How did this guy even get elected?

[av8rmike]

Mayor wants to drop 'Ravens' from his name

Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, at least for this week, wants to be known as Luke Steelerstahl.

"On behalf of the Steelers Nation, I've decided to remove the word 'Ravens' from my name just like the Steelers will remove them from the AFC Championship," he said, referring to Sunday's playoff game against the Baltimore Ravens.

The mayor this morning began, but did not complete, a Verified Petition for a Name Change. [...]

Mr. Ravenstahl said the idea for the name change was not his own. Callers to the Star 100.7 morning show "called in and thought it would be a good idea to change from Ravenstahl, given we are playing the hated Baltimore Ravens this weekend, to Steelerstahl," he said. "As soon as I heard it, I thought it was a great idea."

He said he and his wife, Erin, and 2-month-old son, Cooper, "didn't really talk about it, but I'm sure they wouldn't mind doing it, either."

At least their mayor isn't under indictment for corruption.

Comments

[violaman.livejournal.com]

He wasn't elected, at first. He was on the City Council and had been appointed president of the council when Mayor Bob O'Connor died. He succeeded O'Connor as per the city charter, and then he won a special election in 2007 in which he ran unopposed.

He's not even 30 yet, which might explain the silliness.

[av8rmike.livejournal.com]

Now that you mention it, that all sounds familiar. But my question about his getting elected wasn't in reference to competence, just to his name, if the Ravens are so hated in Pittsburgh.
Maybe they're not. The papers here imply that everyone hates everything about Pittsburgh, but I don't read their paper to know if the reverse is true.

[eva]

*snort* What makes this especially silly is that "Stahl" is German for "steel" - I see some German-ness in his original name. So he is now named "Steelersteel".

[av8rmike.livejournal.com]

I wonder if he'd thought of that? Probably not-- most of that part of Pennsylvania is of Polish descent, not German.

[seke.livejournal.com]

if you read his wiki page, you'll see that he probably should be under indictment for corruption