Acting Westmoreland Clerk of Court jumps out to strong lead in GOP primary

Westmoreland County’s Acting Clerk of Courts Megan Loughner held a wide lead in Tuesday’s Republican primary to run for a full four-year term to run the office to oversee the county’s criminal court records.

With 288 of the 307 precincts reporting, Loughner, 36, of Unity, had 65% of the votes cast. Dorey Stabile McCarron, 46, of North Huntingdon, trailed with 35%.

All results are unofficial until verified by the county’s Election Bureau.

Tuesday’s totals early totals included results from nearly 9,000 votes cast at the polls. County officials had promised that nearly 13,000 mail-in ballots returned to the courthouse by Monday night would be included in the initial results.

If Loughner holds her lead, she will face high school football coach Muzzy Colosimo in November. Colosimo was unopposed in the Democratic primary.

Loughner was promoted to the job as acting Clerk of Courts in February after incumbent Bryan Kline resigned to become warden at Westmoreland County Prison.

Loughner came to work with Kline when he was first elected as Clerk of Courts in 2009, first as the department’s head of fiscal operations. She was promoted to serve as Kline’s top deputy in 2016.

Kline endorsed her candidacy as his permanent replacement to serve a new four-year term in office.

During the campaign Loughner said she will continue Kline’s programs, including holding hearings for defendants who are delinquent in paying costs, fines and restitution, and is following through with the state’s effort to institute a new electronic filing system for criminal court documents.

McCarron, an Army veteran, works as a service director for client relations with a New York-based company that sells retail digital displays. She said she wanted to bring new ideas to the clerk of courts office.