Elections 2012: Ed Gainey Challenges Incumbent Rep. Joseph Preston

On Tuesday, Ed Gainey of Lincoln-Lemington is challenging incumbent state Rep. Joseph Preston Jr. of East Liberty in the primary election for the 24th Legislative District.

This area includes Homewood, East Liberty, Wilkinsburg and Lincoln-Lemington.

Gainey previously worked as an aide to Preston and this is the third time he is running against the incumbent, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Gainey serves as chairman of the Pittsburgh City Democratic Committee. 

Gainey's website states the following:

"Ed Gainey most recently worked as the Community Development Specialist for the City of Pittsburgh, where he had implemented several initiatives such as Business Seminars, Minority Media Initiative, Diversity Education for the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, and The 52 Weeks of Peace Initiative.

"Ed collaborated with Building Bridges and Allegheny County of Minority, Women, and Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (MWDBE) to host several business seminars such as “How to Start a Business,” and “Business with Google.”  

"In addition, Ed hosted with the City of Pittsburgh’s Equal Opportunity Review Commission and Allegheny County MWDBE, two seminars that focused on City and County Demolition, Service, and Professional Service contracts.
Mr. Gainey collaborated with Minority Media to create the Minority Media Initiative (Initiative). This Initiative focused on building effective relationships between the Mayor’s office and Minority Media Vendors. The goals of the Initiative were, access to the City’s leadership, support minority media business development, support efforts to build sustainable relationships with Minority Media Vendors, the Greater Pittsburgh Business and Nonprofit communities.

"The Initiative also produced a Minority Media Contact Information Guide and was distributed throughout City of Pittsburgh departments and Quasi Government agencies to increase Minority Media Business Development."

Preston has been a state representative since 1983, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. a degree from the University of Pittsburgh. He is married to Odelfa Smith.

In February, Preston expressed his concerns with the leadership of Gov. Tom Corbett and a proposed budget. 

Preston said the 2011-12 state budget crafted by Corbett and pushed through the legislature by Republicans last June cut basic education funding by $900 million. It led to higher school property taxes, larger class sizes, elimination of worthwhile programs and layoffs of several thousand teachers across the state.

"Those consequences obviously weren't enough for the governor to see the error in his ways, because this week he proposed eliminating $100 million in Accountability Block Grant funding for local school districts, as well as cuts to Pre-K Counts, Head Start and libraries. Property taxpayers in the Pittsburgh and Wilkinsburg school districts will be left to make up this difference," he said in a news release.

Preston also commented that the governor's disdain for higher education is disappointing.

"For the second year in a row, college tuition likely will increase due to the 30 percent-cut proposed for state-related schools like Pitt and the 20-percent cut for the 14 colleges of the State System of Higher Education. The governor likes to talk about the 'must-haves' and the 'nice-to-haves' in the budget. Well I think the young people across the state 'must-have' an affordable college education in order to lead our commonwealth into the future," Preston said.

For more, visit his Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/RepJoePreston.