Corey O’Connor, the Allegheny County controller, former Pittsburgh council member and the son of the late Mayor Bob O’Connor, announced his campaign for mayor on Tuesday, setting up a major challenge to incumbent Ed Gainey, who already announced plans to run for a second term.
“Pittsburgh, we cannot afford another four years of this administration,” O’Connor said during a speech emphasizing public safety and city finances at a campaign event in Hazelwood. “I am running because we deserve better.”
The General Election for mayor is Nov. 4. But given Pittsburgh’s predominantly Democratic electorate, the Democratic primary election scheduled for May 20 is almost always the decisive stage of the mayoral contest.
What used to be a foregone conclusion in Pittsburgh politics — a sitting mayor winning re-election — is anything but certain since Gainey unseated Mayor Bill Peduto in 2021. Now, O’Connor wants to make Gainey the next incumbent to be toppled.
Who is O’Connor?
O’Connor, 40, lives in Point Breeze and has been in public life for much of his career. He was elected to Pittsburgh City Council in 2011 and served 11 years there, rarely cutting a controversial or bombastic path.
He was a primary sponsor of the city’s paid sick leave legislation in 2015 as well as a suite of gun control measures passed in 2019 that ultimately were blocked by the courts.
In 2022 he was appointed controller, an office tasked with keeping a watchful eye over the county administration’s more than $3 billion in annual spending. He was elected to a full term in 2023, winning more votes than any other countywide candidate that year.
O’Connor has launched audits of the county’s Clean Air Fund, jail and homeless services. He was the first elected official to raise alarm around the county’s fiscal health this year, months before Executive Sara Innamorato went to County Council to request a tax hike to stabilize a structural deficit.
Who is backing the challenger?
Among the couple dozen supporters at O’Connor’s kickoff event were state Sen. Wayne Fontana, D-Brookline; former city councilors Ricky Burgess and Bruce Kraus; and state Rep. Abigail Salisbury, D-Swissvale, whose opponent Gainey supported last year.
“I have some concerns about the plight of the city and I think we need to take a different course,” Fontana said. “I think Corey has the vision to actually stop the decline of population and businesses leading the city, because I think he’ll have a plan of action. It’s just not talk.”
No current members of City Council attended. Gainey’s administration has seen increasing friction with some of the city’s nine legislators, though in the early days of the campaign, none have formally endorsed any mayoral candidate yet.
What are the big issues?
O’Connor blasted Gainey’s administration during an eight-minute kickoff speech Tuesday, hitting the mayor on his management of the police, a lack of transparency, what O’Connor called wasteful spending, and a lack of economic growth.
“There is no vision coming off of Grant Street anymore,” O’Connor said. “Instead, when I look around, I see a mayor and an administration that is managing decline instead of working to grow Pittsburgh.”
In a written statement following O’Connor’s remarks, Gainey pointed to a decrease in homicides, major investment in Downtown highrise conversions to residential uses, and his administration’s work to build more affordable housing.
“I welcome all those entering the mayoral race, as I am confident that healthy competition brings out the best ideas and will continue to foster progress in our city,” Gainey said.
O’Connor centered public safety in his campaign launch, pledging to improve a run-down ambulance fleet and hire a police chief who will make a “full-time commitment” to the city, a jab at Gainey’s hire of former Chief Larry Scirotto, who resigned after attempting to work part-time as a college basketball referee on the side.
O’Connor also accused Gainey of mismanaging the city’s homelessness problem, saying the mayor has merely acted in response to negative media reports.
In an echo of Gainey’s successful 2021 campaign, O’Connor vowed to make large nonprofits “pay their fair share” to the city, saying that Gainey has failed to deliver on his promise to do so. Gainey made his desire to get UPMC to pay more in taxes to the city a centerpiece of his first mayoral campaign but has been unable to make much progress on the goal so far.
O’Connor also referenced the city’s much-discussed financial crunch, brought on by the end of COVID-19 relief funds and turmoil in the city’s property tax base. O’Connor said the city is “walking toward another financial disaster” under the current administration.
What is Gainey’s administration highlighting?
Gainey and his top aides have maintained that while the city is facing a couple of “lean years” ahead, they will be able to guide the city through without layoffs or service cuts.
Gainey announced his re-election campaign in September. His kickoff event was held underneath the new Fern Hollow Bridge, a nod to his work to stabilize the city’s bridge upkeep program after the old bridge collapsed just weeks into his term.
The Fern Hollow rebuild was largely funded and executed by state and federal officials, though Gainey undertook a multi-million dollar effort to build a bridge maintenance team and plan rehabilitation for many of the city’s other spans — many of which were found to be in dire need of upgrades after the shocking Fern Hollow collapse.
Aside from infrastructure, Gainey touted his efforts to increase affordable housing through a major bond issue, higher pay and recruiting for the police bureau and a drop in violent crime since he took office.
Who else is running?
It’s not yet clear if a third candidate will jump into the Democratic primary. Another contestant could help Gainey, potentially splitting up the part of the electorate that disapproves of him and allowing him to win with less than half the vote, as he did in 2021.
No Republican has announced a campaign yet, either. One would face a steep climb, with Democratic voters vastly outnumbering GOP voters in the city. In 2021, Tony Moreno ran as the Republican nominee after falling short in the Democratic primary but receiving enough write-in votes from Republicans to win the GOP nomination. He lost to Gainey by a wide margin in the General Election.
How to vote
Primaries are closed in Pennsylvania, meaning only registered Democrats and Republicans can vote in their respective parties’ primaries. Voters must be registered by May 5 to vote in the May 20 primaries, and can request a mail-in ballot until May 13.
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Charlie Wolfson is PublicSource’s local government reporter. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.
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