Allegheny County voters snub favorites of Peduto, Fitzgerald

The big bets county Executive Rich Fitzgerald and Mayor Bill Peduto placed didn't pay off in Allegheny County's primary election.

Their campaigns poured about $118,000 into the campaigns of 21 local and state candidates, and donated nearly $150,000 to political committees that supported the same slate, according to county and state campaign finance documents.

But their efforts to oust political rivals in county and city controller offices and on county and city councils failed.

Fitzgerald said it was humbling. He won his unopposed bid for a second term as executive but felt lackluster support from voters.

“The voters spoke and gave me some negative feedback,” Fitzgerald said Wednesday in an interview. “I think there are some of the voters who might be saying, ‘Look, we don't want him to pick every candidate in the city and in the county.' ”

Mark Patrick Flaherty, 53, of Mt. Lebanon, who challenged Fitzgerald foe county Controller Chelsa Wagner, 37, of Point Breeze, lost despite his campaign receiving $45,000 from the Fitzgerald and Peduto teams. Fitzgerald said he called Wagner to congratulate her.

“I'd like to have a normal, working relationship between the executive and the controller,” Fitzgerald said, adding he would like to sit down with Wagner soon to discuss, among other issues, a pending lawsuit against the county to allow her to conduct performance audits of the police department and authorities.

City Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak, a Peduto ally who challenged city Controller Michael Lamb, lost despite getting $16,000, the maximum the pair could donate under city campaign finance laws.

Fitzgerald donated $2,000 and Peduto $500 to the campaign of Caroline Mitchell, who lost to the late county Councilwoman Barbara Daly Danko in the District 11 race. County Council candidate Dan Connolly got $19,500 from Fitzgerald's campaign and $500 from Peduto's but trailed Denise Ranalli-Russell by 78 votes in the District 13 race, according to unofficial returns.

City council candidate Bobby Wilson received $4,000 from Fitzgerald and Peduto but came up 600 votes short in his bid to defeat District 1 Councilwoman Darlene Harris, a critic of the mayor, in the Democratic primary.

Fitzgerald said some candidates might have suffered politically as a result of his support.

Peduto said he is more optimistic about the evening's results. He said candidates he supported came out on top in three of four city council races, a school board race and several judicial races.

Peduto donated $1,000 to city Councilwoman Deb Gross, who won against Latasha D. Mayes in the District 7 race. Fitzgerald gave her $2,000 and $4,000 to city Councilman Corey O'Connor, who won in a landslide in District 5.

“I told the county executive I would support the candidates he needed to get work done in the county. Likewise, he supported the candidates that we want to work with within the city,” Peduto said Wednesday after a ribbon-cutting ceremony at an East Liberty apartment building.

Fitzgerald gave $115,000 and Peduto gave at least $32,000 to political committees that, in turn, donated $46,250 to many of the same candidates. Rudiak received $4,000 from Better Jobs, Better Future, a committee chaired by Mike Mikus, head of Flaherty's campaign and Fitzgerald's former campaign manager. Better Jobs gave $2,000 to Wilson and nearly $10,000 to other candidates in campaign support services.

The Pittsburgh-based Democratic Leadership PAC, which has strong ties to Peduto, received $25,000 from Fitzgerald and $7,000 from the mayor and then gave $4,000 to Rudiak and $2,000 to Wilson.

Primary results showed that Fitzgerald and Peduto cannot act as kingmakers in Allegheny County, said Jerry Shuster, a professor of political communication at University of Pittsburgh.

“They need to become realists in terms of politics,” Shuster said. “It's a single office that we elected you to, and you're not going to be able to control the general outcome of elections.”

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.

“It's a lesson learned,” Fitzgerald said.

Staff writer Tom Fontaine contributed to this report. Aaron Aupperlee is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-320-7986 or aaupperlee@tribweb.com.