Luke Ravenstahl Endorses Hillary Clinton for President

Last Friday was when Luke Ravenstahl, the mayor of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, came out and publicly endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. For a while, Ravenstahl's original intent was not to endorse either candidate for president. However all of a sudden, the mayor changed his mind and decided to endorse. This endorsement isn't getting too much play in the mainstream national media, but you did hear an occasional story about the endorsement when the story broke. It was more from the local Pittsburgh media where you heard about the endorsement, no matter if it was from the newspapers such as the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Pittsburgh radio such as KDKA, and Pittsburgh's news channels such as KDKA, WPXI, and WTAE. They had reported the story more vigorously when it broke.

The main question from many supporters of both campaigns is, will his endorsement help or hurt her campaign? Well, there is no easy answer to that question because many people can argue both sides of the issue. Luke Ravenstahl is a mayor that has both positive and negative qualities to him. After all, Ravenstahl is the youngest mayor in American history at the young age of 28, which could help Hillary. However, Luke has been involved in scandal after scandal that has rocked the media on a daily basis in Pittsburgh and many considered him done this year when the city had a special election since he replaced the late Bob O Connor as the new mayor.

Therefore, I am going to examine the good and the bad about Luke Ravenstahl and you readers can decide from there about the endorsement. Let's start with some of the positives that Ravenstahl brings. Firstly, Ravenstahl does bring age to the campaign. As I mentioned above, Luke Ravenstahl is the youngest mayor in Pittsburgh history as well as American history. That could be a very positive thing for Hillary's campaign because Barack Obama had been the one getting the young voters in every state to turn out heavily for him. Even though the state is mainly elderly and polls seem to favor Hillary by double digit margins, if Ravenstahl could turn the young out and reduce Obama's victories among young people, she could win by an even larger margin and pick up more delegates.

Another positive thing about Ravenstahl is the energy he brings. As a young mayor, Ravenstahl has brought a lot of energy. That probably alone helped him win a fierce challenge from his Republican challenger Mark DeSantis in the special election that was held last year. Luke Ravenstahl was able to win the special election by over 30 points despite all of the scandals he was involved in, which I will talk about shortly. Ravenstahl has turned that energy to successfully take the negatives and turn them into a more positive light. Even though Ravenstahl is looked at mainly as negative in the Pittsburgh press, the people used his energy to view him more positive than he would be if he didn't have energy.

Another positive thing about Luke Ravenstahl was how he was able to bring the city together after Bob O Connor's death. There was a lot of controversy about how young Ravenstahl was at the time and if he would be able to unite the city. So far so good. You can say whatever you want about Ravenstahl, but he has passed the test in uniting Pittsburgh and bringing them together after the tragic death of O Connor. He could use some of the same strengths for the primary in Pittsburgh, which has many diverse groups such as the elderly, the labor unions, and even the large African American population there. He could bring them all together, or most of them, and help Allegany County go blue once again and keep McCain from carrying the state. Ravenstahl has the leadership to do that for the city of Pittsburgh.

However, you can look at the negative aspects about this endorsement too. For example, before the special election happened, there were polls that had him trailing. KDKA reported a poll where Ravenstahl at one time trailed DeSantis 55-41% in a poll, which was pretty bad, especially since the city hasn't gone Republican since the 1930s. Ravenstahl did win reelection, but he was very vulnerable and got a lot of negative press from the Pittsburgh media. KDKA radio ran many negative commentaries from the broadcasters there, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette endorsed the Republican over him when they never endorse Republicans, and even got some very nasty and cruel jokes from Jim Krenn, who is a radio comedian for WDVE in Pittsburgh. Many consider his win all because of his party and luck and mention the negative numbers he has. Since this is a Democratic primary, this could hurt Clinton and turn more Democrats over to Obama in a pivotal part of the state.

Another negative of Luke Ravenstahl is that he has many scandals, which brought the hard negative press and even the endorsement of the city's liberal newspaper for the Republican candidate. For example, Ravenstahl was rumored to have been arrested at Heinz Field after he allegedly shoved a police officer there. In all fairness, this was reported by a despicable smear merchant tabloid reporter named John Macintyre and Ravenstahl has denied ever doing that. Still, many Pittsburghers believe he did shove that cop and was taken out in cuffs. Another scandal he faced was a scandal that he took $9,000 dollars and went on a golfing trip, which was described by many as unethical. Again, the Pittsburgh press was all over this and it further decreased his positive ratings among the citizens. Finally, another example he was in was when he took a Homeland Security funded SUV and used it to go to a Toby Keith concert, which stirred controversy that he was using a government funded vehicle for entertainment purposes, which again was reported by the press and further hurt him.

Therefore, Ravenstahl has been through many scandals. That is why the endorsement of Hillary Clinton could hurt her, especially in western Pennsylvania where they get major access to the Pittsburgh news, no matter if it is the papers, radio, or TV. However, I am not saying it will hurt her either. To be honest, I don't know what it will do. It could do both, which is why I reported the stories of his positives and negatives. One thing is for certain though; he could be a big player either way for the Pittsburgh area. It will depend on the reaction of the citizens of Pittsburgh and the press and if they will bring up the scandals again. I guess the only way we will know for certain how the endorsement went is by waiting for April 22^nd to come around and we have Pennsylvania vote.

Sources:

http://www.wpxi.com/news/15588756/detail.html

http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/10786616/detail.html

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07234/811154-53.stm