Veteran civil-rights activist Tim Stevens says he didn't authorize his appearance in this attack ad.
The first real attack ad of Pittsburgh’s mayoral campaign — aired by the kind of outside-spending group that local politicos have been expecting — landed this week. And one of the people feeling stung by it isn’t even a candidate.
“We felt like our credibility was at stake,” said Tim Stevens, a longtime Black civic leader and founder of Black Political Empowerment Project, after seeing himself appear in an ad attacking Bill Peduto.
Stevens appears for about two seconds in the spot, created by a union-backed committee called Pittsburgh Justice for All.” Though he is not named in the spot, he can be seen asking “for whom is [Pittsburgh] most livable?” — a statement Stevens says was excerpted from a 2019 press conference on health outcomes for Black women in the city. The ad strings that together with news clips and newspaper headlines to conclude “After eight years of Bill Peduto’s empty promises … it’s time for a change” — and to urge a vote for Peduto challenger Ed Gainey.