Chapter 279: Chapter 141: Bypassing Harrisburg

Pittsburgh City Hall, Mayor’s Office.

Leo hung up the phone with Sanders and immediately dialed another number.

BEEP... BEEP...

The call connected.

"Leo?" John Murphy’s voice came through, sounding exhausted. The noise of a moving car could be heard in the background. "I just finished the rally in Altoona. The turnout was low, and the reception was cold. Dammit, Warren’s roots run too deep there."

"Listen, John."

Leo didn’t bother with pleasantries and cut straight to the chase.

"The lawsuit is settled. You don’t have to worry about the trouble from Morganfield for now. I’ve broken that chain."

There was a second of silence on the other end, followed by Murphy’s surprised voice. "You actually did it? I haven’t had a chance to check the news. How did you manage it...?"

"That’s not important," Leo interrupted. "Morganfield is out of the game—at least, he’s lost his controlling position. Now, we’re facing a whole new situation."

Murphy sighed.

"Leo, I know you’ve got the fighting spirit, but I’m still short on funds. The big donors are all on the sidelines, watching."

"Besides, can we really win this?"

Murphy’s voice was laced with deep anxiety.

"Warren and Monroe... their organizational network across the state is too dense. In Altoona today, I had a hard time even borrowing a decent sound system. The local Democratic Party committee completely ignored me. They’d already gotten the hint from Harrisburg to give my campaign the cold shoulder."

"That’s normal."

Leo stood up and walked over to the map of Pennsylvania on his office wall.

He held a thick, red marker in his hand.

"We’re being surrounded and crushed by a joint effort from the Democratic Party Establishment Faction and the Republican Party."

"If we stick to our previous campaign strategy, we’ll just end up getting squeezed to death from both sides."

"So, we have to change our game plan."

Leo uncapped the marker.

He drew a heavy circle around Pittsburgh on the map.

Then, his hand moved north, circling the city of Erie on the shore of Lake Erie.

To the east, he circled Johnstown, deep in the Appalachian Mountains.

Further northeast, he circled the famous coal city of Scranton.

"This is what we need to win."

Leo looked at the scattered red circles on the map.

"These forgotten industrial ruins."

"Erie, Scranton, Johnstown, Bethlehem..."

"These cities, like Pittsburgh, were once the heart of industry. Now they’re just rust-covered corpses. They’re despised by the financial elites in Philadelphia and forgotten by the bureaucrats in Harrisburg."

"John, I’m going to use the five hundred million US dollars I have as a giant wedge."

The marker in Leo’s hand drew straight lines across the map, connecting all the isolated red circles and converging them on Pittsburgh.

"I’m going to link these cities together."

"And establish a Pennsylvania Industrial Revival Alliance."

Murphy was stunned on the other end of the line.

"An alliance? Leo, that sounds great, but how would it work in practice? The mayors and councils of these cities all have their own agendas, and most of them are beholden to the State Government. We don’t have any administrative jurisdiction. On what grounds could we order them around?"

"We don’t need to order them."

Leo’s gaze sharpened.

"We just need to give them an offer they can’t refuse."

"I’ve been thinking about this for a long time."

"Within the Pennsylvania legal system, there’s a provision that many people overlook."

"The Intergovernmental Cooperation Act, also known as Act 177."

"This law allows local municipalities within the state to sign mutual aid agreements to jointly exercise certain powers or share resources, without needing approval from the State Assembly."

"Its original purpose was to let neighboring small towns share a fire truck or jointly build a landfill to save money."

"But we can expand on that."

"We can use this provision to bypass the State Government in Harrisburg and directly exchange resources and coordinate policies within this alliance."

"It’s perfectly legal."

Leo explained the legal basis to Murphy over the phone.

"John, there are no legal obstacles. We can sign the agreements."

"But resource exchange?" Murphy was still confused. "What are we exchanging? Pittsburgh can barely fend for itself right now. We’re in no position to be building roads for Scranton."

"We can’t give them money directly."

Leo stared at the map, his mind racing.

"It’s illegal to directly transfer Pittsburgh’s municipal funds to other cities."

"But we can buy things."

Leo’s voice grew excited.

"Leveraging the federal Opportunity Zone policies, plus the second phase of my revival plan."

"John, think about it. I’m sitting on five hundred million US dollars. I need to build roads, schools, and renovate the port."

"What do these projects require?"

"They require massive amounts of steel, tons of cement, and countless panes of glass and prefabricated panels."

"Before, these orders would have been snatched up by Morganfield or gone to foreign companies with a better cost advantage."

"But now, the rules have changed."

"I’m not buying from Morganfield, and I’m not buying from overseas."

Leo’s finger jabbed at the red circles on the map.

"I’m buying only from the cities in this alliance."

"Are Erie’s factories still producing steel? As long as their mayor publicly supports your campaign, and as long as their unions mobilize to get out the vote for you, I’ll give them all the steel contracts for the Pittsburgh Port expansion."

"Isn’t the cement plant in Johnstown about to go under? Tell their council that the Pittsburgh revival plan requires paving five hundred kilometers of roads, and I’ll prioritize purchasing all the cement from them."

"Tell the logistics companies in Scranton that Pittsburgh’s future Inland Port will designate Scranton as its primary eastern distribution hub."

"This is our leverage."

"We’re trading orders for votes."

"We’re using Pittsburgh’s market to support the factories in these sister cities."

"This is supply-chain politics."

Murphy sucked in a sharp breath on the other end of the line.

He finally understood.

’This wasn’t just a campaign strategy; it was a small-scale economic war.’

’Leo is using five hundred million dollars in purchasing power to forcibly build a self-contained, real-economy internal loop within Pennsylvania, one independent of Philadelphia’s financial circle.’

"This... this is insane," Murphy muttered. "We’ll be accused of local protectionism."

"Fuck local protectionism."

Leo said coldly.

"When those bankers in Philadelphia lend money to New York real estate developers, does anyone accuse them? When Harrisburg slants the state budget toward the east, does anyone accuse them?"

"What we’re doing is called mutual aid."

"John, you need to change your rhetoric."

"When you go to these cities to give speeches, don’t talk about political parties. Talk about industrial revival."

"You need to tell the mayors, the union leaders, the small business owners in these cities."

"Look at Philadelphia. Look at Harrisburg. In their eyes, you’re a burden, outdated trash. If you stick with them, you’ll always be beggars, waiting for that damn State Appropriations Committee to let a few scraps fall through its fingers for you."

"But stick with Pittsburgh. Stick with me, John Murphy."

"We’re brothers."

"We have steel, we have coal, we have technology, and we have a market. As long as we unite, we can support ourselves!"

Leo’s voice echoed in the office.

"It’s a new identity, John."

"We’re going to split the whole of Pennsylvania in two."

"On one side, you have Philadelphia—wearing suits, drinking red wine, and playing with finance. On the other side, you have us—wearing work clothes, drinking beer, and actually making things."

"This is a war of the producers against the rent-seekers."

Murphy was silent on the other end for a long time.

Then, his heavy breathing could be heard.

"Leo, you’re a goddamn genius."

There was a ruthless edge to Murphy’s voice.

"I know what I have to do."

"I’m going to Erie tomorrow. The mayor there is a tough nut to crack, but he’s desperate for cash. The moment I slap your letter of intent for the procurement contracts on his desk, he’ll personally drive me around to campaign."

"Good."

Leo glanced at Ethan, who was standing in the doorway.

"Ethan, come in."

Without hanging up the phone, Leo gave Ethan a direct order.

"Notify the procurement department to suspend all unsigned bulk construction material contracts."

"Draft a ’Regional Priority Procurement Directory’."

"Put Erie, Johnstown, Scranton, Bethlehem... put these dozen or so old industrial cities on the list of Tier 1 priority partners."

"Under equal conditions, we will prioritize purchasing products manufactured by companies in these cities."

"The justification will be ’shortening the supply chain to reduce carbon emissions.’ The EPA will love that."

Ethan froze for a second, then quickly jotted it down in his notebook.

"Understood, boss."

Leo turned his attention back to Murphy on the phone.

"John, I’ve prepared the ammunition for you."

"Go pick up those iron rings scattered across the state, one by one."

"And then weld them together."

"We’re going to forge a chain."

"An iron chain that can strangle both Harrisburg and Philadelphia."

Murphy hung up.

Leo put down his phone and looked at the battlefront drawn in red ink across the map.

This was his way of breaking the stalemate.

’If you can’t win under the current rules, then you redraw the map.’

Roosevelt’s voice rang out.

"Act 177. What a wonderful piece of legislation."

"The people who wrote this law back in the day only intended for rural towns to be able to borrow a lawnmower from each other."

"They could have never imagined that one day, someone would use this law to turn half of Pennsylvania’s industrial cities into an independent political entity."

"It’s like the Confederacy of old."

"Only this time, it’s not about preserving slavery. It’s about survival."

"Leo, you are turning Pittsburgh into a capital."

"A capital for the Rust Belt."

Leo was well aware of the risks involved.

’This isn’t just about getting on the nerves of Monroe or Warren. This is about forcibly building an independent kingdom outside the existing political map, one that isn’t controlled by Washington.’

"But this is very dangerous, Leo."

Roosevelt’s voice grew somber.

"If the people in the White House figure out what you’re doing, they will panic far more than they would over losing a Senate seat."

"A Rust Belt Alliance that doesn’t follow orders, has a closed and independent financial loop, and spans half the state? To the central authority of the Federation, this is a heresy more terrifying than any opposition party."

"Compared to that, whether or not Murphy becomes a Senator becomes far less important."

’I know,’ Leo replied in his mind. ’But that’s also our opportunity.’

’Right now is a critical moment in the midterm elections. Everyone’s eyes are on the ballots, on that Senator’s seat. It’s the perfect smokescreen.’

’I’m going to ride the momentum of Murphy’s statewide campaign, ride this chaotic wave to spread the idea and get this ship built first.’

Leo looked at the red circles on the map.

’The time, the place, and the people are all aligned in our favor.’

’It’s true that a good number of the mayors in those industrial cities are Republicans. But in the face of real orders, in the face of contracts that can get their factories smoking again, party colors will fade.’

’No one turns their back on money, especially when they’re about to starve.’

Leo’s fingers tapped lightly on the desktop.

’The advantage is mine.’