Chris Potter

1 month ago | wesa.fm | Julia Maruca |Chris Potter

This is WESA Politics, a weekly newsletter by our political reporters providing analysis about Pittsburgh and state politics. If you want it earlier — we'll deliver it to your inbox on Thursday afternoon — sign up here. Tuesday night marked the end of Mayor Ed Gainey’s hopes to hold onto his seat, but his evening watch party at the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers on the South Side felt more like a wake than a funeral.

1 month ago | wesa.fm | Chris Potter

It took a little more than two hours for The Associated Press to call the mayoral race in Pittsburgh’s Democratic primary Tuesday night. But warning signs were flashing for Mayor Ed Gainey moments after the polls closed. That’s when the county posted results from more than 17,000 mail-in ballots sent in by voters and processed by election workers during the course of the day.

1 month ago | wesa.fm | Chris Potter

Voters in the city of Pittsburgh didn’t just choose a future leader on Tuesday: They also weighed three ballot questions that, taken together, would put constraints on some of the actions that leaders and voters alike could take. The three ballot questions were each placed before voters by an act of City Council, rather than by a petition filed by voters themselves.

1 month ago | wesa.fm | Julia Maruca |Chris Potter

Democrats across Pittsburgh weighed in Tuesday on who should lead the city for the next four years: one-term incumbent Mayor Ed Gainey, who says he's working to ensure the whole city benefits from future growth, or Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor, who argues Gainey’s policies have held the city back. And while voters may be focused on day-to-day concerns, such as whether they can find an affordable home or get to work in a snowstorm, the race has drawn national attention.

1 month ago | wvia.org | Chris Potter

Martin O'Malley didn't run the Social Security Administration for long: The former Maryland governor spent just under a year as President Joe Biden's commissioner for the agency before leaving the post in advance of President Donald Trump's return to the White House. But since then he hasn't given up working on behalf of the system — a mission that brought him to a town hall in Westmoreland County with former U.S. Rep Conor Lamb Monday night.