More Follow Up on Pittsburgh's Mayoral Election

So, back to the Pittsburgh Mayoral Primary results.

I said a week ago I needed a better look at the data. I took a better look at the data, and this is what I got:


This map shows the Voting District Winners in the primary election 2005 by ward. Ward doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot, you get no electoral votes, that's for damned sure, but it gives you a rough idea as to how different neighborhoods voted, and a better idea as to what segments of the neighborhood voted for who.

All Politics is Local, as Tip O'Neill said. This is how local this race was.

The obvious remarks are that Bob O'Connor won big and broadly across the city neighborhoods, picking up local presinct wins across all segments of the city... except for a big blue blob in Shadyside, Friendship, North Point Breeze, Point Breeze, and Squirrel Hill. That portion of the City, The People's Republic of the 14th Ward, fell to the armed ruffians of Bill Peduto. Similarly, Bill picked up support in segments of Highland Park, Southside, and the Mexican War Streets.

As I said before, Bill's wins were not broad based, but rather reflective of a bourgeoise-bohemian ethic, which is popular in certain segments of the City... namely the ones listed above.

Lamb, by contrast, clung to victories in equally concentrated areas: Duquesne Heights, Mt. Washington, Brookline, and Beechview. I would characterize these neighborhoods as post-war suburban Pittsburgh ethic; upper working & middle class.

Kendrick did pick up some wins at St. Clair and in the Upper Hill, which seems to reflect an inability of any of the other candidates (with the exception of Bob) to successfully court African-American voters. Somehow Henderson picked up a chunk of the Southside Flats. I'm scratching my head over that one.

In any case, take a look at the turnout:
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A lot of heavy turnout in the Peduto won areas, as well as some very heavy turnout in a few key O'Connor areas. Probably helped. Otherwise, it's generally poor turnout, so I'm not reading too much into this map.

My thesis, however, is this: the Peduto campaign was a narrowly focused campaign that concentrated on a few, key areas. This is not part of a larger movement, but rather a microlocalized political phenomenon which, unless it embraces a larger popular message that appeals to a larger swath of Pittsburgh, is doomed to fester away.

And in the next few posts, I'll show you why I think this and what it means for the future of the progressive cause in Pittsburgh.