14th Ward chair: Pick your battles

Timothy McNulty | November 5, 2009

The chair of the 14th Ward Democratic committee, Barbara Daly Danko, responds below to criticism (see here and here) of voter apathy and turnout in her Squirrel Hill-area district in Tuesday's mayor's race.

Just thought your City Paper posting Wards 7 and 14:  WTF, and Early Returns blog entry The fightin' 14th (or not), deserved some kind of feedback . . . first let me note that yes, Acklin and Harris both currently live in the 14th Ward - Acklin in 14-21, and Harris in 14-2.  To say because of that, the ward should have supported them is a huge leap -  I think their combined legal residence in 14 is probably less than 5 years. Dok for that matter seemed to claim residency in Shadyside, Oakland, the Mexican War Streets, etc, so he really wasn't by any stretch a hometown guy in 14. For the record both even lost their own districts as I don't think most voters knew them.   In addition, prior to our September ward meeting, neither one had ever met most of the committee people, so to expect the ward to suddenly be out championing the cause through either of these two less than formidable candidates is unrealistic.  14th Warders have lives, too, and many other commitments . . . and generally people don't want to put a lot of time and credibility into races that are perceived to be over . . . and most of us know from experience which battles are worth the fight.  Sure, a lot of us could have put a lot more into this race and upped the numbers for either or both of these candidates, but what would that get us? A phyrric victory in the 14th Ward isn't really of benefit to any of us - maybe that's the difference between me and our former ward chair. Give me and the ward a good viable experienced candidate and we'll be there. For better or worse, we have to operate within the party apparatus and there is always another race down the road - as for myself, I'm gearing up for the Sestak race - I think that's a fight worth my time.

Re our turnout, we still did way better than the countywide average, and that's with all of the non-voting students who stay on our rolls long after they've left town.  And if I were Luke I would take little comfort in the fact that in a ward that is so heavily Democratic (roughly 80%), he ended up with 38% of the vote.  That means that well over half of the Democratic voters opted for someone other than the Democrat.  FYI, Dok did win or tie in 17 of our 41 districts - almost all North of Forbes in Squirrel Hill.  Luke cleaned up (win or tie in 22 districts) in Lower Squirrel Hill (near Minadeo) Swisshelm Park and North Point Breeze.  BTW weren't Luke's people talking about a victory with 70% of the vote just a few days ago?  

I guess what I really want to say harkens back to a piece of parenting advice I got a long time ago:  "pick your battles."  This one wasn't worth it.

Barbara Daly Danko Chair 14th Ward Democratic Committee