County Republican committee to select new chairman — again
For the second time in less than a month, the Republican Committee of Allegheny County will meet to elect a new chairman. This time, its members plan to leave the meeting with the issue decided.
The election Saturday pits the county GOP’s highest elected official, at- large County Councilman Sam DeMarco, of North Fayette, against the committee’s treasurer, Bronco Brnardic, of West Deer.
In interviews with the Pittsburgh Post- Gazette, Mr. DeMarco pledged to improve candidate recruitment, and Mr. Brnardic said he’d involve local committees more in party business.
The second vote was precipitated by a deadlock at a meeting June 29, when Mr. DeMarco received 133 votes and Mr. Brnardic got 115. Another 63 votes went to a third candidate who has since dropped out, attorney Sean Logue. Robert’s Rules of Order requires a majority vote.
According to Dave Majernik, acting chairman, the committee will continue to vote until there is a winner. “There will definitely be someone who wins after this session,” Mr. Majernik said.
The chairmanship has been vacant since the resignation of D. Raja, following his April 2 defeat in a special election for state Senate.
After his loss in the 37th Senatorial District race to Democrat Pam Iovino, Mr. Raja faced criticism from members of his party over his handling of candidate recruitment efforts, among other things. He announced May 29 that he would resign, effective June 29.
The victor Saturday will serve the remainder of Mr. Raja’s term. Officer elections are held in presidential election years.
Mr. DeMarco is the party’s only countywide elected official since winning one of the two at- large County Council seats in 2015. He is also chair of the council’s Republican caucus and a member of the
state Republican committee.
Mr. DeMarco, a sales executive, said he decided to run because of “the failure of the Republican Committee of Allegheny County to recruit and nominate candidates for county office.” He pointed to the party’s lack of candidates this year for county treasurer, controller, district attorney and five county council districts. The party now has a write- in candidate for controller.
“We have 263,000 registered Republicans in Allegheny County. There is no reason we can’t win elections here. All we need to do is get our people to turn out. If you want them to turn out, you have to give them candidates to vote for,” Mr. DeMarco said.
He said he has an eightpage plan to boost recruitment, fundraising and other committee functions, and he argued that Republican positions are popular in Allegheny County. “We’re right on the issues, and we’re just not communicating,” he said. He pointed, in particular, to job growth under President Donald Trump — Allegheny County’s unemployment rate is now the lowest on record, under 4%.
Mr. Brnardic owns a construction business and has never held elected office, but he chairs the West Deer Republican Committee and has directed the county committee’s finances for three years.
Mr. Brnardic said he has been successful in both roles, increasing the number of Republicans from one to six on the seven- member West Deer board of supervisors and raising $ 324,000 for the county committee.
“All politics is local politics. You have to run it like you would your own local committee, with meetings every month. Invite all the members and have multiple vice chairs,” Mr. Brnardic said. He listed a number of subcommittees he would form and additional positions for which he would hire.
With the “shock” of losing the state Senate race and congressional races in the past year and a half, Mr. Brnardic said, local Republicans have “awoken, and they want to do something about it. It’s the perfect time to run meetings on a regular basis. ... If you show them the organization is strong and willing to work with them, they’ll want to get engaged.”
Mr. Brnardic said he would focus on appealing to younger people to run “for different positions like school boards and supervisors, millennial types who have a different approach to things. Many of the committee chairs and vice chairs are more mature types, rather than young Republicans, who look at things different.”
Mr. Brnardic touted his ability to focus exclusively on running the committee. He plans to retire from his construction business this year, he said.
Mr. DeMarco, a Marine veteran, said, “The ethos of a Marine is, as long as I’m still breathing, I can do more.”