At a pivotal moment in Allegheny County’s history, as federal spending cuts threaten vital funding for crucial services, voters are poised to choose at least three new local legislators who will help shape the region’s largest government as it grapples with key issues from criminal justice to public health.
Winning candidates for county council will bring new voices to a citizen legislature created just 25 years ago that oversees billions of dollars in spending and has in recent years clashed with the county executive in high-stakes fights over property taxes, a troubled juvenile detention center and the limits of its own authority in a county of 1.2 million people.
In recent years, the council has voted to increase the minimum wage for county employees, challenged the executive’s powers and approved a property tax increase for the first time in over a decade.
Though Democrats have a two-to-one voter registration advantage, Allegheny County is home to more Republicans than any county in Pennsylvania — the largest swing state in the country and a pivotal area in a deeply divided nation.
At least one Democratic council member — the chamber’s president, Patrick Catena — will be fighting for re-election in a district that Donald Trump won just months ago. Other Democratic candidates face primary challenges that could signal whether their deeply divided voters are satisfied with their current leadership or want to chart a new direction.
Far more than presidential or even congressional candidates, county council hopefuls are closely tied to their constituents — a dynamic that brings them to the everyday concerns of their constituents.
“They see you, can associate you with a real human being who talks to you for five minutes,” said George Dougherty, an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh.
“Does it always get your vote? No,” Mr.. Dougherty said. “But it increases the chances of them seeing you as a human being and not a damn elected official.”
Currently, 13 Democrats and two Republicans sit on the county’s legislative body, a balance of power that has shifted gradually more into the Democratic Party’s hands in recent decades but could change depending on which candidates voters choose in this election.
In all, six seats are up for grabs.
Contested seats
Mr. Catena, a Carnegie resident and assistant township manager of South Fayette, is unopposed in the Democratic primary, but will likely face Republican Bob Doddato in the general election in November.
Their district — District 4 — includes working-class areas such as McKees Rocks, Carnegie and Stowe, as well as the wealthier suburbs of Robinson, Collier, North Fayette and South Fayette.
Mr. Doddato is a North Fayette resident who works in business consulting and is chair of the township’s board of supervisors.
In the last presidential race, voters in the district were split by a razor-thin margin — one that could favor the GOP challenger. Trump beat former vice president and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris by about 0.2% there last year, a gap of just over 100 votes out of more than 55,000 ballots cast..
In District 1 — which covers the western part of the county, including Findlay and Moon and snaking across the Ohio River to Neville, Ohio, and Ross — incumbent Jack Betkowski, a Democrat, declined to run for another term.
Two Democrats, both from Moon, have jumped into the race: Kathleen Madonna-Emmerling, who works in alumni engagement at the University of Pittsburgh; and Carl Villella, president of a local financial brokerage.
Republican Mary Jo Wise, a special assistant to the CEO and community liaison of the Forbes Funds — an organization that has financially assisted over 500 nonprofits since 1982 — is vying for her party’s nomination and will likely face off against the Democratic primary winner in November..
Another Democrat, District 3’s Anita Prizio, has also declined to seek re-election. The district covers towns north of the Allegheny River, including Etna, Sharpsburg and Aspinwall, stretching up into Shaler, Fox Chapel and West Deer.
In the running to replace her is Democrat Lissa Geiger Shulman, a Hampton resident and self-employed policy consultant.
She’s facing off in the primary against Kenneth Aquiline, who resides in Sharpsburg and is a co-founder of a local nonprofit, Semper Fi Mission, that serves veterans.
The Republican running is W. Christopher Lochner, of Hampton, who retired recently after serving as township manager there for more than three decades.
Replacing a longtime fixture
In the Mon Valley, Democrat Bob Macey is stepping down after nearly 20 years of representing the area. For the first time since former president George W. Bush was in office, a new face will represent the district that includes Munhall, West Mifflin, McKeesport, White Oak, Liberty, Lincoln, Elizabeth and Forward.
Four Democrats have entered the race: Daniel Davis, a West Mifflin resident and manager at an architecture and planning firm based in Columbus; Dylan Altemara, an Elizabeth resident and educator at Community College of Beaver County; Aaron Adams, a Duquesne resident and mechanical designer at AE Works, a Sewickley-based architecture and planning firm; and Kellianne Frketic, an Elizabeth resident who manages inventory control at the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.
No Republicans have filed paperwork to get on the primary ballot, despite Trump’s success there in November. The president beat Ms. Harris by about 0.4%, or just over 200 votes out of more than 49,000 votes cast.
The uncontested
In the southern and western parts of Pittsburgh — including Ingram, Crafton, Green Tree, Scott, and a few other inner suburbs — sits District 12.
Its county council member, Robert Palmosina, was a lead negotiator between council and County Executive Sara Innamorato during the debate on the county budget and property tax increase last fall.
The incumbent, whose house is on the border between Green Tree and Pittsburgh’s Banksville neighborhood, credits his willingness to listen and respond to constituent feedback — good and bad — for the lack of challengers willing to take him on this year.
“I think I’m as active as any politician in my community, to be honest with you,” he said. “I try to stay in my community and not get involved in other [elected officials’] battles.”
Mr. Palmosina retired last July as the public works director at Collier Township.
Voters in District 8 — an area that covers eastern communities including Swissvale, Rankin, Braddock and North Braddock, stretching into North Versailles, Monroeville and Plum — are currently represented by incumbent Michelle Naccarati-Chapkis, a Democrat.
She, too, is running unopposed.
A new environment
Even before the first ballots are cast, council has already seen change as Sam DeMarco, the longtime at-large GOP member and former chair of the county’s Republican Committee, resigned from both posts earlier this year to become U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick’s southwestern Pennsylvania regional director.
He has been replaced by Mike Embrescia, chief development officer at Carnegie Robotics, a Pittsburgh-based company that focuses on technology for autonomous vehicles and similar fields.
Mr. Embrescia is running this year to retain the at-large seat, but as of the deadline for nominating petitions, no one else had filed. Some council elections have either uncontested primaries, or only the incumbent is running.
The county charter requires one Republican and one Democrat to serve in the two at-large seats. Democrats hold all but one of the district-level seats.
Historically, off-year downballot elections tend to have much lower voter turnout than presidential cycles. That can help the party with greater voter registration numbers, Mr. Dougherty said.
But a well-run campaign with a strong ground game — the candidate and a team knocking on doors and hosting events throughout a district six or seven times a week — can overcome that disadvantage, he said.
Consider Ms. Prizio. She first won her seat in 2017, unseating Republican incumbent Edward Kress by just over 300 votes.
In low-turnout races, where small changes in support can have race-defining effects, picking up 10 to 15 voters with each daily door-knocking session or event can swing control of some of the region’s most important local offices, Mr. Dougherty said.
First Published: March 17, 2025, 9:30 a.m.
Updated: March 17, 2025, 6:50 p.m.
