Allegheny County Prothonotary Michael Lamb officially announced his candidacy for Pittsburgh mayor yesterday, painting himself as a reformer who will work with the city's fiscal overseers to make local government more efficient.

John Beale, Post-Gazette Allegheny County Prothonotary Michael Lamb is greeted by supporters yesterday after he announced he's running for Pittsburgh mayor. Click photo for larger image.

Without getting into many specifics, Lamb voiced general support for budget changes wrought by the state-appointed Act 47 team and the separate fiscal oversight board, and for further consolidations of city and county services.

He said duplicative city-county functions, such as treasurers' offices, should be consolidated, without going so far as to say the two governments should be merged into one.

"At a minimum, the next mayor has to buy into this relationship with the oversight board, buy into the [Act 47] recommendations and look for opportunities to modify" the recovery plans, Lamb told reporters. "We have to move forward because we can't go through that fight again."

Lamb, 42, of Mount Washington, is the first major candidate to enter the race for the Democratic nomination for mayor. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 5 to 1 in Pittsburgh, and every elected official in the city is a member of the party.

The primary is set for May 17.

Other Democratic candidates could include city Controller Tom Flaherty, former City Council President Bob O'Connor, city Councilman William Peduto and possibly others.

County Republican Chairman Bob Glancy said the party still was weeding out potential candidates and could announce one in seven to 10 days.

Lamb noted that he has called for his own county row office, which oversees civil court records, to be eliminated, and has managed an office that dwindled from 135 workers in 1991 to 62 today.

He said he would use that experience to manage the city's precarious finances as well as to explore government changes with county and suburban governments.

	John Beale, Post-Gazette Michael Lamb hugs his nieces and a nephew yesterday after he announced that he'll run for mayor. From left: Claire Garvey, 8, Ciaran Lamb, 3, and Annie Garvey, 6. Click photo for larger image.

"My greatest advantage is I have been a candidate and government official on the forefront of reform," Lamb said.

"I've been in that position of lobbying for the elimination of my own job. And while I don't think that [eliminating the mayor's job] is something that's maybe politically viable right now, I think we need to be able to work with the county wherever we mesh together. Whatever we can save in doing that, we need to do it."

He said he would release position papers on various city issues, such as the city budget and economic development matters, over the coming weeks.

Lamb has a good deal of political experience, but has only run for office twice, both times for prothonotary. He was unopposed for a two-year term in 2001 and defeated a Republican neophyte in 2003.

He would not say yesterday how much money he has raised for the mayoral campaign but appeared to be keeping expectations low.

"We'll raise the money we need to raise to run a very credible campaign through the major media, but our campaign will be largely grass-roots," Lamb told reporters.

Lamb was a City Council aide from 1988 to 1991 and deputy prothonotary from 1992 through late 2000, when he took over the office after the death of Michael Coyne.

He is a practicing attorney, with a law degree from Duquesne University and a bachelor's degree from Penn State University. He has a master's in public management from Carnegie Mellon University's H. John Heinz School of Public Policy.

He was surrounded by family at yesterday's announcement, including his father, Thomas Lamb, a former state Senate majority leader.

Lamb was also part of the "Allegheny 2000" group, which successfully lobbied for a county home rule charter referendum in 1998, leading to the overhaul of the former county commissioner system. He was the group's full-time campaign manager, with David Matter and Jim Roddey leading the strategy and the fundraising for the group.

Other Democratic candidates are expected to announce in the coming weeks. Flaherty said he is still talking to people about a mayoral run, but said he has not "heard anything that would urge me not to run."

O'Connor said, "I welcome anyone who is interested in running for mayor and I wish them the best," but would not say when he is officially launching his campaign.

Peduto, who also faces re-election to council, said he likely will decide within six weeks.

The last day to file as a candidate in the municipal primary is March 8. The Democratic committee is set to take its endorsement vote Feb. 27.