Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/close-primary-reveals-split-among-pittsburgh-elected-officials Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama made a final push to court Pennsylvania voters Monday, a day before the state's primary contest. Two Pittsburgh city council members, who are split in their endorsements, discuss the city's political leanings. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. GWEN IFILL: Presidential candidates may come and go, but cities like Pittsburgh are looking at the long view. We're joined now in the studios of WQED Pittsburgh by two members of the City Council, both actively involved in the Democratic presidential primary, but on opposite sides.Councilwoman Tonya Payne has endorsed Hillary Clinton, while Councilman Patrick Dowd is supporting Barack Obama.I guess I can ask you to pick whichever one of you wants to start.Explain to us, Tonya Payne, why you're supporting Hillary Clinton. TONYA PAYNE, Pittsburgh City Council: Well, actually, Gwen, I think we have two superb candidates running in the Democratic Party for the nomination, but I just feel that Hillary Clinton is the strongest to win in the general.And people can have whatever feelings that they want to have, but winning a primary is one thing. The ultimate objective here is to win the general, to win that general election and thereby you become the president of the United States.And it's ultimately — that's the greatest prize here, is to become the president. And the Democrats need to be in the White House in 2009. GWEN IFILL: Patrick Dowd, your council colleague just said that your candidate can't win in the fall. PATRICK DOWD, Pittsburgh City Council: Well, I think Councilman Payne is correct. This is about a choice for a Democratic candidate and winning the White House. We have two great choices.I think if we look at Senator Obama, we see that he has, like Senator Clinton, he's picked many good positions on the important issues that face people in southwestern Pennsylvania and in the United States. He has an amazing ability to communicate across a wide breadth of constituencies.And I think I'm also supporting Senator Obama because I believe he's running essentially a grassroots campaign at the national level. And that's something that is more akin to the kind of politics that I like; I think he's building a sort of national community for us.