Nov 8, 2015 4 min read

Does the win by two Republicans for Fayette County commissioner in last week’s general election mean that the GOP has overtaken the Democratic Party as the dominant party in county politics?

Or does the Democratic Party’s sweep of the five county row offices mean that there’s been no real change in the status quo.

Actually both of those statements are somewhat true as Tuesday’s general election had good and bad news for both the Democratic and Republican parties.

There was no doubt that the victories by Angela Zimmerlink and Dave Lohr were a shot in the arm for the Fayette County Republican Party. It was the second time in the past four elections that two Republicans have won races for county commissioner.

Republicans Joe Hardy and Zimmerlink were elected county commissioners in 2003, the first time Republicans took control of the board of commissioners in 80 years.

It was interesting that Lohr and Zimmerlink both had to receive a considerable number of votes from Democrats. In the GOP primary election last spring, Zimmerlink received 2,902 votes while Lohr pulled in 2,703 tallies. Last Tuesday, Zimmerlink and Lohr received 8,838 and 8,319 votes, respectively.

But now the main question is whether or not Zimmerlink and Lohr can work together to give the Republican Party a real majority. They differ on two main issues, concerning the prison and the way the commissioner meetings are conducted. Zimmerlink has long been an outspoken opponent of plans for a new state-of-the-art prison. She has been supporting plans to remodel and upgrade the current prison, which was built in 1888.

Lohr said he favors building a new prison, contending it would be cheaper than trying to rebuild or remodel the current facility. He also favors limiting comments made by residents at the county commissioner meetings, noting the sessions have gotten out of hand and are giving the county a bad name.

Zimmerlink said the residents should be allowed to talk without time limits. She said residents have been frustrated because they haven’t received answers to their questions from the current board of commissioners.

So, it will be interesting to see how well Zimmerlink and Lohr can work together or whether Lohr ends up siding with Democrat Vince Vicites.

Meanwhile, Democrats could bask in Vicites’ success as the top vote-getter with 10,050 tallies.

But party officials had to be disappointed with Democrat Al Ambrosini’s showing. He finished fourth and out of the running with only 7,559 votes.

That was a sharp decline from the 12,092 votes he received when he was the top vote-getter in 2011.

Then, there are the races for controller, coroner, clerk of courts, register of wills of sheriff which Democrats won all by sizeable margins. The top vote-getter among the Republican candidates was Ron Romeo who picked up 9,566 votes in his race for register of wills. That was more votes than either Zimmerlink or Lohr received, but that shows the type of challenge Republicans face in one-on-one races with Democratic Party candidates.

Still, it was a victory of sorts for the Fayette County Republican Party to even field that many candidates for the various row offices. In the past, the Democratic winner for those posts would face no opposition at the polls, denying voters any options in the general election.

To their credit, all the GOP candidates ran good, clean races and should do better in subsequent races if they choose to run again.

Democratic Party officials also had to be happy with the support given the candidates for Supreme, Superior and Commonwealth courts as the Democratic candidates for those races all won handily both here in Fayette County and across the commonwealth.

So, in the end, what type of conclusion can be drawn from the results of Tuesday’s election? Well, it seems that the days of people just mindlessly voting the straight Democratic Party ticket are over. But it also doesn’t seem like there’s a mass movement of Democrats to the Republican Party.

It seems that Fayette County voters, more than ever, are inclined to vote for the candidate they like best, regardless of party affiliation. And that’s a good thing. We need to elect the best candidates, whether they’re Republicans or Democrats.

Now, if we can turn up our voter turnout a few notches, we’ll really be on the right track.

Mark O’Keefe is the editorial page editor of the Herald-Standard. He can be reached by email at mokeefe@heraldstandard.com, by regular mail at 8 Church St., Uniontown, Pa., 15401 or by phone at 724-439-7569.