Timeline

This page covers the past. Additional time lines cover the campaign season's future months and the post election period.
===November 1998===
Mayor Murphy's most notorious stealth deal in Pittsburgh's lore with House Bill 709 was passed and gloated upon. It allowed for state money to be directed toward two Pittsburgh stadiums, as it was slipped into a final edit of a state law unknowningly to the legislatures. Relations between Murphy and the Legislature have been dicey ever since, reports the Post-Gazette.
===May 2001===
Mark Rauterkus gets second in the GOP Primary, the first contested primary in decades. Carmine wins. Rauterkus does not call for a recount. Bob O'Connor does. 
Mark Rauterkus offers to serve as the webmaster for Jim Carmine and the offer is accepted. Throughout the Carmine capaign, one of the largest donors to Carmine is webservices from Mark Rauterkus. The site, Carmine2001.com, opened shortly thereafter and closed after the election.
===2000===
While asserting that Pittsburgh simply needs to believe in itself, Mayor Murphy thumbs his nose at the people of Pittsburgh and allocates public money to build stadiums.
===September 2001===
Remember 9-11-01, the darkest day in American history.
===October 2001===
Professor James Carmine, loyal opponent in the GOP primary with Mark Rauterkus, tries to campaign and is generally skeptical, claiming the administration's bond issues and debt are a looming crisis. "My sense is the city is headed systematically toward a state of bankruptcy," he said. "This budget is not as intact as we are being led to believe." (PG coverage at the lone debate.)
===November 2001===
Mayor Murphy wins re-election, despite intense unpopularity. This election illustrates how broken our current partisan election system is. The Democratic Primary is the real election, with a higher voter turnout and much closer results than the general election. However, Murphy squeaks by with a plurality of the votes, possibly because of the vote being split among his challengers. This is exactly the situation that primary elections were meant to avoid, but instead, this system only managed to disenfranchise a significant portion of Pittsburgh's voters because they are not registered as Democrats.
===November 2003===
PA's Legislature showed little interest in allowing the city to increase fees, prompting Councilmen William Peduto and Alan Hertzberg to announce they will file legislation to seek distressed status. The request, which requires approval from council but not from the mayor, would allow the city to raise taxes on suburban commuters without legislative consent.
===November 7, 2003===
Allegheny Conference on Community Development tried to head off the impending fiscal crisis and endorsed the recent recommendations of the Pittsburgh Financial Leadership Committee. The conference called on the Legislature to support the committee's proposed bailout package.
:"We cannot allow the city of Pittsburgh to go bankrupt," said Martin McGuinn, chairman of the Allegheny Conference, in a prepared statement. "The Allegheny Conference and its affiliated organizations strongly support the need for a comprehensive, long-term solution to the city's financial crisis."
===November 8, 2003===
City's bond rating reduced to junk status.
Fitch Ratings slashed Pittsburgh's bond rating to junk status. They followed the lead of other major ratings agencies and reacting to the possibility the city might seek distressed status.
:The Wall Street ratings agency dropped the city's status from A- to BB and said it would keep a negative outlook on the rating, making further downgrades possible.
The bond downgrade reflected the ongoing delay in resolving the city's financial troubles, as well as the anticipated request for distressed status.