A Republican bid for mayor could help answer one of the big questions of Pittsburgh politics: Do city voters want to keep their government, or ditch some or all of it?

Mark DeSantis, who won a position on the November ballot through a write-in campaign, is putting the consolidation of city and Allegheny County functions front and center in his campaign.

"When I think of consolidation, that is something that on Day One we would go after," he said yesterday. "Every function of government, every single function of government, is on the table to possibly be merged."

That contrasts Mr. DeSantis with Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, who has cautiously approached the folding of parts of city government into the county.

In October, the mayor and his ally, county Chief Executive Dan Onorato, created a panel led by University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Mark Nordenberg to study cooperation and consolidation. It hasn't yet produced a report.

The mayor and executive also have agreed that their governments will jointly buy uniforms, fuel, office supplies and other goods -- but not construction work and professional services.

To Mr. DeSantis, 47 and a Downtown resident, that's not enough.

"Any politician in the city or the region that stands in the way of the idea of reform is really risking staying in office," he said. "Not just small, incremental changes, but profound reform."

He wrote an article in the spring issue of Pittsburgh Quarterly magazine that outlined two consolidation scenarios.

One, which he called Pittsburgh Metroplex, would melt the city government and most or all of the 130 suburban municipalities into what he called "one of the largest freestanding governments in the United States."

The other scenario, which he called the Pittsburgh Alliance of Governments, would keep local governments, but bind them in "a series of interlocking contractual arrangements" that would "compel all parties to base all major decisions solely on efficiency and effectiveness."

He said yesterday that he'd aim for the alliance, rather than the metroplex.

He said he's heartened by the Democratic primary victories of three city council challengers, and the pro-change platform of Councilman William Peduto, who abandoned a primary run against the mayor in March.

"This will cut across party lines," Mr. DeSantis said. "If you want change, profound change, that's what we're about."

Mr. DeSantis was born in Pittsburgh but moved to Sharpsville, Mercer County, at the age of 4.

He left the region for Washington, where he worked for several private companies, the administration of President George H.W. Bush and the late Sen. John Heinz. Back in Pittsburgh in the late 1990s and involved with technology consulting firms, he headed a GOP-led group called Citizens for Democratic Reform that supported the elimination of county row offices.

When Mr. Peduto withdrew from the Democratic primary, giving Mr. Ravenstahl an apparent free ride, the Republican Committee of Allegheny County launched a campaign to have Mr. DeSantis' name written in. It succeeded, generating 910 write-in votes to gain a place on the General Election ballot.

In addition to consolidation, he said he wants to start to tackle the city's $800 million debt which, when combined with a $400 million-plus pension fund gap, threaten to starve out services. He said he won't "simply hack away" at services, and won't consider going to Harrisburg looking for new taxing power until city government is "excellent."

"I don't know how well our city government is performing, but I can tell you that the output of what they're producing isn't working," he said. "People are leaving. We're losing jobs. We're in a bad way."