EDITORIAL – DeSantis the right choice for Pittsburgh

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette turned heads yesterday when it chose to endorse Republican Mark… The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette turned heads yesterday when it chose to endorse Republican Mark DeSantis for the mayoral election.

In its editorial, the PG conceded that it very rarely endorses Republican candidates for mayor. In fact, the last time the newspaper made a Republican endorsement was for John Tabor – who ultimately lost the election – in 1969.

So, when a newspaper that has historically endorsed Democratic candidates for mayor of a city dominated by Democrats decides to endorse a Republican, it typically implies one of two things: Either the Democratic incumbent has mismanaged the city, or the first-time Democratic candidate appears like he would mismanage the city.

This is a harsh reality in Pittsburgh. While ideological tendencies run the gamut, we tend to vote only one way when mayoral elections come around. Call it tradition, call it stubbornness, but besides bleeding black and gold, our city also bleeds Democratic blue.

The PG’s reasoning for endorsing DeSantis escapes both of these situations, however. Sure, Democratic incumbent Luke Ravenstahl hasn’t lived up to the expectations set by his predecessor, the late Mayor Bob O’Connor, but Ravenstahl was also only handed 14 months to prove he’s worthy of the job.

The PG’s endorsement isn’t just calling out Ravenstahl’s incompetence or ineffectiveness – because it isn’t all Ravenstahl’s fault that Pittsburgh has deteriorated to the state that it is in today.

We are losing jobs, young people and businesses, and we have been for a while. Pittsburgh has been slowly deteriorating for years, a sign that the Democratic Party has failed in moving our city in a progressive direction.

This isn’t to say that Ravenstahl is exempt from criticism. He promised to carry on O’Connor’s promise to clean up Oakland – and has done little more than hand out minor citations for debris and overgrown weeds. He’s also done little to promote job growth in our city – maybe because he’s never had to struggle to find a job himself.

When then-26-year-old Ravenstahl stepped up as the youngest mayor of a major city in national history 14 months ago, we were excited. Here was a man who was only a few years out of college. He was going to give us –