Republican Stephen Zappala wins Allegheny County district attorney race
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Republican Stephen Zappala has defeated Democrat Matt Dugan in the race for Allegheny County district attorney on Tuesday.
Zappala, the Democratic incumbent, ran on the Republican ticket against Dugan, who beat him in May's primary for the Democratic nomination.
Zappala has been Allegheny County's district attorney since 1998 as a Democrat; his loss to Dugan in the primary led him to accept the Republican nomination after receiving nearly 9,700 write-in votes on the GOP ballot.
Zappala thanked his supporters on Tuesday night during his victory speech for his seventh term as Allegheny County district attorney. He was introduced by former Republican Gov. Tom Corbett, who convinced Zappala to run as a Republican.
"We got a lot of work to do," Zappala said. "I had a chance to talk with some of the guys from the media earlier, and one of the first order of business is to explore the development of a municipal authority for the South Side and the South Side Flats."
Roughly 30 percent of Democrats crossed party lines to vote for Zappala, who ran as the law-and-order candidate.
Dugan spoke to his supporters and said he would do it all over again. But he did admit that it was a difficult race and losing is hard.
"I'm very, very proud of the work that all of us have done," Dugan said, "that all of us have done to get where we are tonight. I stand here proud of the campaign that we ran, proud of the message we brought."
Dugan said despite the outcome, he will continue to fight for reform.
