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Simms takes reins of County Council Republicans hand presidency to Democrat Thursday, January 03, 2002 By Jeffrey Cohan, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
James Simms rose from the center of controversy to the seat of power yesterday, winning the Allegheny County Council presidency to become the highest-ranking black official in the government's 214-year history.
In an irony not lost on Simms or Republicans, he won the high-profile post with little support from his own party, the Democrats.
Simms, a Baptist minister and Hill District resident, defeated fellow Democrat Charles Martoni in an 8-7 vote for a two-year term, relying on the backing of all six of council's Republicans.
Brenda Frazier, council's other black member, was the only one of Simms' eight Democratic colleagues to vote for him. Simms voted for himself.
Simms succeeds John DeFazio, D-Shaler, the former professional wrestler who guided council through the first two years of the county's new home rule government. DeFazio did not seek re-election as president.
At the conclusion of the roll-call vote yesterday, Simms sighed in relief, trying to release four weeks of political tension in a single exhalation.
"This has been a tremendous pressure cooker for the past few days," Simms said, minutes after the vote, beads of sweat glistening on his forehead. "But I held up under the full-court press."
The buildup began Dec. 4, when Simms shocked and angered most of his fellow Democrats by casting the deciding vote against a heavily debated "living wage" bill that he himself had co-sponsored.
Some of his Democratic colleagues, livid about his about-face, openly speculated that he secretly traded his vote to the Republicans for GOP support in the presidential derby.
Simms and the Republicans have denied any such deal, but in the minds of some Democratic council members, last night's presidential vote only lent further weight to the theory.
"I will now subscribe to that belief," said Councilman Mike Crossey, D-Mt. Lebanon.
As the race for council president entered the home stretch, Democrats concluded that the only person who could stop Simms was Simms himself. They urged him to withdraw his name from consideration, warning him that he could not lead effectively without the support of his own party.
In response, Simms tried to persuade the Democrats that they could energize their most loyal base of support -- the black community -- by backing his presidential candidacy. "I really pleaded with them not to miss this opportunity," Simms said.
Republicans now see an opportunity to peel more black voters away from the Democratic party.
"I am particularly pleased that the election of an African-American to the presidency of County Council was achieved through the votes of Republican council members," county Chief Executive Jim Roddey, a Republican, said in a statement last night.
The council's Republican minority, which swelled to six members yesterday with the swearing-in of Carnegie lawyer Doug Price, leveraged its power yesterday by voting as a bloc.
In contrast, council's Democratic majority begins the new year badly fractured.
Simms, speaking to reporters during a break in yesterday's meeting, pledged to reach out to his fellow Democrats.
But minutes later, Simms punished two Democrats who had harshly criticized him after the living wage vote, stripping Rich Fitzgerald and Wayne Fontana of their chairmanships of the Public Works and Ecomonic Development committees, respectively.
"They broke what I call the rules of civility," Simms said about the personal attacks they leveled against him.
Simms picked Rick Schwartz, D-Plum, to be his vice president.
While Schwartz voted for Martoni, he had worked behind the scenes -- futilely, it turned out -- to find Democratic support for Simms.
As vice president, Schwartz now sees himself as a peacemaker within his party.
"There will be a healing process, I'm sure," he said.
While the wounds remained fresh, Simms was contemplating the significance last night of a black politician's rise to prominence in the county government.
"If you're wise and astute in politics ... great things can happen," he said.
Pittsburgh City Councilwoman Valerie McDonald, who will become the county's first elected black row officer when she takes the oath of office next week as recorder of deeds, reached through a knot of reporters to shake Simms' hand after yesterday's vote.
"I think it's something that the African-American community can feel proud of," she said.
Simms' victory last night is, to this point, the crowning achievement in a long career in Pittsburgh politics.
In 1977, he became the first serious black candidate for mayor in the city's history. His strong showing in the race impressed the eventual winner, Richard Caliguiri, who hired Simms as an executive assistant.
Simms, 58, remained in city government in various capacities after Sophie Masloff became mayor, all the while doubling as pastor at St. Paul Baptist Church in Point Breeze, where he still works.
He won election as one of the original County Council members in 1999, representing District 10, which envelops Wilkinsburg and numerous Pittsburgh neighborhoods, including Bloomfield, East Hills, East Liberty, Friendship, Highland Park, the Hill District, Homewood, Larimer and Lincoln-Lemington. District 10 also covers parts of Garfield, Oakland and Point Breeze.
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