They told us, "no one under 30 votes!"

With Len Dobuck refusing to debate, Mayor Ravenstahl not even wanting to talk about the issues at our Youth Forum, and the Redd Up crew on the campaign trail, we’ve had an awfully expressive election season. (And that’s not even mentioning the bricks thrown and broken windows on the South Side.) All this has kept us on the grind, canvassing, talking to the media, and letting you ask the candidates about what matters to you with our Politics Gone Wild videos on the web.

The flames only went higher yesterday, with rampant voter intimidation, campaign directors verbally attacking 15 year old volunteers, poll watchers being called communists, being told to leave places where we knew we could be, literature being ripped up, and campaign workers (with their campaign t-shirts on) sitting at the table in front of the polls and trying to act like poll workers!

Even with all the shady games being played, lots of our Youth Slate candidates came out ahead. They wanted to rap with all of us, just to let us all know how blessed they’re feeling and how much they appreciate all our hustling before the primary!

CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATES
Bruce Kraus, City Council District 3 (D)


Patrick Dowd, City Council District 7 (D): "The PA League of Young Voters PAC has played a critical role in this effort. The League knows better than anyone that heart, hard work, and the engagement of every single voter makes for good campaigns, good democracy, and good government. I can't thank the League enough for its tireless work and passionate advocacy."

CITY CONTROLLER CANDIDATE
Michael Lamb (D)

COUNTY SHERIFF CANDIDATE
William Mullen, Allegheny County (D)

SCHOOL DIRECTOR CANDIDATES
Heather Arnet, District 2 (D)

Sherry Hazuda, District 6 (D)

COUNTY COUNCIL CANDIDATES
Brenda Frazier, District 13 (D)

JUDICIAL CANDIDATES

Debra Todd, Supreme Court of PA (D): "Thanks to the PA League of Young Voters for their support and for their endorsement of my candidacy for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Our youth hold the promise of tomorrow; and I appreciate all of the work the League of Young Voters is doing to educate and inform our young people about elections. As a judge with 25 years experience, and as a mother, I recognize the importance of protecting our children and encouraging our young people to become the leaders of tomorrow."


Anne Lazarus, Superior Court (D): "I am enormously proud of the support I received from all across the commonwealth. With the support of organizations like the Pennsylvania League of Young Voters and our teachers, I was able to put together a winning coalition for the primary and build a solid foundation for the general election."

Cheryl Allen, Superior Court (R)

Jack McVay, Court of Common Pleas (D/R)


Cathy Bubash, Court of Common Pleas (D/R): “I want to take a minute to stop and recognize the most exciting thing to hit Pittsburgh in a long time - the PA League of Young Voters. The League walks the talk and backs up what it says with people who care and results -oriented action! Thanks you for all of your help and I look forward to seeing your membership at the next great event that you host.”

Crazy as a Bodack

bodack (n)

1. One who is crazy: You're as crazy as a bodack, man.

2. Also can be used as an adjective: Stop being so bodack and stop you're crying biotch.



courtesy of Urban Dictionary

This seemed particularly appropriate since we've been hearing reports that Len Bodack's goon Ceoffe has been physically intimidating voters headed to the polls. That is soooooo lame. Stop being so bodack man!

Vote or cry!

Voting is like eating. If you don’t do it, you can’t complain about the consequences. This is especially true in local races and primaries, where the difference between winning and losing can be a handful of votes. Ideally, you should vote in every election, but if you choose to only vote in national elections, you’ve got it twisted.

Beyond being political nutrition, voting is a business, in that it needs competition to work. I don’t care if you’re conservative or progressive, there’s a reason you should care. Conservative youth, think of an election as a free marketplace for your votes. This is a chance for you to live up to your free market ideals. As for the progressives, this is a chance to lessen the corporate influence people love to gripe about. If you’re not voting against someone for being under a lobbyist’s thumb, who is the politician going to listen to – you or the person giving him/her money?

Tying the two together are the Kansas school boards and Rick Santorum. Santorum started out in school board, and stepped up from there in a bunch of unopposed races. We all know how it went from there, with Santorum slamming gays and “permissive liberal culture,” not to mention his voting record in the Senate. In Kansas, they ran the same hustle and played the voters the same way. Local races are a chance to weed out incompetent idiots and to promote progressives, all with a quick trip to your local polling place or sticking an absentee ballot in the mail.

How you vote doesn’t matter (as long as it’s legal!), just vote. You’re keeping stupid people away from power, making elected officials more likely to care about your interests, even they’re not who you wanted and you have a real chance to shake up local government.

So, while Diddy’s marketing and messaging may be off, you can change one word and it becomes true enough. It’s not “vote or die,” but instead, “vote or cry.” So, unless you want to spend the four months crying, get out and VOTE tomorrow, May 15th!

And before you head out to the polls, check out our Youth Slate. They're the people trying to make things better for you, so show them some love in the booth!

Politics Gone Wild - How about those recidivism rates?

Click To Play

POLITICS GONE WILD, where YOU ask the questions, and the candidates answer! In this edition, you ask: what are you going to do about the high recidivism rates? Candidate Cathleen Bubash lets you know.

Politics Gone Wild.... How will YOU bring development to District 9?

Click To Play

POLITICS GONE WILD, where YOU ask the questions, and the candidates answer! In this edition, you ask: how will you bring economic development to District 9? Candidate Leah Kirkland gives you a piece of her mind.

Breaking News: Scandalous Style hits Pittsburgh politics!

Well, well, well, what have we have we here?

Could that be city workers openly supporting a candidate barely a week before the primary?

The (in)famous Redd Up Crew was spotted this morning wearing campaign shirts for Jeff Koch. Luckily a Bruce Kraus supporter snapped some pics which quickly made their way to the internet!

Who said Pittsburgh wasn't cosmopolitan? They might not be showing any skin, but who else can say they've truly made a t-shirt not only newsworthy, but scandalous? Allentown, stealing Milan's mojo and biting the Beltway's style since 2007. At least.

On the plus side, maybe this "wardrobe malfunction" will inspire some young people to stay in the city and have a politically-inspired fashion line. I hope they name it "Machine Mania," in honor of today, with the tagline, "Liberate your style." (That one's for free, kids.)

And, as for the Honorable Jeff Koch, if you're voted out, I hope you use this slogan to talk about today: "Faux pas, so what?"

and more...(Check out what the Mayor had to say!)

The Bus only stops for Joe Williams

Jerome Bettis formerly of the Steelers gives his support to Joe Williams, too!

Politics Gone Wild.... Return of the potholes!

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POLITICS GONE WILD, where YOU ask the questions, and the candidates answer! In this edition, you ask: do you pledge to support a computerized paving management system? Candidate Patrick Dowd speaks his mind.

Politics Gone Wild....the pothole edition

Bruce Kraus answers the age old question...

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POLITICS GONE WILD, where YOU ask the questions, and the candidates answer! In this edition, you ask: if elected, do you pledge to support a computerized paving management system? Bruce Kraus lets you know.

Coming soon Patrick Dowd offers his thoughts.

Candidates bare it all

Some of our endorsed candidates made it onto POLITICS GONE WILD; check it out!

Click To Play

POLITICS GONE WILD, where YOU ask the questions, and the candidates answer! In this edition, you ask: how will you make it affordable to live in the city? Candidate Bruce Kraus shares his thoughts.

Talking Heads You Want to Hear

Check out our endorsed candidates and hear them answer questions off the cuff on our video voter guide!





And check out the newest addition to our video voter guide Politics Gone Wild! We'll be posting our endorsed candidates responses on this site soon. For now you'll have to be happy with this teaser!

We Like Doug

We only endorsed candidates in contested races so we didn't have a chance to vote for Doug in his City Council race. And we endorsed his opponent for Controller. But despite all this Doug still shows up at all our events, supported us at our fund raiser:








Even cooler, Doug bought one of our bracelets












And coolest of all, he showed up the next day at work wearing the bracelet!





If you want to be cool like Doug, email Roxanne at pittsburgh @ indyvoter.org and you too can have your very own bracelet, just like the cool kids.

Peep our Endorsement Press Conference Video

Who, what, how, why....

The PA LYV PAC Youth Slate invited super volunteers to participate in our endorsement process. Those who accepted considered the candidates answers to our questionnaire, the candidates record of public, private and community service, and any other available material. We only considered candidates in contested races and only candidates who received at least 60% of the vote received endorsement.

The PA LYV PAC Youth Slate includes candidates who represent the best interest of the city’s diverse young population. These candidates have demonstrated track records serving the interests of young people and/or have youth friendly platforms. Candidates also participated in answering candidate questionnaires and in filming segments for the video voter guide.

The full slate of endorsed candidates includes:

Michael Lamb (D), City Controller

Bruce Kraus (D), City Council District 3

Patrick Dowd (D), City Council District 7

Leah Kirkland (D), City Council District 9

Heather Arnet (D),School Director District 2

Sherry Hazuda (D),School Director District 6

William Mullen(D), Allegheny County Sheriff

Supreme Court of PA

C. Darnell Jones (D)

Debra Todd (D)

Superior Court of PA

Ann Lazarus (D)

Cheryl Allen (R)

Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas

Cathy Bubash (D/R)

Jack McVay (D/R)

Wrenna Leigh Watson (D/R)

Joe Williams (D/R)

Allegheny County Council

Kevin Acklin (R) County Council At-Large Republican

Brenda Frazier (D)