Channel 11 talks with Democratic candidates for Allegheny County Executive ahead of hosting forum

PITTSBURGH — As we approach the May primary, multiple candidates have entered the race to replace Rich Fitzgerald as the Allegheny County Executive.

Fitzgerald has served three consecutive, four-year terms, reaching the limit.

Only one Republican, retired PNC executive Joe Rockey, has declared candidacy and looks to be the candidate for the GOP unless someone else enters.

As for the Democrats, there’s no telling who may be on the ticket come November, and so Channel 11 has teamed up with Carnegie Mellon University and the 14th Ward Democratic Committee to introduce you to the candidates.

Ahead of the forum, Channel 11 interviewed six of the seven candidates in that tight race for the democrats: Erin McClelland, Liv Bennett, Dave Fawcett, John Weinstein, Michael Lamb and Sara Innamorato. A seventh candidate, Will Parker, was just added as a late entry to Saturday’s political forum.

McClelland was the first to announce her candidacy, late last summer. Her background includes work for the county’s Department of Human Services. She told Channel 11 she is running for “operational integrity.”

“I see the systemic collapses from the state level all the way down. For the first time, we’re really seeing an argument from the public, asking for more accountability, more integrity in how we operate the county, more efficiency and reliability in how we spend that $3 billion,” McClelland said. “That’s my forte.”

She noted her concerns over the treatment of inmates at the Allegheny County Jail, which candidate Liv Bennett told Channel 11 she’d take on as her top priority if elected.

Bennett, a current Allegheny County Council Member, said that she is running for “equity,” and cited concerns over racial disparities when it comes to matters like home mortgage lending.

“That’s what I want to see changed in this county,” she noted. “We know that homeownership is the pathway to wealth and generational wealth.”

A former Allegheny County Council Member has also entered the race: Dave Fawcett, an attorney. Fawcett told us that creating more jobs in Pittsburgh would be among his top priorities.

“I think we need to raise the profile of this area. We need to aim high. We’re in a big competition with cities like Baltimore and Cincinatti for jobs, and for young people,” Fawcett said. “There’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to win that fight.”

John Weinstein, the county’s longtime treasurer, agrees that jobs are critical. Weinstein said his top priority is ensuring that our region can attract companies to relocate and expand here for future generations. Part of doing that, he said, is making the city of Pittsburgh a vibrant place.

“I’m concerned about public safety, clearly, the downtown region,” Weinstein said. “Pittsburgh is one of the municipalities in Allegheny County. There’s 130, Pittsburgh’s only one of them. And city residents are county taxpayers too, so I would love to use county resources to help clean up the city of Pittsburgh to make it safer, to help the homeless.”

Michael Lamb, the current controller for Pittsburgh, said that he wants to help fill jobs by offering free community college credits to county residents.

Like Weinstein, Lamb noted that the county has many municipalities, and he said he’d establish an office centered on providing resources to them.

“We’ve got to find a way to work better and coordinate activities with all our municipal partners so that we can deliver better services to our citizens, so that we can really have better public safety response, that we can work on issues of economic development and all the other issues that come up at the municipal level,” Lamb said.

Among those issues: our infrastructure. It’s a concern several candidates mentioned, including McClelland, Weinstein and Sara Innamorato.

Innamorato, a current state representative, told Channel 11 that she is uniquely qualified to get results.

“I’m the only person in this race who has been in state government and can leverage the relationships I have with both the house, the senate and the administration, across both parties, that can draw down resources, so that we can implement ideas that are community-led and people-centered,” Rep. Innamorato told us.

Like Bennett, Innamorato said ensuring fair housing is critical, adding that she would fight for fair wages and dignified treatment for county employees.

Click here for the full forum program.

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