Awesome:
Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto is making the first ad buy of the 2017 mayoral campaign — and if you didn’t know better, you might think he was running against President Donald Trump, and Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.
The 30-second spot begins with the first-term mayor standing in front of Heinz Field, addressing Mr. Trump directly: “Mr. President, you say you’ll make American Great again,” he says. “Well, Pittsburgh has defined greatness.”
Over a montage of sports history and images of urban vitality, Mr. Peduto ticks off a number of positive developments — including “billions in new investment [and] more police and firefighters.” He then concludes, “But Mr. President, if you keep trying to cut healthcare and afterschool programs, even a Patriots fan like you should know that won’t play in Pittsburgh.”
The accompanying image shows Mr. Trump — his hair looking a bit more toupee-like than usual — embracing the Patriots QB who has torched the Steelers’ Super Bowl hopes in recent years.
“Re-elect a good mayor” reads a banner at the end of the ad — the spot’s only explicit acknowledgment that Mr. Peduto is, in fact, running for re-election.
In a decidedly blue community like Pittsburgh, neither Mr. Brady nor Mr. Trump are likely to win popularity contests. Political consultant Matt Merriman-Preston, Mr. Peduto’s longtime political field marshall, said the spot portrays the mayor as “taking a leadership role” in standing up to White House policies hostile to cities.
“We’ve seen a proposed [federal] budget that would cut afterschool and other programs,” said Mr. Merriman-Preston. “These are things that would affect cities disproportionately, and they need to be the front line of defense.”
As someone who was born and raised in Pittsburgh, I fully advocate we re-elect this great mayor. Click here to donate and get involved with Peduto’s re-election campaign.