Westmoreland GOP boots candidate from committee for supporting his own campaign

A Westmoreland County commissioner candidate said he has been booted off the county Republican committee for backing his own campaign.

Party officials confirmed this week that Paul Kosko was removed from the committee for actively campaigning against incumbents Sean Kertes and Doug Chew in the lead-up to the Republican primary this spring.

Kosko is one of three candidates seeking to unseat Kertes and Chew.

“This is totally wrong, and it should be up to voters to decide,” Kosko said. “The whole idea for a primary is for the people to vote.

“This is emboldening myself and my supporters, and our campaign will continue. After the primary, I will support the nominees.”

Republican committee members in February voted to endorse first-term Commissioners Kertes and Chew in their bids for reelection. That endorsement vote came weeks before the deadline for candidates to file paperwork to appear on the May primary ballot.

Party officials said an internal investigation determined that in the following weeks, Kosko violated Republican committee bylaws by campaigning against the endorsed candidates.

“It’s literally the one rule we have: Don’t work against endorsed candidates,” Republican committee Chairman Bill Bretz said. “You are free to run for office. But, if you are, we ask you step away from the committee.”

The party’s support of Kertes and Chew, along with incumbent row office candidates, was the first time in more than a decade that Republicans gave formal endorsements to candidates in primary elections.

Kosko did not attend the February endorsement meeting. He said he had contracted covid-19 just before the party convention and was at home in quarantine when the endorsement vote was held. He said party officials did not allow his representative to address the committee before the decision to endorse candidates.

Retired business executive John Ventre and former Deputy Sheriff Patricia Fritz also are seeking nominations. Neither is a member of the county’s Republican committee.

Both Kosko and Ventre have been critical of Republican leadership. They have called for Bretz to resign his role as head of the party over his support of Kertes and Chew.

Bretz earlier this month filed a lawsuit seeking to remove Kosko and Ventre from the spring ballot, claiming they did not file the proper paperwork required to run as county candidates. Following a court hearing last week, Common Pleas Judge Jim Silvis ruled against Bretz and allowed Kosko and Ventre to remain on the ballot.

Bretz said a decision on whether to appeal the judge’s ruling will be made within several days.

Democrats have no contested primaries for county offices this spring, and don’t have any candidates who will appear on the ballot for several countywide row office races.

Two Democrats, former Commissioner Ted Kopas and Sydney Hovis of Scottdale, are seeking Democratic nominations for county commissioner.

The top two vote-getters in the Republican and Democratic primary race for commissioner will appear on the November ballot. The top three vote-getters in that race are elected to serve a four-year term.

Ken Burkley, a former chairman of the county’s Democratic committee and a political insider for decades, said he always opposed party endorsements to avoid internal party squabbles.

“I was always pushed for open primaries because of this nonsense,” Burkley said. “I can’t remember us ever kicking anyone off the committee.”