posted by Joe Polk at 2:26 PM /
Besides listing the school board candidates across the south hills, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette also listed the commissioner candidates for Mt. Lebanon as well. We will also be adding web sites for these candidates to the sidebar as we are made aware of them. If you are a candidate, or know the address for a candidate's web site, please email me at josephpolk@gmail.com and I'll make sure that they are listed.
1st Ward
Democrat: Bonnie W. VanKirk
Republican: D. Raja
3rd Ward
Democrat: Andrew Reinhart
Republican: Joe DeIuliis
5th Ward
Democrat: Daniel L. Miller
Republican: William L. Hoon
1st Ward
Democrat: Bonnie W. VanKirk
Republican: D. Raja
3rd Ward
Democrat: Andrew Reinhart
Republican: Joe DeIuliis
5th Ward
Democrat: Daniel L. Miller
Republican: William L. Hoon
Labels: commission, politics
12 Comments:
Make a campaign promise to get the Mt Lebanon Municipal meetings televised and you get my vote!
Is the lack of postings under this blog an indication of total citizen apathy due to the pathetic TIF situation ?
Response to Anon at 4:44 -
Not necessarily. What can you say about people you don't know? I'm willing to give these folks a chance over Walton, Garson, etc., but my experience is that even after informing myself about candidates' opinions (reading campaign literature and listening to candidates at forums)I never fail to be surprised by their actions and votes in office.
--Anonymous Mom of 3--
Anonymous Mom of 3 - BINGO!!!
What do the School Board members, Walton and Garson, have to do with the people running for the town commission?
Can someone please tell me what the D in "D. Raja" stands for? I've checked out the website www.joinraja.com, but it only refers to him as "Raja". Nowhere does it provide his first name.
Is he like Prince or Sting?? Also, aren't you required by law to put your real name on the ballot?
A quick search of the Web suggests that he goes by "D. Raja" or "Raja" in his professional life. There's no indication this this isn't his real name. So, perhaps he is more like "Prince" or "Cher" (which are those celebrities' real names, or at least part of them) and not like Sting or Bono or Pele (which are not).
I don't know Raja, but I suspect that using the initial is connected either to avoiding confusion over a name that is long and/or difficult to pronounce or represent in English, or to wanting to avoid judgments regarding social status that are endemic in Indian society and that can be enabled by disclosure of one's full name.
The yard sign is not the ballot. I could not quickly track down PA election law on candidate names (most state laws require that ballots identify candidates by their "full" names). The point of the identification requirement is to ensure that the public is not misled regarding the identity of the candidates. It sounds to me like Raja is who he says he is, complete first name or no, and that there is more information publicly available about him online than there is about most small town political wannabes.
I have met Raja a few times and still dont know what the 'D' stands for and probably never will. I don't think it matters much. When you fill out the candidate information sheet for the election division, you are asked how you want your name to appear on the ballot. I could include my middle initial or not for example. I think you can actually put anything that want there. If you are a Robert, do you want it to show as Bob or Mickey Mouse? You could do that if you like.
You can run as Mickey Mouse if your name is Mickey Mouse, but you can't if it isn't.
A man named William Fenrick legally changed his name to Andy Griffith last year and ran for Sheriff in Grant County, Wisconsin. The celebrity Andy Griffith sued him under that state's right of publicity statute, and under applicable trademark law.
The celebrity lost the case.
I wondered about Mr. Raja's first name also and was a little puzzled why it's never mentioned on his signs, Web site, etc. I have to admit I was a little put off that his first name didn't appear ANYWHERE because he is, after all, running for PUBLIC office. It seems like voters shoul get more than just a last name and first initial. But, as I suspected, his first name is long (and I would also guess not pronounced correctly very often). Mr. Raja's first name is Dakshinamuthy.
Dennis Roddy asked me to post this on his behalf:
About Raja
Raja's "first name" isn't actually Dakshinamuthy. That is his
father's single name. In Tamil culture, a child receives one name.
That's it. To sort them out, the tradition is to plug the father's
first inititial there, but it's not part of their name. Confused? So am I, but that's how it's done. My colleague at the Post-Gazette,
Anita Srikamaswaran explained it to me. She's Tamil. Her father's
name is simply Srikamaswaran. When the family emigrated to the west,
they started plugging first names onto the kids. So Raja is Raja,
except for the purposes of the state of Pennsylvania, which insists on a first and last name for driver's licenses. As in everything else in politics, even Raja's name is a compromise.
Mike,
Thanks for the clarification. I found that out after listening to the Dennis Roddy podcast link you posted. The only reason I posted his first name was that I saw that others had some confusion--as did I--and I originally thought that he didn't use his first name because of its length, etc.
To be honest, I think Bonnie Van Kirk is a better choice for 1st Ward Commissioner, but certainly not because of Mr. Raja's background or who has the longest name!
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