The question has to be raised after Allegheny County Council's historic vote last week to name James Simms as its president. That made Simms, a Democrat from the Hill District, the highest-ranking black official in the county's 214-year history.
The margin of victory was 8-7. Simms, a Democrat, was supported by all six Republican members of council plus Brenda Frazier, council's other black member, and himself.
The other seven Democrats on council voted against Simms, thereby giving the county's black voters a reason to wonder why they have been such Democratic loyalists all these years. The Republicans didn't even have to wait until they controlled council before changing the complexion of leadership.
That Simms, a Baptist minister, is a smart, gutsy and altogether impressive guy is the bonus for county residents. He will do a good bipartisan job, but that's not really my point here.
My point is how foolhardy the council Democrats were to give Republicans this political plum when they might have kept it for themselves. They had to know going into this vote that they would lose 8-7, so why not swallow their pride and make the vote unanimous for Simms? That way, the Democrats could rightly say they, and not the GOP, had made county history.
Instead, they went into what amounted to a seven-vote snit. The Dems couldn't forgive Simms for his abandonment of the living-wage bill last month. Originally a co-sponsor of that legislation, Simms ultimately cast the deciding vote against a bill that would have established a new minimum wage of $10.62 an hour, or $9.12 with benefits, for county workers and others doing business with the county.
Simms' "no" vote saved county Chief Executive James Roddey the trouble of vetoing something with the feel-good name of "living wage" attached to it. Simms' new post is the Republican thank you.
I called Councilman Rich Fitzgerald, the Squirrel Hill Democrat, to ask why he and his colleagues hadn't accepted reality and supported Simms rather than futilely cast their seven votes for Charles Martoni of Swissvale.
"If Chuck Martoni had done the same thing Simms had done, we would all have voted against Chuck Martoni," Fitzgerald said. "We've got to have a little self-respect for ourselves. If you're going to turn around and betray your fellow Democrats, we're not going to reward that."
Some, such as I, didn't see Simms' vote as a betrayal but as a vote against flawed legislation. But the point is moot. The question is what did the Democrats get for their seven votes for Martoni, other than more votes for Roddey in the African-American community.
What they've gotten is more of an esprit de corps, according to Fitzgerald. This way Simms cannot be falsely viewed as the Democratic council members' de facto leader.
Fitzgerald has taken to calling the council's Democratic diehards "The Gang of Seven" and is suggesting they elect a party caucus chairman to lead them. Fitzgerald expects to win that new position, by the way.
"If we, the Democrats, are going to be in the minority -- and we are on our council right now -- let's be a strong minority."
Later in our conversation, Fitzgerald backpedaled from that description of the Dems as a minority. Nine of the 15 council members would be eligible to vote for a Democratic caucus chair, after all.
"I'd rather be a strong minority than a weak majority, and I guess I'm not sure what we are right now," Fitzgerald said.
The party that holds the council president's chair has just about made everyone forget that Simms is a Democrat. It's sometimes hard to remember that when we talk about County Council, we're talking about a bunch of $9,000-a-year, part-time jobs. For that pittance of tax money, you get a lot of palace intrigue.
Brian O'Neill's e-mail address is boneill@post-gazette.com.
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