Issue #76: Halloween 2022 Article - The Westmoreland County, PA Coroner Race

A family dynasty falls to changing politics

In October of 2021, I updated my database of coroners in America. Each year, for Halloween, I talk about this obscure office, and each year, people go “wait, coroners are elected?!” Yep, that is right, over 1,000 counties in American still elected county coroners - and they do so on a partisan ballot. In October of 2021, this was the breakdown.

In that update, a took a look at each state and how the breakdowns had changed since my first look in October of 2017. In Pennsylvania, a handful of counties saw their coroner offices change parties. I first started covering this in a 2018 article dedicated to the Pennsylvania coroner elections. In that article, I discussed how rural Trump counties were moving GOP down-ballot after long decades of conservative democratic control. Meanwhile, the formerly-GOP Philadelphia suburban counties began to elect Democrats down-ballot for a first time. As I have said countless times before, the realignment of a region always starts at the top and works its way down-ballot over many years.

In October 2021, this was the breakdown of coroner offices in Pennsylvania. Three counties, all growing Democratic bases in the Philadelphia metro suburbs, had gone Democratic. Meanwhile, two rural counties with ancestral Democratic support finally fell to the GOP.

After that article, however, Pennsylvania had November 2021 local elections. Several counties held races for coroner that year, and two more counties flipped to the GOP. In Berks and Westmorland counties, the Democratic incumbent coroner lost re-election. In addition, the Cambria coroner decided changed parties from Democrat to Republican not long after those elections.

At this point, only two Biden counties have GOP coroners, while seven Trump counties have Democrats. This means more flips in favor of the GOP are likely down the line. But while the shifts in these counties makes sense when we look at topline data, the race in Westmoreland County is worth discussing much more. That election ended a family dynasty.

Westmoreland’s Politics

Like so many counties surrounding Pittsburgh, Westmoreland used to be a longtime Democratic bastion. The Southwest counties used to be a core block of Democratic voters. Thanks to a history of steel and coal production, the region has historically had a strong labor union presence; but has also been more moderate/conservative and blue-collar. Differences with the national party on social issues and environmental regulation, coupled with a decline in labor union power as jobs dried up, the region began to move more to the GOPo. These counties began to shift more Republican in the early 2000s; with Westmoreland voting for George W Bush in 2000, its first GOP Presidential vote since Nixon’s landslide.

The county remained blue locally until 2009, when the Clerk of Court race went to the GOP. As years went on, more countywide posts went red, with Republicans taking control of the county commission in 2011, with Democrats taking back control in 2015, and then losing control again in 2019.

Top of the ticket races got much redder, and in 2020 Westmoreland gave Donald Trump 65% of the vote.

Blue voting pockets in Westmoreland are largely confined to the Greensburg area and the suburban towns that share the border with Alleghany County (Pittsburgh).

Westmoreland holds its local elections in the odd years, away from Presidential or Gubernatorial races. Half the offices are up every two years. Republicans took four local offices in 2011, but Democrats held several posts for many years.

One of these elected democrats was county Coroner Kenneth Bacha. In 2017, well into the era of GOP strength down-ballot, he still won re-election with 61% of the vote.

Bacha was part of a family legacy in the Coroner’s office. His father, Leo, has served as Coroner for 23 years, retiring in 2001. The family, which is in the funeral home business, was a staple in the county.

Down-ballot races continued to see GOP Republican gains, but several races remained competitive. The 2019 elections saw Republicans regain control of the county commission, and take back the Recorded of Deeds race they’d lost in 2015. However, Democrat James Albert won the Sheriff race, knocking off scandal-plagued incumbent Jonathan Held.

This victory would not last long, with Sheriff Albert announcing he was switching to the GOP in September of 2020.

Heading into 2021, the Democrats were on the ropes for the local offices they still controlled. Three offices would up that year that were still in Democratic control: District Attorney, Prothonotary, and Coroner. The local elections were taking place the same day as Pennsylvania was voting for several constitutional amendments and a race for State Supreme Court. I covered these races in this 2021 article. In the State Supreme Court race, the Republican candidate won Westmoreland with 61%.

Down-ballot was a bloodbath for the Democratic Party. Democrats lost the open race for Prothonotary. In the race for District Attorney, Democratic Incumbent John Peck, who served since the 1990s and was a seasoned prosecutor, lost re-election by a stunning 15 points.

In the coroner election, Bacha was facing off against Republican Tim Carson, the former Mayor of Scottdale and the owner of a catering service. Bacha spent the campaign touting his accomplishments in the post; which included a deal to move the coroner’s office to the county's forensics center; where a private pathologist firm handled autopsies. Bacha also touted that he worked to make sure is full-time staff were getting death investigation trainings. He had also made chronicling deaths from opioid overdose a critical outreach tool to warn the public about the growing trend several years ago. Bacha made his views on the race well known in those quote -

I tell people to compare the candidates. You have a coroner on one side and a caterer on the other

His opponent, Carson, touted his time working with the Sheriff’s office, and downplayed his lack of experience. He said,

When I worked at the sheriff's office, I secured funding and worked on budgets. A lot of people don't realize you don't have to have a medical background," …… "My opponent has performed the same amount of autopsies as I have — none.

All quotes from this article

At the end of the day, partisan affiliation won out. Bacha lost by 3%, which was the best Democratic showing of the night. With that, all down-ballot county-wide offices were in Republican control.

Bacha is open that he did not expect to lose his race. While he admitted to feeling bitter for some time, by the end of his term, he was ready to move on and went into private work. A great bio on his tenure can be read here. He was eventually hired as the Chief Operations officer for Mutual Aid Ambulance Service Inc.

Bacha lost ground from his 2017 race across the county. However, he did make improvements in a handful of precincts; especially the suburbs in the northwest end. A notable indicator of suburban shifts to Democrats in recent years.

While Bacha didn’t manage to win another term, he was still a very strong performer. His 2.7% loss is still far better than Biden’s 28.4% loss. Bacha outperformed Biden across almost every precinct; many by over 30%.

The final outcome of the 2021 Westmoreland elections is a full row of countywide Republican officials. There was some back and forth over the last decade, but now it all is in GOP hands.

I am not anticipating a comeback for Bacha or any other Democrat for Coroner, much less the other offices. In the end, party mattered more than experience, and the Bacha coroner dynasty came to an end.