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Local Republicans are fighting in court to prevent an election for Allegheny County Council from taking place this fall. Based on the way council races have been going, it may be hard to blame them.
Last month, Republicans challenged a requirement that their interim at-large representative on council, Mike Embrescia, must run in November if he wants to hold the seat until 2027. That’s when the term of Sam DeMarco, who resigned in January to work for U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, would have ended.
Under the county charter, when a council member can’t complete a term, an interim replacement is chosen until voters get their say in the next municipal election. But the GOP says that rule should apply to only council members elected by district, because council’s two at-large members are chosen at the same time, with each party getting no more or less than one seat.
Those assumptions were thrown into doubt after Alex Rose, a longtime Democrat, announced plans to oust the GOP from the seat this fall by running as an independent.
County Board of Elections lawyers argue that the Home Rule Charter requires any vacancy on council to be filled at the “next available municipal election,” regardless of whether the seat represents one district or the whole county.
In a court filing last week, county officials noted that the last time an at-large representative was replaced before their term expired, in 2011, the interim replacement had to face voters before filling out the rest of the term.
At the time, Charles McCullough was nearing the end of his term in the Republican at-large seat. The party appointed Edward Kress as his interim replacement that spring. Kress lost in the Republican primary to Heather Heidelbaugh, whose name appeared twice on the November ballot: once to finish the final five weeks of McCullough’s term, and again for a full term of her own.
Given that history and the language of the county charter, wrote county attorney Lisa Michel, “It is unambiguous that if any Council seat becomes vacant an appointed individual serves only until the next municipal election.”
Republicans have yet to respond in court. But the county’s party chairman, Jason Richey, notes that at-large elections were already scheduled to be held in 2011, so each party had a candidate on the ballot in November. (The Democrat was the late John DeFazio.)
This year, by contrast, only the Republican seat is up for grabs.
“The Allegheny County Charter is absolutely clear that these at-large seats only come up for election when there are two spots available,” Richey told WESA. “And that was … to make sure both parties got a representative position.”
While Heidelbaugh has long been out of county government, she says that with few Republicans in elected positions in county government, multiparty representation is vital.
“I think it’s very bad for government to only have one ideological viewpoint,” she said. “And I would have the same opinion if it was all Republicans.”
“Clearly, the people that formed the charter government and the manner in which it has been played out is there are two at-large [seats]: one Republican, one Democrat.”
Registered Democrats in Allegheny County outnumber Republicans roughly 2-1. By that math, the party should have about five seats on the 15-member council. Instead, the party has just two: the at-large post now at issue, and the District 1 seat held by Suzanne Filiaggi.
Before he left to work for McCormick, DeMarco himself griped that council’s lopsided makeup reflected gerrymandering by Democrats. But Tom Duerr, a former county council member and Democratic strategist who has pushed to change how the county draws those maps, argues that Republicans have other problems.
The GOP has struggled in down-ballot and municipal races when President Donald Trump isn’t at the top of the ticket, he said. And though Pennsylvania shifted rightward in the 2024 presidential election, margins for Democrats in Allegheny County were mostly the same, as that party has flipped college-educated suburbs that used to be solidly Republican.
The GOP “can’t count on places like Sewickley to give them seats on County Council anymore,” Duerr said. “There just aren’t a lot of Republican bastions left in Allegheny County.”
Republicans have sought other ways to make an impact in county elections. Two years ago, party loyalists wrote in the name of District Attorney Steven A. Zappala Jr., a Democrat, to be their candidate in November. That move helped him fend off a challenge from Matt Dugan, who bested Zappala in the primary.
Some Republican activists similarly sought to write in the names of four Democrats running for Common Pleas judge this year – an effort to block other Democrats from running on both party banners. Republicans also appear to have carried out write-in campaigns on behalf of two county council candidates, neither of whom circulated petitions to appear on the primary ballot.
Rose’s effort to run as an independent this fall may not seem all that different from such tactics. But his plan does beg the question: If Republicans fail in their bid to cancel the at-large election, wouldn’t that create an opportunity for a third party to take a shot?
Doing so requires getting petitions signed by 4,859 county voters by August 1. That may not be a light lift, but it’s probably easier than hoping to win a seat in 2027, when both Democrats and Republicans will field candidates for the two seats.
The Green Party of Allegheny County may take a shot. Local party chair Jay Ting Walker said registration has doubled to more than 2,000 members in recent years, giving a group he described as “political amateurs” stronger candidates and better campaign infrastructure.
The Greens have yet to come to a final decision, but Walker noted that the at-large seat is a “big opportunity for our party, for minor-party status.”
For Republicans who want a role in county government, meanwhile, the goal is to avoid falling into that status themselves.
