Democratic mayoral nominee Bob O'Connor outlined a back-to-basics platform last night, as five foes from a broad swath of the political spectrum fought to topple him from the front-runner's post.

Andy Starnes, Post-Gazette Democrat Bob O'Connor responds to a question from the moderator as the other mayoral candidates listen. Behind O'Connor, from left, are David Tessitor, Joe Weinroth, Jay Ressler, Titus North and Les Ludwig. Click photo for larger image.

In the first debate involving all six general election candidates, Mr. O'Connor hugged the political center.

"Before you do anything in any community, you have to have clean, safe streets and good schools," he said.

Downtown's problems, he said, would best be addressed by encouraging people to live there, while neighborhoods in which people already live would get new attention.

"Every neighborhood deserves investment," he said.

Proposed development deals would be judged by the return in tax dollars the city would get for its investment, he said. Contracting out city services to private companies generally wouldn't make sense, he said, because government is "ahead of the game starting out of the box" due to lower borrowing costs and the absence of a profit motive.

Republican candidate Joseph Weinroth obviously wished he was the only other contestant speaking to the crowd of 60 at East Liberty's Kelly-Strayhorn Theater.

"There is only one candidate on this stage who could credibly beat Bob," he said. "I'm that candidate."

Mr. Weinroth argued for reducing the nine-member City Council to five, and searching the city authorities, rather than the government's core services, for savings.

At one point he told Socialist Workers Party candidate Jay Ressler: "I'm not sure if you're running for mayor of Pittsburgh or president here."

Seated near the center but philosophically way left, Mr. Ressler proposed a government of "workers and farmers" that would open the stadiums for pickup games and lower the mayor's salary to "the level of a skilled worker at straight time." He'd use Cuba as a model for disaster response, and pursue "an end to the capitalist system."

Adopting a left-of-center position, Green Party candidate Titus North said he'd renegotiate the stadium leases to give more revenue to the city.

He'd also go after not just the big nonprofit organizations, but their leaders, creating a special tax on "executives at nonprofit corporations who are getting six- or seven-figure salaries."

Mr. North was the only candidate who criticized Mr. O'Connor directly, noting that the former City Council president spent $1.3 million during the primary, and speculating that those contributors would want favors in return. He also accused Mr. O'Connor of adopting a variety of positions during the debates on stadium funding of the late 1990s.

Independent David Tessitor said he would abandon government development subsidies that he called "real estate speculation." But he'd also create a Department of Neighborhoods to address the concerns of residential areas and their business districts, and wouldn't privatize services.

He wants the city to help foster lifelong learning, including operating an educational TV channel using programming available at no charge.

Write-in candidate Les Ludwig offered to find new means of raising funds, like selling the fire stations to the firefighters, who could then rent them out to pay for operations.

The election is Nov. 8.