Jim Roddey won't sign my petition to allow me onto the ballot for Mayor, City of Pittsburgh

For the past few days, I've been calling upon Jim Roddey to sign my petition so I can get onto the ballot for mayor, City of Pittsburgh, as a Republican. Roddey is a city resident who is a Republican.

Word came to me in a phone call from one of his office workers that Roddey would NOT be signing my petition. He turned me down because of my stance on WQED and WQEX 16. They wanted to sell of the public TV station to a religious broadcaster. I don't think that is a good idea. Roddey has been on the board at QED. QED is in a lot of debt now. QED wanted to sell off the broadcasting rights (public airwaves) and keep the money itself.

P-G coverage for mayor's race

In Pgh, news weekly and coverage of the Mayor's Race with mentions of Mark Rauterkus

At Least They're Spelling His Name Right ...

Republican mayoral candidate Mark Rauterkus has been experiencing a bit of "be careful what you wish for" syndrome lately. In August he was the first person to officially announce his candidacy, only to be ignored by all but the alternative media. He sat by patiently while Democrats Tom Murphy and Bob O'Connor began their political jousting -- still no press. The final insult came when Josh Pollock; an 18-year-old high-school student who is probably too young to hold the job under current laws, became a media darling when he announced he was running. Rauterkus rightfully complained about the unfair coverage -- he had finally gotten ink, but only as an afterthought in articles about Pollock. He's still being ignored by the dailies and by television. In fact, the city's conservative newsletter, the Tribuen-Review, has tried to keep Rauterkus locked in the attic like a deformed bastard child, taking him out occasionally to publicly spank him. While failing to cover Rauterkus before last week, Trib columnist Eric Heil dismissed the Republican on Jan 27 as an unemployed swim coach and a sacrificial lamb "to be sliced into gyro meat by either Murphy or O'Connor." Rauterkus, who points out that being a stay-at-home dad isn't even close to being unemployed, doesn't think he should be immune from criticism, but wonders where the Trib's news coverage has been. "If they disagree with me on issues and they want to take me to task for that, that's 100-percent acceptable," Rauterkus says. "But at least listen to my ideas and plans before you decide to dismiss me and tear me down."

... In Fact, They're Spelling it Over and Over Again

Mark Rauterkus may not be getting respect on mainstream newsprint, but he's getting loads of attention in cyberspace. He even won a recent WTAETV.com pool with 28.6 percent of the vote to 25 percent for Bob O'Connor. But the poll has since been removed from the television station's site because, according to WTAE web editor, Mike Moriacci, it was "tampered with" by voters trying to vote more than once. Rauterkus admits he wanted to win the poll and so he advertised it heavily on his own website, Rauterkus.com, already the most informative site of any of the mayoral candidates. "I knew from the start that our Internet headquarters would allow us to run circles around the competition in cyberspace," he says. Now if only Pennsylvania can switch to Internet voting by the May primary.

top:

bottom:

Signature Requirements

To run as a Democrat or a Republican for Mayor, City of Pittsburgh, one needs to submit 250 signatures gathered from Feb. 13, 2001 to March 6, 2001.

To run as an Indie for Mayor, City of Pittsburgh, one needs to submit 1,644 signatures gathered from March 7, 2001 to August 1, 2001.

Thomas Paine