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Coming up next the rebels visit on Cuba. The governor talks about Pittsburgh challenges the first lady talks about the challenges and rewards of being a federal judge. And we have an election day preview with political analyst John Delano recapping the candidates and issues important to this region right now on cue. Welcome to you Magazine. I'm Stacey Smith. It is not often you have Pennsylvania's governor and first lady giving an interview at the same time. But tonight on cue we bring you a conversation with the rebels. Governor Ed Rendell will talk about issues that impact Pittsburgh. But wait what may surprise you is our focus on the first lady. How many people don't know it but Midrin Dell has an important and impressive career of her own. As you are about to see in my recent conversation with Governor Ed Rendell and Judge Marjorie

Rangel. And we are honored to have our guests this evening Governor Ed Rendell and his wife are author Midrin Del. Thank you both for being with us. And we're going to focus a little bit on Mrs. Rebell because it's an opportunity we don't have that often because you are also a federal judge. Yes I am a appeals court judge a court of appeals for the 3rd Circuit right now that has to also present a problem in that the typical politician's wife goes out and does a lot of campaigning and doing that sort of thing. And you can't necessarily do that can't you. No I can't I have to be very careful because the judicial code of conduct determines what I can do and cannot do and there are limits unfortunately but it's something that it goes with the territory of being a judge. But it's an didn't seem to have a handicap you go there. Well it's actually not only limits it's absolute. A federal judge cannot help even her own husband in the campaign at all. In fact I said on primary night I told people why bench wasn't up

on the podium with me and I said if she were on the podium tonight it would have been a bad sign because only when you cease being a candidate is your spouse allowed to appear with you if your spouse is a judge. So if I lost the primary that night she could have appeared with me because I was no longer a candidate. But it wasn't until election night that we took the podium right 11 o'clock in November and Mitch was with me because I was no longer a candidate. Right. Because you were no longer a good image was in a heck of a campaigner for me. Her last campaign was my first election as mayor of Philadelphia in 1991 and she was an awesome campaigner and it really did. It obviously didn't hurt in terms of the outcome but. Marriage would be a wonderful surrogate in different venues. You know people are a little upset when they can't they couldn't come. But MS was my best surrogate my last gasp. But as they say it still worked well for you as if you were not happy but it did work out for you. Now will you be doing some of the traditional things that the first lady does.

Well I will try to pick some issues or some projects that I can do within the confines of the code of conduct and I have thought of some things I can do. Unfortunately there are a lot of things I cannot do anything that would be associated with fund raising or policy advocacy or matters that could could come before my court I'm not going to be able to do so. I've had to spend a lot of time thinking about what I can do before I can actually get started on picking some things and I suppose the way the society is today even trying to come up with some sort of advocacy can can lead to a problem because somebody will say well we're opposed to that so now it becomes an issue. Exactly. And things end up in our courts all the time that are. Advocacy issues policy issues and I really have to steer clear of those. Let's talk a moment about the court in the you know the possible conflicts that you might have if an issue comes up from the state of Pennsylvania itself and it's appealed through the federal court system and then reaches your appellate court would you have to recuse yourself.

I am recused in all matters in which the state is a party or in which there's an implication on an issue that is presently you know current in the state. So there's an automatic recusal policy and then I look at each case as it comes before me. And it could be that I sense that there's an issue there that could be a problem. So it's constant judgment calls that I have to make. Not on the merits of the case but even before I get to the case as to whether I can look at it. How many judges are in the third. Well right now we have 12 we have some others waiting in the wings as I think you probably know. All right we have 14 authorized judgeships So we're looking forward to have a full complement of judges in the near future and including my fish I was just I was just going to I have I have to ask the question a little how do you feel about the the man your husband defeated possibly coming on the bench if he is confirmed by the United States. Mike is a terrific guy he's been a good attorney general and. In fact I think he clerked for one of my colleagues Carol countermands Mina passed away last year he was her law clerk many years

ago in fact I just found that out today. But I'm looking forward to his service on the court I wrote him a note saying no matter what it takes to get there he will enjoy it it's a wonderful court. Well governor as a Democrat and he is a Republican do you foresee any problem for him coming through the United States Senate because the rip the president has had some difficulty getting some of his nominee hats and that's in the in the nominations there are the extreme conservatives and although Mike is a conservative I think we all view him as a very responsible conservative who follow existing law and as Mitch said a fine lawyer. In fact I intend to write Senator Leahy who is the the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee and tell him of my high regard for Mike and also Senator Kennedy and Senator Biden. I think Mike is an excellent choice by the president. That should help his nomination process all that. All right well you prove you brought up the point that he is a conservative. Does politics come into play on the court when it's making its decisions very often. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals is made up of a group of amazing and wonderful

judges and I can say that our judges decide cases based on the law and the facts. You know there may be other courts of appeals where you couldn't say that where there are issues that are where people gravitate towards them. But I must say we have a wonderful court and that's what I wrote to Mike that he would just enjoy it it's a group of people who think seriously about our duty and look at the law and the facts and decide based upon what's before them and it's it's really been a wonderful few years of service that I've had on this court and I look forward to more behind the scenes at the court. Is there is there much negotiating on a particular case. I mean you read books about this all the time and you read about the brother and the book on the Supreme Court and sometimes there is some negotiation that goes on. Every individual judge calls him as he says he or she sees him. And and I really respect that and I think that brings respect and honor to our court. And I think we are a well respected court. The judges are very

studious in preparing for cases. They do it based on the law. And every man and woman makes up his or her mind. And. You know the things you read about. That's why they call them fiction. They don't have it in our court in any event. Is it true to the thing that I've heard that no judge wants to see one of their rulings appealed beyond their court. In other words if you've made it if your court has made a ruling you don't necessarily want to see that taken to the Supreme Court and then overturned. I'm I think reasonable minds can differ about that quite frankly. I want to get it right and most of my colleagues do. And if we've decided something and it goes to the Supreme Court and they say something different you know maybe that was a different viewpoint maybe we didn't get it right but I think we don't have a problem with that when the cases proceed to the to the higher court because we want to make sure that the right result is achieved.

Have there been a decision have you have been involved in any decisions where you as a judge is issued your opinion on it. And then later boy did I make a mistake on that one. Well actually when I was a district court judge I was a trial court judge and I was reversed twice by the Third Circuit. Now it's funny when you're a trial court judge and you're reversed. You remember it on the court of appeals you don't remember that you have reversed the trial court. But I was reversed twice on one issue was never even raised and another I did go back after they reversed me I said. I didn't get this right. They did. They did so but I had no problem with that I wanted the right result. Is there any kind of case that you don't like to see come up. We don't look at subject matter. OK. Really good. As the issues of it are very challenging and regardless of the subject matter the law is interesting no matter what's before you so I don't think there's any kind we we have a lot of different cases now we have a lot of Immigration Naturalization cases. We have a lot of habeas

corpus. So there are a lot of cases we see all the time and we're developing a lot of law in those areas. That's a good is good issue good point with what has happened because of 9/11 and detainees people are saying some of their rights are being violated or some of those cases are going to make or have made their way to you know all those cases are in all the courts of appeals OK. But they have to they when they're way up. We haven't really had any. I'm trying to think. We haven't had that many that have come through although there are some challenges to some regulations that have been implemented since 9/11 so some of it has made its way to our court. All right you were just we were talking just before we started this interview about coming to Pittsburgh and then you were at the ball game the other night. Yes. And you liked it. Oh absolutely it was wonderful. In fact I got a group of our judges and law clerks to go and a group from Altoona when a group from Pittsburgh and a group from Philadelphia and we had 16 of us sitting in the and the stadium we were very high up in the stadium but the view was

fantastic and it turned out to be a gorgeous night. And again the good game was tied until the top of the ninth and then we won't say what happened right. But we had a great time and you know Pittsburgh has one of the best skylines while we were saying has if not the best right. One of the best skylines and it's just right there front and center. What a great time. That's good. If I can go under very you look like you were you were this week presented with the financial package playing for the city of Pittsburgh some of it you like some of that you don't like. And no I think the committee did a good job. We put together a committee to study the plight financial problems of the city with some Pittsburghers some people from state government and some people from other parts of the state and they came up with recommendations and I think are very sound. Pittsburgh has as you know Stacey some very significant problems. Forty five percent of its businesses are exempt from paying the business tax because of rules that the state legislature established 30 percent of the property in Pittsburgh is nonprofit. And as a result pays no taxes. If those 30

percent just pay the ordinary tax rate. Pittsburgh will generate 70 million dollars a year more annually to their budget. Two out of every three workers in Pittsburgh don't live in Pittsburgh. They account for 85 percent of the payrolls and all they pay is a 10 dollar occupation tax which has meant increase in one thousand sixty four. It was an index for inflation or anything like it. So Pittsburgh needs help. The mayor has made. Good cuts in the government needed cuts. He and Jim Riley are working on trying to do some consolidated services to save more money. But Pittsburgh can't cut its way out of a deficit that will grow to 100 million dollars by the end of five years. They need to have some new revenues. The committees made recommendations. I'm going to speak with the legislature. We're going to try to get the fairest and least onerous revenue enhancements for the city so they can get back on track. Remember this is a city that's made tremendous progress in the last 10 years. It's really in many ways on a role

its bond rating is excellent but they've got a systemic problem. It's a city that used to be 600000 people who paid the taxes. Now it's three hundred thirty five thousand residents but 600000 people are in the city every day. It doesn't compute. And they need help. All right. I would like to ask you more but I know that it makes it a variant cover was a sin for you to be here also because you're not supposed to be around we're talking about well you're going to be around to those things yes. Is that on advocacy. Midge can't get involved in advocating for let's say a program for my plan for a new Pennsylvania. But you can for instance advocate that we do more with tourism or with our heritage more with teaching heritage in our school and more with developing tourism in the state that's not a issue that said ideological issue that there's going to be a vote on down the road. So there are things that she can do and when she was first lady thought Alfy before she became a judge she was enormously effective in driving the Avenue of the arts project probably the single most important project in the turnaround. And then even

after she became a judge she could no longer raise money for the Avenue of the arts. But it wasn't an issue. So she was still able to be on the boards and help make decisions and administer those programs and really was responsible as anyone for the great success of the change in the downtown into a great art and cultural hub. All right one final question for you Do you take a break as such as that there's your public court you take the summer off where you're studying cases or what happen there is no such thing. There is no such that we keep going in fact someone said they wanted to wait for summer break and I wrote back and I said well what exactly when is that and I say I come upon that yet so now we work continuously. We do not sit and hear cases in August. But other than that we're getting ready for September. We're not sitting and hearing cases that we we keep moving. One interesting thing in the sort of prey category is the third circuit has jurisdiction over Delaware New Jersey and Pennsylvania and the Virgin Islands. So every two years they have to set in the Virgin Islands which is not exactly the hardest duty in the

world. So that may be a little bit of an I have laid out I that you're right and you're going along for the ride and yes absolutely. Governor Mrs. Rebell thank you so much for being with us and we hope to see you back here again soon. Thank you very much. Now Judge Rendell was in Pittsburgh last week sitting on the federal 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. She also joined the governor to meet with some students at a local elementary school. The governor does hamper the worry about this tomorrow because it is election day tomorrow Chris Morris coming up next to talk about this some of Porton election issues with political analyst John Delano on cue continues in just a moment. You're watching on Q magazine because these foundations care enough about local programming. Hope that the Richard Foundation Foundation the Pittsburgh foundation the Henry Foundation corporate funding is provided by the West Allegheny health system

among America's best according to U.S. News and World Report magazine. And Allegheny is the provider of choice on the web at ass dot org and we couldn't do it without you the members. Here's an easy way to get information on our recent story find out about upcoming guests you can get web addresses or phone numbers we've given and you can send us your viewer comments. Just go to our website org and click on queue. Welcome back to ON Q I'm Chris Moore. Tomorrow is primary election day let's talk about some of the candidates and the issues important to this region with on cue political analyst John Delano Hi John. Good to be with a crew Well the election is tomorrow before we talk about any of the races let's talk about those who are going to turn out and vote.

We expect the turnout to be well it's very sad to say but I suspect that the turnout could be as low as 20 percent maybe even a lower statewide across Pennsylvania in this region I think somewhere between 20 and 30 percent of registered voters will vote. What does that mean. Well that means that more than two thirds of the potential voters are going to stay home and not participate in this election. You mean all these ads or ads that I see for judges that are running is not going to spur everybody to get up to let the judge did supports the issue that they believe in the polls. You know most people don't give a how shall we say a darn about judges. They really don't. I mean of course the hope is that they never have to be before a judge. And so the truth is when these elections come on the ballot in even this year we have some very important elections for judges. No one cares. You know the most important election for judge in Pennsylvania is for the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania and this year both parties are nominating one candidate to be on the Supreme Court. The Republicans already have their candidate judge Joan Orie Melvin of Allegheny County. But for the Democrats there's going to

be a bit of a battle. And we've got two candidates from Allegheny County who are on the ballot there five judge candidates altogether. The two candidates running are Judge Max Baer and judge Cheryl Allen who are from this region and the two of them are up against three Philadelphians. And so there's some question as to whether the Allegheny County people will split the Western vote. Well the Philadelphian split their vote and who ends up the winner. Well we'll just have to wait and see. You know there are other important Judd's races too though aren't you. Well yes we're all to some degree of the Republican Party where I see a lot of ads whereby the only Republican side seems to be ganging up on one woman saying she's terribly unqualified was yeah yeah boy you can't miss those commercials the focus is Jacqueline Shogun who is a lawyer here in Pittsburgh who is running against three endorsed candidates from back east now. When we say back East we mean the other side of the Allegheny Mountains. These are two men and one women woman from they other side of the state who are the report

Republican endorsed candidates Jacki show going to trying to break that and they're trying to break her. They're spending somewhere to the tune of a million dollars statewide. To tell voters as you've said Chris that she's unqualified and not fit to be a judge. And they're doing their best to make sure that she doesn't win. She's the only candidate from western Pennsylvania. So what does that mean well on the ballot underneath her name. It will say Westmoreland County. And people are likely in this region because when they don't know any of these people they often vote geography. And I suspect she's going to do very well in this area. The question is can she do well enough and well back east to win the primary not she's fired back to and some of those ads she has fired back. She's spending some of her own money a substantial portion more than a half million of her own dollars she and her husband have put into this campaign. And I suspect that it's going to make a difference she's trying to let people know hey I'm not as bad as they're all telling you. I think most folks take

these ads with a grain of salt but the truth is they didn't know who Jackie Shogun was until the Republican Party started running all these negative ads against her and she responded to him. So she may be much better known now maybe she'll lead the ticket when it's Hutto than maybe they have helped in winning with you know that a lot often happens. All right there's some other incumbents in the big race in Allegheny County though is it's County could County control the agenda. Yeah well obviously in November the big issue will be chief executive. But there's no great primary primary election for tomorrow May 20th. Yeah who's going to be the next county controller. Can Larry Donn have a comeback you know that Republican now Democrat or will mark Flaherty the nephew of Pete Flaherty former mayor and the son of Jim Flaherty former commissioner can he do it or will African-American James Sams who has been the president of county council and who says that the Democratic Party really has not been open to African-Americans.

Will he be able to make this well you know again this is a tough one to pick and choose. Mark Flaherty ought to have the edge because he's endorsed by the party and he's endorsed by labor. But do you know Jim Simms has picked up significant support Mayor Murphy is supporting Jim Simms. And then I learned a long time ago you never rule out Larry Donn I mean some people don't think much of him but he is everywhere he goes out and campaigns hard and there may be some residue of support that if the two mainline Democrat split maybe you could sneak in. That was the point I was about to make with those two mainline Democrats and I'm called one of them a mainland Democrat it was the done split he might be able to sneak in if the black community and others come out and support him. Well you mean some might like sense Yeah well that's true too I was not thinking of Dunn as a mainline Democrat you know. But but you're actually right I mean that's the problem when you have three candidates none of whom are really that well known to the public. This could go any way and I think of the local races as one of the more interesting ones.

Now the head of 84 Lumber Mr. Hardy is making a run. He's a man who's in his 80s but he wants to make a difference in government and he says that's why he is running. It's a county commission of post isn't it. Yeah he's running. This is Joe Hardy who has made a fortune and now McAllen made a fortune in 84 Lumber. He doesn't need the money he's not running for the money but he's financing this campaign out of his own pocket. And frankly I've been to Fayette County and you can't go anywhere in Fayette County hardly a hundred yards without seeing a Joe Hardy sign somewhere. He wants to be a county commissioner he says he's going to be a Republican county commissioner he has to beat a bunch of other Republicans to get the nomination and then he'll have to go on and win in November. But he's a you know he's a fascinating fellow Christian somebody who certainly has every right to run and has a real record of business accomplishment. He cares very much he says about Fayette County and he wants to help turn that county around you know Washington see it turns out. Now let's come back here to home for a while and look at one of the local school board races

one of them is pivotal is that well it really is because we've had a school board that is evenly divided. I should say evenly divided We've got five school board members who really have been opposed to the superintendent Dr. John Thompson. And for school board members who have been with the superintendent Well the president of the five the majority the president Darlene Harris is up for re-election this time and she has an opponent who's been working hard named Patrick Dowd and Dowd is trying to do everything he can to defeat Harris in a way that would then turn the majority around. So instead of having five members of the Pittsburgh School Board opposed to the superintendent you would now have five members in support of the superintendent. And again this race is one that could go either way. Both candidates have campaigned hard I should say than is Harris has been around a long time. And so it's really unclear that she can be defeated but Dowd is doing everything he can to make this happen. Are there any incumbents out there that you think only agent may lose.

Yeah you know this is always a dicey part of this on election eve but I would say that there are several incumbents that we'll have to watch closely Chris to see whether they survive. One is county councilwoman Brenda Frazier who is in a big race against a rich stall who is a the endorsed party candidate and a labor leader. Miss Fraser has been a county councilwoman now for a few years a couple years having been elected to in a special election. But she has been a Democrat who supports Jim Roddy and some Democrats don't like that and we'll see whether she makes it or not. There's some city council members who could be up for grabs. Barbara Burns who is the incumbent city council member faces an opponent and Luke Ravenstahl he could he could beat her. That's a close election from what we're hearing. And there's the other incumbent Len Bode AG Jr. is facing some of the opponents who nearly beat him just a couple months ago. We're talking here about Linda Nasca and Mitch Kates. And this district and city council could be another real close one.

So those are three incumbents who might not make it through tomorrow night. We'll have to watch closely and see. OK well then we will do that watch closely and hope that it doesn't rain and we'll see how they're going to hold you to it would you say 20 percent I said 20 to maybe 25 percent. Oh abysmal. All right thank you John. Now here's a look at what's coming up tomorrow on people take the bus are not happy about funding cuts for Port Authority of Allegheny County. For more on cue an in-depth look at the fare hike the service cuts and the reasons behind it. Also learn about a local group by the Port Authority buses running as also the mall. We showcase one of this region's most successful artists. You'll see why Pittsburgh has been so important to a career that has spanned 50 years. The art of Jess Hager tomorrow night on cue. When viewers requests the

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