Westmoreland GOP crows over election wins as Democrats look to redefine message

Westmoreland is a Republican county.

While that has been the the case for the last several years, Tuesday’s GOP victories solidifies the party’s dominance in local politics. Those wins will give Republicans control of every elected office in county government as well as every state and federal office specific to Westmoreland County.

Republicans swept all four county office positions on this year’s ballot and ousted two long-time incumbent Democrats — District Attorney John Peck and Coroner Ken Bacha — from the offices they each have led for more than two decades.

“It was a stunning outcome for sure,” said Bill Bretz, chairman of the county’s Republican Committee.

Tuesday’s results put a bow on what has been a generational shift in political power in a county that just 20 years ago was controlled by Democrats both in terms of holding elected offices and a substantial edge in registered voters.

Westmoreland voters this week elected Republicans Nicole Ziccarelli as the county’s new district attorney and Tim Carson, a Scottdale restaurant owner, as the new coroner. Carson defeated Bacha, a five-term Democratic incumbent. Meanwhile Republican Gina O’Barto won a seat as the new Prothonotary and Megan Loughner won a full four-year term as Clerk of Courts.

O’Barto takes a seat that for decades had been held by a Democrat. Incumbent Christina O’Brien did not run for re-election and her hand-picked successor, former Recorder of Deeds Tom Murphy, was defeated by O’Barto.

Loughner has served as the county’s acting clerk of courts since February and won her first bid for public office in a landslide against football coach and Democrat Muzzy Colosimo.

“It was something we hoped for but not something we thought was a lock. It says we earned the trust from the people of Westmoreland County,” Bretz said of the party’s election success.

When oaths of office are administered in late December, just one Democrat — Commissioner Gina Cerilli Thrasher — will hold an elected office at the courthouse, a position that is guaranteed under state law for a member of the minority political party.

Thrasher, during her re-election campaign in 2019, positioned herself as a moderate Democrat and sought to move party messaging towards the political center, a strategy she said Wednesday is needed for her party to turn the tide in Westmoreland County.

“It is clear that our county has taken a conservative stance. We need to field candidates who are moderate and represent the views of the majority of the people in Westmoreland County.

“To be honest, three out of the four winners (Tuesday) night were former Democrats that switched parties, which shows that the voters placed their votes strictly on party line. We still have approximate 98,000 Democratic voters in our county. As a party, we need to generate a message that will motivate them to come out and vote,” Thrasher said.

Tara Yokopenic, chairwoman of the county’s Democratic committee, agreed the election results were more about partisanship rather than qualifications and pointed specifically at Carson’s victory as evidence of that theory.

She said party officials need to review election results before they can determine how to move forward.

“In the coming weeks, we’ll get together and go through that, but for now we’re in need of a break,” Yokopenic said.