Sunday, October 9, 2011

Raja Campaign Makes An Iffy Candidate Look Good -- But That Candidate Is Rich Fitzgerald

It is not surprising that an immigrant named Raja running for office as a Republican in Democrat-dominated Allegheny County would encounter difficulty in assembling a good campaign staff, but the shoddy work of D. Raja's campaign is nonetheless striking.

A current Raja television spot derides Rich Fitzgerald as a "career politician." Fitzgerald has never made politics his career. Fitzgerald's livelihood has for more than 25 years derived from a company he founded, Aquanef. Fitzgerald has been a county council member -- a part-time position that pays roughly enough to cover parking at the Grant-at-Forbes lot during council meetings -- for half as long as he has worked at Aquanef. These circumstances make Raja's "career politician" assertion a lie.

We would like to know more about Aquanef and its operations -- and, in particular, its relationships with government agencies and entities positioned to benefit from a county executive's decisions -- but Raja has ignored substance and instead chosen disingenuous cheap shots.

That advertisement also accuses Fitzgerald of imposing "the highest tax in the history of Allegheny County." This is either an intentionally misleading claim or a falsehood. If Raja refers to a tax increase, imposition of the Regional Asset District tax generated a multiple of the revenue associated with imposition of the drink tax. If Raja refers to gross revenue, county property tax revenues dwarf drink tax revenues. Again, Raja is working fertile ground -- Fitzgerald chose poor policy and procedure in imposing the drink tax -- but he ignores the hay and ventures into the weeds.

A candidate who resorts to lies a month before the election is desperate and, in this case, likely doomed. Raja's campaign staff seems incapable of arranging victory for its flawed candidate, but the Raja campaign is succeeding with respect to one tough task: It is making Rich Fitzgerald look good.

Infytune: Lies, The Rolling Stones
Infytune: La-La-La Lies, The Who
Infytune: Little Lies, Fleetwood Mac

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

is there anyone or anything you actually like?

JenEngland said...

And yet this: "Raja campaign up to tough task of making iffy candidate look good--unfortunately for Raja, that lame candidate is Fitz" is my favorite tweet of the weekend. So true!

Infinonymous said...

is there anyone or anything you actually like?

Good comments, for starters.

Anonymous said...

Was subjected to a long, apparently Raja-funded, telephone push poll last night. Every smear raised against Fitz in the survey was true, but I'm still voting for him. They asked which issue I most associated with Fitz (without offering any options). I said drilling. They also asked something along the lines of whether I considered Fitz or Raja to be a "career politician". I said neither.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone actually know who Fitz's Aquanef does business with?? Fitz has attacked Raja up and down with his company, why can't anyone find info about Fitz's company?

Anonymous said...

why is the Post Gazette putting attention to this garbage - the answer of course is that they are Democrat shills

does anybody know who is behind this blog?

Bingram said...

I have left messages on D. Raja's campaign voice mail. I have sent emails to D. Raja and and James Genovese, his Campaign Director. I have yet to receive any response after 3 weeks.

I look at www.joinrbaaja.com and the only event scheduled (as of 10/16) is a Town Meeting that took place at the Hill back House on September 24.

I'm sorry, but the fact the Mr. Raja has disappeared this close to the election leads me to believe that he has nothing substantive to contribute.