In Pittsburgh primary, party hacks outspent opponents 10x; LOST BIG TIME!
BACK STORY: Pittsburgh/Allegheny County has a Dem. county executive/old time machine Dem, who was really pissed at several Dem. incumbent office holders who had clashed with him. The Controller had the temerity to actually audit him, as she is required to do by law, and expose his fraudulent use of county property. Although he himself was unopposed in the primary, he raised money to fund primary opponents for the five Dems who'd opposed his policies. His main target was the County controller whose audit had caught him out using county vehicles for private purposes - he had to pay some $10,000 back to the county and was publicly humiliated. He also funded a challenger to the City of Pittsburgh's controller and 3 members of the county council.
Mr. Fitzgerald is backing candidates seeking to replace three county council Democrats who have clashed with him: Barbara Daly Danko of Regent Square, Amanda Green Hawkins (who is stepping down) of Stanton Heights, and Bill Robinson of the Hill District.
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-local/2015/03/02/Allegheny-County-Executive-Rich-Fitzgerald-works-to-defeat-other-Democrats-who-oppose-his-policies/stories/201503020027
The dying city/county party machine outspent their targets by TEN TO ONE, and that's a conservative estimate. They flooded the airwaves and the web with political ads. I could not turn on my computer for months before the election with out seeing some smarmy, packed-with-lies and half truth ads. AND THE MACHINE CANDIDATES LOST! Every single one! The head cheese, i.e, Fitzgerald, only won because he was unopposed. But, all in all, the vote was a CRUSHING DEFEAT for the party machine/pro-fracking Fitzgerald.
Even Fitzgerald's unopposed victory to a second term as county executive came with mixed results. Fitzgerald received 68,882 votes, about 60 percent of total Democrat votes cast, but far fewer than other countywide officials who ran unopposed. County Treasurer John Weinstein and District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. each received about 91,000 votes.
Voters cast about 1,800 write-in votes in the county executive race. Joni Rabinowitz, a frequent Fitzgerald critic and a poll worker at the Environmental Charter School in Point Breeze, said write-ins included “No Fracking,” “No Bully,” and “Anyone But.”
“It shows that he was trying to exert power, a certain power and control, that the voters didn't appreciate,” Rabinowitz said of Fitzgerald.
Read more: http://triblive.com/politics/politicalheadlines/8391880-74/fitzgerald-county-peduto#ixzz3f6zjaOKy
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