On Monday, May 2, I heard my first radio advertisement for D. Raja.

I had been anticipating this moment ever since: a.) we had him as a guest on my radio show, and, b.) I made a fairly sizable contribution to the war chest he is right now amassing for his upcoming election battles with such local luminaries as Rich Fitzgerald (D), Mark Patrick Flaherty (D), and Chuck McCullough (R).

I had been both anticipating and dreading this audial moment, and I don’t think I really need to explain why. I specifically remember thinking to myself, “Please, please keep your accent ‘light’, Raj. Because whilst it is perfectly fine for you to have an accent, please try to avoid making it sound as if you’ve only been state-side for a few years (Not at all the case, BTW.).”

The truth of the matter is that D. Raja’s “American” story begins as recently as 1986; that being the year that he first came to America --- alone --- to obtain an M.S. in Computer Science at the University of Pittsburgh. I believe he was about 19 years old when he first set foot on Pitt’s campus.

(Now think for just a minute --- how many Americans do you know who would even consider the idea of traveling halfway around the world at age 19 to get a four-year college education?) Just the fact that he even came here is quite revealing.

After graduation, Raj wasted no time opening his first and (to this point in time) only business. In addition to graduating with high honors, he clearly was also paying very close attention to the IT world.

His start-up was named CEI (Computer Enterprises, Inc.), and I remember Raj starting CEI because it really wasn’t all that different from a business I was personally involved with at the time.

Around 1989, I was paired up with Sunil Wadhwani and Ashok Trivedi, and we were building up a tiny flyspeck of a software services company then known as Mastech Corporation (which later became iGATE).

CEI was probably unusual in that it wasn’t a Mastech spin-off. I think, and all tolled, Mastech was responsible for some three-dozen contract programming services companies in western Pennsylvania; thus making this side of Pennsylvania America’s stronghold in terms of the coming “Y2K” crisis.

And, as a by-product of this, we also brought to this area thousands and thousands of Indians and their families.

We immediately saw the importance of locating these families close to one another --- homesickness being the single biggest impediment to retaining these talented and productive workers.

In fact, I like to think that I am personally (well, at least partially) responsible for the fact that Carriage Park Apartments in Greentree at one point was “home” to roughly 1,500 – 2,500 Indian nationals.

But it’s CEI we’re interested in, and so --- just like Mastech/iGATE, CEI grew and prospered to the point where today Raja is the proud owner of a business that employs over 400 people and generates revenues north of $35 million.

Quite an achievement for a guy who is now barely 40 years old and who lacked even one DAY of experience running a professional services company, no?

Having built the exact same kinds of companies (twice, actually), I can tell you that what Raj has accomplished “ain’t simple.” I am sure that along the way, he has had to fight, scratch, claw, beg, plead, cajole, and probably a million other similar things in order to get where he is today. I asked him during our interview, “So … what was an average CEI work week?” His reply? “I always made sure I got at least six hours of sleep each night.”

Now this same man is running for County Executive. In Pittsburgh, no less.

Many people who heard the interview that day have since approached me, asking, “Ron, does this guy really think he’s going to get elected?” My standard reply is always the same, “And why not? He meets all the qualifications and he obviously knows how to create, build, maintain, and execute.”

But that’s not it, and you know it. Everyone reading this article is right now thinking the exact, SAME thing. And this includes YOU, my friend. “Ain’t nobody in Pittsburgh gonna vote for some guy with the name ‘Raja’.”

And there it is: the grim, cold, and yet real truth about both this election and this region.

Of course, all of this just sickens me. One might expect this kind of reaction in the fifties and maybe even the sixties to a lesser degree.

But take a ride down the main drag of any of our major thoroughfares and read the signs. Lotsa names, lotsa candidates.

None of them Indians.

Meanwhile, here’s a guy who clearly has both the smarts and the experience to run this county. Maybe even better than anyone has ever run it before.

But because he has an Indian accent and a name that people can’t put on a baseball card, he fails the most basic litmus test --- “But could I have a beer with him?”

Look up the word “phobia” in any dictionary. The dictionary I chose (the one on my cell phone) defines phobia as “a persistent fear of an object or situation in which the sufferer goes to great lengths to avoid confronting that object or situation.”

There are hundreds and hundreds of phobias. But the one that jumped off the page at me was this: “Xenophobia.” This same dictionary defines Xenophobia as meaning, “The hatred or fear of foreigners or strangers or of their policies and/or culture.”

And why do we hate or fear foreigners?

Well, that’s for another column.

For all of the progress we as a nation have made (let me now give you Harbinder Anand, the first Indian-American ever elected in New York State in 2007; or even Bobby Jindal, elected governor of Louisiana that very same year), our willingness to assimilate quality leaders of color into our government ranks has been abysmal.

I’ve asked both acquaintances as well as relative strangers why they think this is. And as much as I hate to repeat it, here is the answer that I most frequently get:

“Because if we bring one of them in, it’ll open up the floodgates and pretty soon that’s all we’ll have.”

It gives me no satisfaction to repeat such a comment. And of course, we could also point to the fact that, and especially here in western Pennsylvania, change is frightening. I once --- and tongue solidly entrenched in my cheek --- recommended that our city fathers consider the following slogan for the region: “If you liked the 1950’s, you’ll love Pittsburgh in the new millennium.”

Just take a minute to listen to the following names and then ask yourself what they all have in common:

Bernard J. McKenna; Henry P. Ford; William J. Diehl; Adam M. Brown; Joseph O. Brown; William B. Hayes; William A. Magee; Joseph G. Armstrong; Edward V. Babcock; Charles H. Kline; John S. Herron; David L. Lawrence; Thomas Gallagher; Joseph M. Barr; Peter F. Flaherty; Richard S. Caliguiri; Sophie Masloff; Tom Murphy; Bob O’Connor.

Was that the membership of our local Knights of Columbus? Maybe it was a list of “the boys” living it up at the local V.F.W. last Friday night?

Stick a Harbinder Anand in there and you basically disrupt the primal forces of the universe. Same thing with a Raja.

Of course, many of you have already recognized a partial listing of some of our most recent mayors. (For some reason, it’s virtually impossible to get any idea at all as to who was County Commissioner prior to Jim Roddey. I have no idea why this is.)

Now if you’re a Republican, you know that there’s a primary election coming up. The winner of this election will no doubt run against either Rich Fitzgerald or Mark Patrick Flaherty for Allegheny County Executive in the fall.

What national news it would be for a place like Pittsburgh … a town where qualifications seem to consistently take a backseat to “being cute” or “being wired to the machine.”

But imagine how you would feel on the day you picked up the newspaper and read how Pittsburgh elected someone because they were capable and talented?

This is your chance to be a part of such change! Don’t ignore it!

Now as a registered Independent, I cannot vote (that’s another column). But I’m hoping that you’ll at least give Mr. Raja a long and hard look.

And then do something that this town is long overdue in accomplishing --- pull that lever for the guy with the superior qualities!

It’s time --- God, it is time.

Hell, the Pirates are even winning.

I’ll be watching.

Ron