PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Andrew Wagner - working for change in Ohio Township
by Christina Sahovey Saturday, Oct. 22, 2005 at 11:44 PM
lpatross@yahoo.com

Andrew Wagner, student at Duquesne, wants to see a government that is more responsive to its citzens - so he is running for Ohio Township Supervisor

How many 18-year-olds can say that they are currently running for elected office? Yeah, probably not too many. Andrew Wagner, however, is a rare breed when it comes to this type of candidate.

Andrew, 18, is running for Ohio Township Supervisor (Ohio Twp. is located just north of the city of Pittsburgh). Prior to the primary election in May, Andrew campaigned on his own to gain awareness and support for his campaign. All of that work paid off on May 17, 2005, when Andrew found out that he had won the Democratic nomination for the Supervisor position by just 10 votes in a write-in campaign. He will now be facing a 10-year Republican incumbent in the November general election.

Besides youth, a few other issues may seem like handicaps in a campaign. Unlike many politicians, Andrew doesn’t have name recognition, nor has he ever held any previous elected office. Add in to the mix the fact that he didn’t have much money to put into his campaign from the start. And as if those aren’t obstacles enough, Andrew, a political science major at Duquesne University, is balancing a full class-load, and, well…some candidates may have given up right there. But no! Instead, Andrew started a grassroots campaign to combat the monetary and name recognition issues.

But in the end, being both young and a student worked out to his advantage. Andrew, who had been involved with the group Music for America (http://www.musicforamerica.org) in the past, met up with fellow MFA-er Laura Staniland at a Duquesne orientation. The two got to talking politics, with Andrew explaining how he had volunteered for John Kerry’s Presidential campaign last summer, organizing young voters, and Laura was fresh off of volunteering for Bill Peduto, a candidate for mayor of Pittsburgh in 2005. So Andrew did what anyone would do—he asked Laura to be his campaign manager. Laura agreed, and also recommended a fellow Peduto volunteer, Christina Sahovey, to work as Andrew’s press contact in drawing more media attention to his campaign. Finally, Andrew tacked on Lindsay Patross, Khari Mosley, and Matt Preston as political consultant and another Duquesne freshman, Dave Richie, as his volunteer coordinator. Oh, and did I mention that Laura, Christina and Dave are all college freshman and are also balancing class schedules, as well?

So if an 18-year-old running for office, along with three other 18-year-olds working on his campaign committee isn’t cool enough for you, I’ll tell you what is. Thanks in part to his work with MFA, Andrew has been endorsed and supported by Krist Novoselic—the former bassist of the band Nirvana. Really now, is that cool or what?

You may be asking yourself, now why would an 18-year-old college freshman want to have a political career already? At least for Andrew, the answer is obvious—he feels that there needs to be change in Ohio Twp. And that change can’t come soon enough. For starters, Ohio Twp. is starting to become overrun by big business corporations, like WalMart, Target, etc. Also, Andrew feels that the current Supervisor administration isn’t always putting their constituents first, and not always listening to and addressing the community’s needs. When elected Supervisor, Andrew vows to put much thought into future construction considerations in Ohio Twp. He will also strive to create a more open, representative, “citizen friendly” government, where he will have more communication between his administration and his constituents. Andrew hopes to address the concerns of his community through their input.

So whoever said young people don’t care about politics obviously hasn’t met Andrew Wagner and his campaign committee…yet.

Check out Andrew’s site at http://www.voteandrewagner.com!

www.voteandrewwagner.com