Editorial: Does political party mean what it used to in Pennsylvania?

Laurie MacDonald will not be the next representative for Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District.

After a challenge to the Mt. Washington resident’s nominating petition, MacDonald was off the Democratic ballot for the April primary. That leaves the first round of the election to a battle between incumbent U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, D-Swissvale, and Edgewood Councilwoman Bhavini Patel.

But McDonald did not intend to leave the field that easily. Instead, she announced a write-in campaign for the Republican slot.

That, too, ended when MacDonald announced Monday that her foray into politics was “a bit traumatizing” and she would continue her work as CEO of Center for Victims.

It is sad to see the pressure of the political process force anyone out of a contest to serve the people, but the 2024 election cycle is likely to be brutal. Apart from the presidential race, all of the congressional and state representative seats are in play. So are a chunk of state senate seats and one U.S. Senate slot.

But the trend to watch is about the bleed of the two parties.

MacDonald was looking at the same move that put Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. back in office after losing the Democratic primary last year. It was Republican write-in votes that had him on the ballot in November where he defeated Democrat Matt Dugan.

That followed Westmoreland County Sheriff James Albert registering as a Republican in 2020 after being elected as a Democrat in 2019. His move was less about expediency than it was ideology, as he said, “I have not left the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party has left me.”

Then there is the drift of U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Braddock, who has pulled less to the left in recent months, even declaring, “I am not a progressive.”

It might seem like an overall Democratic-to- Republican tilt, but voter registration numbers suggest it’s a more complicated issue than that. According to the latest stats from the state, Allegheny County has had 780 Democrats leave the party this year — 324 becoming Republicans and 456 another party. In Westmoreland County, 67 Democrats joined the GOP and another 67 joined other parties.

But Republican numbers are higher. In Allegheny, 1,832 GOP members changed party, with 1,229 joining the Democratic party and 603 other affiliations. In Westmoreland, 455 Republicans became Democrats and 205 joined other parties.

The leadership examples versus the voter numbers might say that MacDonald is right about the traumatizing nature of politics — and that everyone is having trouble finding exactly where they fit in a shifting landscape.