Sad that the other candidates were not at the PG meeting. Sad too that the PG editors are not seeing these three in action at community meetings.
Editorial: Udin in District 6 / The Democrats' best choice is the incumbent Neither Ms. Payne nor Mr. Brentley met with the Post-Gazette editorial board, but it hardly matters. Sala Udin is someone we do know.
Formerly seen as a prickly antagonist for minority jobs during the stadium and convention center constructions, Mr. Udin has more recently gained the reputation of a fiscal tightwad.
To write that Udin is "a fiscal tightwad" is a classic ROTFL. That's net jargon that means Roll On The Floor Laughing.
Solid track record in putting Pittsburgh into the hands of two oversight boards. Sala was there helping the city go into its tailspin.
Put Sala into the private sector -- too.
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Editorial: Udin in District 6 / The Democrats' best choice is the incumbent
Monday, May 02, 2005
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
These days Pittsburgh Councilman Sala Udin is probably feeling a lot like the battered and world-weary characters he once played in August Wilson's dramas "Jitney" and "Two Trains Running."
First someone challenged that he should use his legal name, Samuel W. Howze, on the nominating petitions to get on the Democratic ballot for the May 17 primary. (The move was unsuccessful; a judge correctly ruled that the councilman may use the name Sala Udin, which he's used in public life for the past 35 years.) Then the Democratic committee passed him over and endorsed Tonya Payne, Mr. Udin's former executive assistant, for the party nomination. That was a slap to the councilman who has represented District 6 through two terms since 1995 and was once assumed to hold mayoral ambitions.
Voters in the district (which includes Perry South, North Side, Downtown, Hill District, Strip District and South Oakland) should realize, though, that Mr. Udin probably lost the party endorsement because of his support for Act 47 budget cuts and his alliance with those intent on reforming city government. So it's no surprise that he is also being challenged by school board member Mark Brentley Sr., an activist and political maverick.
Neither Ms. Payne nor Mr. Brentley met with the Post-Gazette editorial board, but it hardly matters. Sala Udin is someone we do know.
Formerly seen as a prickly antagonist for minority jobs during the stadium and convention center constructions, Mr. Udin has more recently gained the reputation of a fiscal tightwad.
He continues to serve on high-profile boards and commissions, contributing his insights as representative of several distressed neighborhoods and arguing on behalf of Pittsburgh's less-fortunate.
Mr. Udin likes to boast of the commercial and residential development that has come to parts of District 6 during his tenure. He's also proud of being a dependable voice of moderation on a sometimes fractured council. He has been there when it counts, with votes to help give Pittsburgh a sound economic future.
That's a solid track record to recommend Sala Udin for the Democratic renomination.
Are we nuts? How can anyone have endorsed this reportedly former gun running ex-con? Is'nt it funny that today in the PG he was quoted as saying something like this: If MLK were alive today he would be outraged by the black youths of the inner city having to turn to drug and gun running...
Are we all nuts for thinking that this Sam Howze character aka Sala Udin was a decent man?
Is'nt his real name Sam Howze? And is'nt he an ex-con? And is'nt he a former prisoner because he was a gun runner? Why then did he get quoted, with his foot and ankle in his mouth again, in the Post Gazzette stating that Dr. King would be ashamed of the drug and gun running black inner city youths today?
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