Incumbent Mayor Ed Gainey, left, shakes hands with opposing mayoral candidate County Controller Corey O’Connor at the mayoral candidates forum on Tuesday, April 29, 2025, at the Pittsburgh Playhouse at Point Park University in Downtown. Both are Democrats. Gainey is seeking his second term in office. (Photo by Anastasia Busby/PublicSource)
Democrats incumbent Ed Gainey and county Controller Corey O’Connor found common ground while Republicans Tony Moreno and Thomas West called for first GOP mayor since Depression.
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Pittsburgh’s two Democratic candidates for mayor showed little ideological difference during a debate Downtown Tuesday night, both embracing platforms of securing the city’s finances, creating more affordable housing, promoting clean air and water and stabilizing the city’s police force.
The debate at the Pittsburgh Playhouse at Point Park University featured few back-and-forth disputes and none of the animosity that characterized some encounters during this campaign season.
Their differences crept onto the stage when it came to implementation. The biggest disagreement surrounded the city’s finances, of which the pair have fundamentally different views.
Gainey said he’s been “impressed” with the city’s budget, and noted a $4 million surplus last year. Gainey and his aides maintain the city is seeing modest surpluses this year and in the near future. But after figuring in scheduled transfers to infrastructure, housing and violence prevention funds, the city is set to draw down its rainy day fund to near the legal minimum by the end of the next mayoral term.
O’Connor said the administration is “not being transparent about the financial cliff” upcoming.
“Last time we walked into a financial deficit,” O’Connor said, “We had to close swimming pools, we had to cut jobs … We are looking at going back into Act 47 [state oversight] again.”
Voters registered with the two major parties will head to the polls May 20 to pick nominees for the Nov. 4 General Election. There are two candidates on the ballot in each of the Democratic and Republican primaries for Pittsburgh mayor.
The Democratic primary is almost always contested, with the winner gaining the inside track to the mayor’s office due to the party’s vast partisan advantage across the city. The Republican primary is contested this year for the first time in 24 years.
Click here to see who is running in primaries for seats on Pittsburgh City Council, Allegheny County Council, Pittsburgh Public Schools board and the Court of Common Pleas.
Another key debate clash came in an area where the candidates start out in agreement — they both want to get major nonprofits like UPMC to contribute more to the city. O’Connor criticized Gainey, though, for axing a program set up by former Mayor Bill Peduto that would have seen four major nonprofits spend about $115 million on projects benefiting the city over five years.
Gainey ended the program shortly after taking office, saying it was not accountable enough to the public and fell short of what the nonprofits should pay.
Numerous mayors have sought more contributions from nonprofits, most with little success. Gainey attempted to challenge the tax-exempt status of individual properties (large nonprofits like UPMC or the University of Pittsburgh own dozens each), and the legal fight has yielded little for the city so far: It has cost almost as much in legal fees as the city has won in new revenue.
The two Democrats also sparred over Gainey’s plan to spend about $6 million on a comprehensive plan for the city. O’Connor said the money would be better spent on direct investments in neighborhoods.
Gainey countered: “It’s not $6 million just to spend money, it’s a plan for you to be able to invest in the future so we know exactly where to put your tax dollars … We’ve never had that.”
Gainey spent his closing statement tallying investments in affordable housing, noting his much-repeated claim of “delivering” 1,600 new affordable units, inroads made with the Pittsburgh Land Bank and affordable home ownership programs.
The candidates have spent much of the last few weeks debating housing policy and Gainey’s record on producing affordable housing, with both campaigns picking and choosing data to make their case.
Gainey talked about his childhood with a single mother in Section 8 housing, making an emotional connection with a city program that he says has helped dozens of single mothers become homeowners.
O’Connor made no assessment of Gainey’s record on housing, unlike in previous debates, and said he would aim to get some of the thousands of city-owned properties “shovel-ready” and back in private, taxpaying hands. He also pledged to speed up permitting and zoning processes, an issue championed by developers who donated en masse to his campaign.
When moderators asked how many police officers the city should have, the pair agreed: 850. That’s 50 fewer than a longtime standard of 900, and 50 more than Gainey’s 2024 budget suggests. The city is well below that figure now due to a pandemic-era hiring freeze and a wave of retirements and resignations.
“When I came in we had a two-year [hiring] freeze,” Gainey said. “In my opinion it was a mistake.”
He also touted the contract the city reached with the police union in 2023 to raise officer pay and establish a new disciplinary system. Union leadership, though, has maintained that pay is still too low to keep officers from leaving for other jobs.
O’Connor seized on the recent turnover at the city’s chief of police position.
“There is no leadership at the top of our police force right now,” O’Connor said. “I don’t want to do [another] national search and cost taxpayers money … We have to fill that position, which is vital and important to our public safety.”
Both candidates embraced some form of “community policing.” O’Connor accused Gainey of cutting back spending on outreach centers for vulnerable residents, while Gainey touted a decline in homicide and violent crime statistics under his administration.
Republican argue for new course
Former Pittsburgh police detective Tony Moreno and clothing store owner Thomas West will be on the ballot in the Republican primary for mayor, marking the GOP’s first contested primary for Pittsburgh mayor in 24 years.
The two presented different styles while both promised to shake up the status quo of the city, which has been governed by Democrats since the 1930s.
Moreno drew on his years working within the city government in the police bureau, claiming the city’s leadership has long wasted taxpayer dollars and operated dysfunctionally.
“Ladies and gentlemen, change doesn’t mean the name over the door of the mayor’s office,” Moreno said. “Change is actually coming in and reversing course on the failures that we see plainly … I’m the only candidate that will come in here, know exactly where to go and fix it immediately.”
Moreno was the Republican nominee for mayor in 2021, losing to Gainey by about 50 percentage points. He initially ran in the Democratic primary that year, but received enough write-in votes in the GOP primary to claim that party’s nomination.
West highlighted his status as the only political newcomer in the race and drew on his experience outside of politics as a guide.
“As a business owner and resident of the City of Pittsburgh, I got frustrated seeing the same complaints over and over again,” West said. “You get empty promises, nothing’s done and we find ourselves stagnant.”
Before entering the retail business he worked as a TV news producer, a role that he said taught him to hold powerful people accountable — eventually inspiring his run for office.
Moreno launched his campaign this year focusing on the city’s police force, drawing on his experience on the beat. He followed that formula during the debate, accusing city leadership of “abusing” police officers who were otherwise willing to work for less pay and retirement benefits to serve the city.
West mentioned a targeted officer count in the 900s and Moreno said he’d like to increase the count even further.
The two differed somewhat on environmental policy. Moreno decried “filthy” conditions in parts of the city and said he would try to find entities polluting the city’s rivers “and attack them.” West urged a more measured approach and said he is concerned that over-regulation could deter business and job growth.
Charlie Wolfson is PublicSource’s local government reporter. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.
This article first appeared on PublicSource and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
