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Today was the deadline for filing petitions for the 2015 primary election in May. While many candidates had already announced their campaigns, there were some surprises at the Allegheny County Election Division.
Among them was veteran school board member Mark Brentley who filed petitions to run for Pittsburgh City Council District 1. Brentley previously ran for city council in 2009 and lost. This election, he will face incumbent Darlene Harris, along with Randy Zotter, Bobby Wilson and David Schuilenberg. Earlier this year, Brentley announced he would not be running to retain his seat on the Pittsburgh Public Schools board of directors.
“I’ll be leaving the board in November,” says Brentley. “In city council, I would continue my work to change the landscape of the city by advocating for jobs and resources for African Americans in Pittsburgh.”
Another highly contested race in city council will be for District 9 where incumbent Rev. Ricky Burgess faces Judith Ginyard, Andre Young and former District 9 Councilor Twanda Carlisle.
“We have a nice message, and I think our chances are very good,” Young said after filing. “The field’s a little crowded, but even though it’s crowded, I think voters will still be able to hear my voice.”
In 2007 Carlisle resigned from council after pleading no contest to charges of corruption and ethics violations. She was convicted of public corruption in 2008 and sentenced to one to two years in prison. As a result some have questioned whether she can legally hold public office.
“I’m going to let the attorneys do the work they need to do and hopefully it will work out in my favor,” she said today after filing her petitions.
Unofficial Candidate List for the Municipal Primary:
Allegheny County Controller
Chelsa Wagner
Mark Patrick Flaherty
City of Pittsburgh Controller
Michael Lamb
Natalia Rudiak
City of Pittsburgh Council – District 5
Corey O’Connor
Kimberly Kaplan
City of Pittsburgh Council – District 7
Deb Gross
Latasha Mayes
This article appears in Mar 4-10, 2015.
Before the process of this election is made to look like a circus let the voters know the truth can she or can she not hold a public office with ethic and felony convictions? Don’t treat us voters to this game of foolishness,we are better than this. This race makes us here in the poorer neighborhoods of the district look like we are idiots for even entertaining her stunt. Twanda you need to redeem yourself to the community another way.
On the bigger stage any race that resembles anything other than the honest and legal democratic process makes the party look bad as 2016 fast approaches. With all the corruption cases going on across the state even the governor should speak on this. Democrats truly look at the whole picture with this situation speak up and out your voice needs to be heard before the vote and with the vote.