“Lou Tullio: A Real Erie Guy” showcases the gritty underbelly of city government in a mid-sized Rust Belt manufacturing town. Vaillancourt tells the story of Tullio’s life, his six terms as mayor of Erie, and the key political players from the 1950s through the 1980s who lived and worked alongside the man who left an indelible legacy on both the city and the people of Erie.

Originally from Illinois by way of Nevada and Georgia, Cory Vaillancourt is a freelance writer; after graduating from the University of Chicago where he focused on the history of Soviet Russia, he spent more than a decade as a political campaign consultant working for Republican and Democratic candidates across the country. Upon moving to Erie, Vaillancourt joined the Erie Reader – first as a contributor, then later as a contributing editor and editor-at-large.