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It is not a secret for anyone that Tony Moreno faces a climb up as a republican who presents himself for the mayor of Pittsburgh. Democrats have an advantage of recording five to one here, and the party has chosen a familiar face with a popular surname, the controller of the county of Allegheny, Corey O’Connor, as candidate in the primary of last month.
But say it for Moreno: despite being the republican candidate, he beat O’Connor with a punch when it comes to attacking the GOP. And he used one of the main attack lines by Mayor Ed Gainey – that O’Connor has taken money from republican donors – To do it.
It’s just that Moreno used the criticism to question donors.
“You have the Democrats who cry out who takes republican money,” said Moreno at a press conference on Tuesday. “Why can’t I get this republican money? … I am the republican candidate. (But) there is no more money to give me.”
This sound you hear is the morbid laughs of the Gainey camp, and it may seem a strange tactic to blame the donors on your own group. As a veteran republican said, “you can’t hit someone in your nose and expect them to buy dinner.”
In the story of Moreno, however, he thought he had an appointment, until the party rises.
It is not surprising that money is in the mind of Moreno. The retired city police officer beat Lawrenceville retailer Thomas West in the republican primary by a margin of 62-27, but he only collected $ 4,000. O’Connor, on the other hand, had accumulated more than $ 345,000 of more than $ 345,000 – more than 170 times which Moreno had left in his account.
Meanwhile, under the leadership of the new County President, Jason Richey, the Allegheny County Republican Committee made it possible to collect $ 359,000 in the first four months of the year. (County Democrats, in comparison, have collected just over $ 77,000.) Having one of such donors can buy a lot of lawn panels.
Tensions have become public when Moreno posted on social networks that he and other local candidates had been excluded from a dinner to celebrate an apparently negotiated agreement (But not yet settled!) Between us steel and Japanese. “It is only us Pittsburgh,” he wrote. “The political parties are exhausted and I ended.”
Richey responded in an email of the weekly explosion sent to the faithful of the party. Under the title “No RCAC Drama”, he wrote that the Japanese party was a private event whose guest list was out of control. And he said that Moreno’s post has shown an “intention to try to cause chaos”.
It was a discouraging development for a party including the senior Pittsburgh official, Todd McCollum, had previously boasted that a list of candidates for the municipal council and the Moreno / West breed showed that “the revigorated effort of the GOP to challenge democratic bastions”.
And the Missives of Richey clearly indicated that Moreno cannot count on the kind of non -monetary Help the Party forms, in the form of a phone bank and a door holder.
“The drama kills organizations,” he wrote. “We need: no drama. No chaos. No intestine struggles. Stay united while the Democratic Party attacks each other. ”
Richey hung on to Moreno’s “It’s’ it’sly us to conclude that he is breaking completely with the party. “RCAC accepts his resignation,” wrote Richey.
In fact, I am told that party leadership was expecting Moreno to announce its withdrawal on Tuesday, releasing the GOP to find a new competitor. Moreno quickly unsubaled them from this notion.
“”I didn’t say I resign, ”said Moreno.
“The message is consistent,” he said. “I am the only one who can do this.”
The tone has echoed that of Donald “I alone can repair it” Trump, who himself often disputed the establishment of the GOP. And similar scenes have taken place in public several times in recent months, with leaders of the local party disputed by basic activists whose style and often the substance take strongly from Trump.
Richey’s own election as president was questioned by a dissident pair of maga-backingDoug Austin and Tony Golembiewski. Local GOP leaders also removed the party from Golembiewski’s efforts to verify the roles of County voters.
Moreno made a cry in Golembiewski on Tuesday, greeting him for the “time and money spent trying to clean these rolls”.
Golembiewski and a handful of other activists sharing the same ideas were there. While he was suspicious of speaking in detail, he recognized: “There are a lot of problems within the party. … I thought something like that was going to happen.”
He said he was “hard to believe that Tony resigned or left. And I guess we discovered today that it was not true. So now we have to move forward. “
Richey and the president of the city McCollum refused to comment after the press conference of Moreno. And you can see why Richey would try to keep a drama behind the scenes, especially at a time when Richey tries to revitalize the party.
People like Golembiewski say that this is exactly why the party should exploit Maga Energy, and one of the biggest gop contenders this fall, Erin Koper in the district 2 of the municipal council, spoke during the Trump appointment convention last summer. But the local GOP has generally been more likely with candidates who show less enthusiasm for Trump and are less colorful than Moreno.
Consider the Party quasi-subsidians with the executive candidate of the County of Allegheny, Joe Rockey, or the fact that the Republicans who represent the county of Harrisburg tend to avoid the subjects of the hot button such as electoral integrity.
Moreno himself appeared before, having disputed Gainey in the general elections of 2021, when he collected 28% of the votes. But his strength was in the constituencies in the south of the city rivers, an area that O’Connor dominated last month. And as a more moderate candidate, O’Connor does not provide Moreno the type of progressive sheet that Gainey would do.
Against this card, Moreno opposing themselves as someone opposed to interests and politics rooted as usual – a former cop who put crooks in prison but does no prisoner. If the party donors do not support you, it may not be the worst way of playing the hand.
But yes, as a candidate, you probably still prefer to have the money.