Jim Roddey says in today's PG that the GOP will have a strong candidate for Allegheny County Executive, who may be a woman. Any ideas on who that might be? Heather Heidelbaugh is running for County Council's GOP at-large seat, currently held by Charles McCollough, who faces a court trial in a couple week. What about Mary Beth Buchanan? Roddey was a big supporter of her congressional bid, which stalled out against Keith Rothfus. Chamber of Commerce/ICA head Barbara McNees? Melissa Hart? (These are all just guesses.)

It might be tough sledding for any Republican, notes Chris Briem, as the uptick of Republican votes around Southwestern Pa probably has bled some of the party's votes out of Allegheny County. Here's Chris:

So the bottom line is that if that is true, it is much harder for a non-D to get elected within the county and you have to realize it has now been 12 years since Jim Roddey won by what was the slimmest of margins..   Less than a fraction of a percent and many of the circumstances of that election just won't be repeated again.   If Cyril was  not turning 80 in a couple months, I would begin to wonder if was going to wade into the primary even.  Still, I bet O'Roddey will continue to gratuitously push for an O'Santis run for ACE as he has been doing over the last couple of years.  Other than that, R's have a problem of finding a candidate with much name recognition at the start.  Roddey himself had an arc of public involvement and particiption going back a couple decades before he pulled off his upset.. chairman of the Port Authority when they built the T for one, ALCOSAN chairman and a bunch of other things.  There was a plan to all of that I bet not uncorrelated with the efforts to create the ACE position in the first place via the home rule charter movement.  But today who is arguably the biggest R name in county politics these days is going to be preoccupied in court at some point which at the very least will make it hard to schedule all the rubber chicken dinners.