I like Wolfgang Croskey and support the Pittsburg Chamber of Commerce. But come on, bro. What are we doing here?
You’re the CEO of the Pittsburg Chamber of Commerce.
You’re also running for Pittsburg City Council against 10 other candidates.
And now the Chamber you run is launching a fancy little election platform to collect questions, rank questions, interview candidates and publish candidate responses?
According to the Pittsburg Chamber of Commerce:
The Pittsburg Chamber of Commerce opened a public platform today that lets any Pittsburg resident submit and vote on the questions asked of candidates in the November 3 municipal election. The platform, called Pittsburg Asks, publishes every question it receives. The top-voted questions are guaranteed to be asked on camera under a rule published before voting opened.
Our website flags near-duplicate questions at the moment of submission and offers the writer the option to add their vote to an existing question instead. The Chamber said the tool suggests but never decides, and never merges or removes a question on its own.
Interviews will be recorded 09/19-10-2 and published October 5th 2026, before mail ballots reach voters. Each answer will be indexed to the question it addresses so residents can find a specific candidate’s response without watching a full interview.
Candidates will also be invited to respond in writing to questions that did not make the on-camera list. Those responses will be sealed until a common deadline and released simultaneously, along with the names of any candidates who did not respond.”
LOL.
We’re supposed to believe the magic word “arithmetic” makes the gigantic conflict-of-interest elephant disappear?
“Don’t worry everybody, it’s math!”
Give me a break.
Maybe Pittsburg Asks is completely legitimate. Maybe every question is handled perfectly. Maybe nobody at the Chamber puts a thumb anywhere near the scale.
IT. DOESN’T. MATTER.
The CEO of the organization conducting the candidate process is A FREAKING CANDIDATE IN THE ELECTION.
Pittsburg residents submit the questions. The Chamber collects them. And Croskey, as Chamber CEO, potentially has access to those questions as they come in — giving him a window into what voters are concerned about, what issues are gaining traction and what residents want candidates to address.
Meanwhile, he’s a candidate himself. That potentially gives him an opportunity to understand those concerns, shape his campaign messaging around them and prepare responses designed to connect directly with what voters are telling the Chamber.
If another candidate controlled an organization doing candidate interviews, we’d hear screaming about conflicts, fairness and election integrity from Railroad Avenue to City Hall.
But apparently if you slap a Chamber logo on it, create an algorithm and call it “resident-driven,” suddenly we’re supposed to pretend this isn’t awkward as hell.
Nope.
Wolf should take a leave of absence until after the election. Period.
Or the Chamber should stay completely out of candidate interviews this cycle. Period.
Pick one.
You don’t get to be the referee, own the stadium and suit up for one of the teams and then explain that everything is fine because the scoreboard is automated — this is the equivalent of a Banana Republic style process and why would any candidate even want to participate given the obvious issues.
And by the way, here’s another piece of irony nobody should ignore. The Pittsburg Chamber — which apparently doesn’t even have a functioning board — suddenly has a pulse again. Emails are going out. Ribbon cuttings are happening. Programs are being promoted. The Chamber is suddenly visible and active again.
And wouldn’t you know it, this burst of activity just happens to coincide with Croskey announcing his candidacy for Pittsburg City Council. It is some amazing timing. Where was all this energy during the months the Chamber appeared to be sitting idle for nearly a year? That’s the problem here. Even if every single activity is legitimate Chamber business, the optics are terrible.
And by the way, can we appreciate the absolute comedy here?
One of the hottest issues in Pittsburg right now is AI and the data center.
People are arguing about technology, AI, algorithms, data centers and whether any of this stuff should be trusted.
Meanwhile, the Chamber CEO — who is running for City Council — is essentially saying don’t worry about how candidate questions get selected because… THE ALGORITHM HAS IT COVERED!
You can’t make this stuff up.
Pittsburg is having a political meltdown over technology and a data center, and the Chamber’s answer to concerns about fairness in an election involving its own CEO is basically: Trust the technology, bro.
The irony is spectacular.
And again —I like Wolf.
That’s what makes this even more ridiculous.
Bro, you’re running for City Council.
Take the Chamber hat off until November.
This shouldn’t require AI, an algorithm or a data center to figure out.
Mike Burkholder
Publisher of ContraCosta.news
[email protected]
