Pittsburgh City Council fell a vote short of overriding Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's veto of campaign finance reform, after a spirited debate that happened shortly after the mayor committed to some changes in how city politics is funded.

It takes six votes to override a veto, and a motion by Councilman William Peduto to override garnered just five.

Council President Doug Shields said the mayor's four-page veto message, delivered yesterday, was "somewhat misdirected" and called some of its contentions "balderdash."

Its statement that organized labor did not back campaign donation caps, while accurately representing the position of the Allegheny County Labor Council, did not reflect the position of unions nationally, many of which have backed reforms, he said.

The national AFL-CIO Web site indicates that the organization supports limits on campaign donations.

Without campaign contribution caps, he said, donors will continue to have an advantage in gaining city contracts and favors. "There is a pay-to-play world out there. To suggest that there is not is simply wrong," he said. That's why contractors who do business with the city usually won't donate to a challenger in a city race. "That happened last year, when there was no money available to any other candidate to get in the [mayor's] race at all."

Mr. Peduto, the author of the campaign finance bill, launched a run for mayor last year but pulled out when he was far behind in the polls and money race.

Councilwoman Tonya Payne said campaign limits should be statewide, so officials of one municipality don't face caps that others don't. "Apply it evenly. Do it the same," she said. Council's legislation "creates another handicap not only for me, but for other women and other African Americans."

Councilwoman Darlene Harris said the legislation would "neuter the unions" that give heavily to campaigns via political action committees.

Ms. Payne and Ms. Harris joined Dan Deasy and Jim Motznik in voting against the override.

Mr. Shields said the vetoed legislation "begins to build a house of reform. . . . The great thing about politics and baseball is that there's always tomorrow."

At a South Side event, Mr. Ravenstahl said tomorrow could be the start of a reform push, albeit not one including all of the aspects of Mr. Peduto's bill.

The mayor said he supports the posting of all contributions, and of big donors' relationships with the city, online. He said he would also back a ban on no-bid contracts for anyone who contributed more than a certain threshold amount to a campaign.

"I have no plans currently, or haven't necessarily worked on it, but I think it's something that we would be willing to do," he said. "Full disclosure, 100 percent transparency, is something that we could do, or work towards doing, as quickly as tomorrow." He said he could work with council to get new rules in place in time for next year's city races.

He said council's legislation -- hatched in January and the subject of a public hearing, a special meeting, and repeated council discussions -- was passed prematurely. "Maybe they were interested in just passing something before they went on their summer vacation, just to pass it, to say that we were a city that had campaign finance reform," he said.

More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.