If you live in Pittsburgh, you have the option of voting for a real live activist in today's election. I'm sure you remember Dana Dolney -- you just didn't know her name. Now you do. If you can, write in her name today for Allegheny County Chief Executive:
In the Democratic race for Allegheny County Chief Executive, drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale has become a bigger issue than either candidate probably wanted it to be.
County Controller Mark Patrick Flaherty and former Allegheny County Council President Rich Fitzgerald have been fighting over which candidate is more in bed with the industry. They've sniped about plans to divvy up gas-drilling royalties, and Flaherty has embarrassed Fitzgeraldby circulating an e-mail Fitzgerald sent earlier this year, begging the gas industry for campaign contributions.
No surprise, then, that as we first reported early this month, anti-drilling environmentalists see little difference bewteen the two Democrats.That's where Dana Dolney comes in.
In recent days, anti-drilling activists have been seeking to conduct a write-in effort to put one of their own on the ballot. And thanks largely to an internet video gone viral, Dolney is their pick. "This has literally all happened in the past week," Dolney said by phone this morning. "A lot of people didn't even know my name, but they knew me from this viral video of me telling of an official at a public hearing and said, 'We want her for county executive.'"
[....] Dolney, a 38-year-old waitress "proudly" from Polish Hill, says she spends about 30 hours or more a week as a community organizer, activist and protester in the fight against natural-gas drilling.
Nor was her encounter with Sailor the first time she's squared off with public officials. Dolney, who is working toward forming a "league of activist women," says she's spent quite a bit of time confronting political leaders.
