SURPRISE: Natalia Rudiak to challenge Michael Lamb for Controller

Screen Shot 2015-02-16 at 2.34.39 PMThis is a little stunning.

Healthy for the City to have a serious 3-month debate about fiscal issues and fiscal accountability. A fiscal focus, if you will.

It will be hard to make the case against 7-year incumbent Lamb that he’s too politicized or obstructive against the popular Peduto administration, that is, without getting lost in inside baseball. Can’t call him the Mayor’s lapdog though. Difficult to knock his competence convincingly. One might make a case he’s too dull for any elected office, except City Controller. Her message will probably have to be, “I’m Natalia Rudiak. Oh, and I’m council’s Finance Chair.” That has to be equivalent to Prothonotary.

If Rudiak happens to win, something weird could happen to City Council, since her district to the South lists more conservative than its 5-year officeholder. Team Peduto might be unconcerned about keeping all that tight a grip anymore, or they could have other prospects in mind. In that event, these might find themselves taking on Mt. Washington resident Michael Lamb.

21 thoughts on “SURPRISE: Natalia Rudiak to challenge Michael Lamb for Controller

  1. Anonymous

    Not surprising at all. The Fitzdeto team has no interest in democracy or good government. They are really showing their hand here that all they want is power without any sort of checks and balances.

    Reply
      1. Anonymous

        Are you for real Bram? Can you honestly say Bill and Fitz don’t threaten people? Try and person that has ever been on a Chelsea host committee. go ask them if they ever got a call from Fitz. Or how about anyone that had a letter of resignation in waiting. Try calling them.

      2. Anonymous

        Yeah who when how. Just because the Bob Palmosina settlement doesn’t fit the bloggers’ narrative doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

      3. bramr101 Post author

        $50K? I don’t know the first thing about Palmosina, but $50K strikes me as a minuscule sum for keeping half of City Hall’s old gripes against each other out of the newspapers for a year, and City attorneys focused on productive matters. Half of what he’d gotten if he just took the buyout, after all.

      4. Anonymous

        $55k? That is a full year salary. Actually a pretty big settlement. If it wasn’t politically motivated then why did they settle? And if it just to get out the papers, then that would encourage more lawsuits. Not very responsible with taxpayer money.

        Lets see where Palmosina ends up. I wonder if there is a plumb political job in his future….

  2. Anon

    I agree with you bramrl01, running candidates is definitely democratic not like that mess going on in the 9th District, smh!!!

    Reply
  3. Anonymous

    How’s the Rev. involved? She’s either eligible or she’s not. The thought of her coming back makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit but the Dems in this town set the new normal all the time.
    It’s just another “whatever”. Sad really.

    Reply
    1. Anonymous

      People have alleged…needlessly…that Carlisle has been tapped to split Rev’s opposition. Hard to imagine that she’ll be more than momentary headline fodder.

      You have to chuckle at observances of “the Dems” in PGH politics. The GOP/Dem conversation is completely off the table here, totally irrelevant. I guess these folks are colorful enough where oppositional politics are concerned…but some folks just can’t think outside of that GOP/Dec template so time-honoured by the synapse-challenged Fox News adherents.

      Reply
      1. Gabe

        It is strange because Carlisle is telling people she has a commitment of support from the Mayor. I was already disappointed that Bill was supporting Ben Woods for the State Committee. How many felons is he planning to support?

      2. bramr101 Post author

        If the Mayor supports Carlisle, I’ll eat my bathmat.

        It’s funny, I live on the North Side and I usually (despite my better judgement) get caught up in Council races. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Ben Woods not involved. I guess if you pay your debt to society and work hard for another 25+ years, you can qualify for a volunteer party post again.

  4. Anonymous

    IMO this is an attempt by Team Chadwick to keep Rudiak involved, as her reelection in D4 is anything but certain. There is a fair amount of antipathy behind the scenes between the Merriman-Preston cabal and Mike Lamb. Should be an interesting match up between two persistent egos.

    Reply
    1. yuri kidlin

      First of all why the hell is a staffer (Gilmans) also working for a political consulting firm and second how does Rudiak think she can run city wide when she only won her election as an incumbent to an unknown by 200 votes. Is Bill looking for a dynasty? Every race Ampersand (Matt Preston) did they won by a fluke in the race.

      Reply
    1. Anonymous

      Sure…the GOP is so relevant to Pgh gov that Acklin ditched it when he got serious about participating. And, I’m sure he completely modified his political beliefs to match, sure.

      Reply

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