GOP Abuzz About Ward Leader Shoving Council Candidate

Take a briefly tense exchange at a Republican ward meeting, stir in one shove and let it bake on the Internet for two days.  That's the recipe for outrage that has been making the rounds in the Republican City Committee after a minor scuffle between City Council at-large candidate Joe McColgan and Bill Pettigrew, leader of the 23rd ward.

McColgan, who is running with his party's endorsement, says he learned from another Republican ward leader that Pettigrew was holding an event for candidates in the basement hall of the Saint James Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northwood on Saturday morning.  He showed up uninvited and Pettigrew took offense.

McColgan said he and Pettigrew took the dispute into a stairwell.  That's where McColgan says he was shoved, prompting a conversation that included a few words you don't usually hear in church.

"I totally don't remember that one bit," Pettigrew told us when we asked about the shove.  The two men do agree that they came to their senses, that Pettigrew invited McColgan back into the hall and that McColgan decided to leave instead.  "We left it cordial," said Pettigrew, who spoke to McColgan today. "There were no other problems."

The whole thing has been debated in various Internet forums, including a few Facebook pages.  One suggestion has been that Pettigrew was helping Councilman Frank Rizzo, who is running without his party's endorsement.  Pettigrew's daughter works for Rizzo, who attended and said he saw no scuffle.  Candidates David Oh and Al Taubenberger, who have the GOP endorsement, were invited and attended.  Pettigrew said he has backed Rizzo since 1999.

"My daughter working for him, maybe that's a factor," Pettigrew said of Rizzo. "But I would have been with him anyway."