’re just going to try to improve them as much as we can. … We think that you all are hard-working and that you deserve more, and we want you to be able to have that.”
