Dec 8, 2015 4 min read

Republican incumbent Diana Irey Vaughan and GOP newcomer Mike McCormick, who hoped to come out of the Nov. 3 election with a majority on the Washington County Board of Commissioners, reported spending a combined $42,806 during the home stretch of the campaign, nearly three times the amount spent by the pair of Democratic incumbents during the same period.

Larry Maggi’s and Harlan Shober’s committees reported $16,003 in expenses for the final month, including election eve and the monthlong period afterward.

Shober listed a bill of $2,450 he paid Nov. 17 to attorney Joseph Zupancic for “election review.” McCormick, who took the election case to court 36 hours after the polls closed and was represented in various phases of the litigation and extended count by attorneys Sean Logue and Bob Salera, did not enumerate legal fees in campaign finance forms filed with the Washington County elections office, either as a campaign expense or an in-kind contribution.

“I haven’t received a bill from any of the attorneys,” McCormick said Monday. “I’m not sure what they are charging or if they are charging. I usually don’t call attorneys to find out what I owe them.”

McCormick speculated his legal fees might be similar to Shober’s because “we were doing the same thing at the same time. One way or the other, we will do what’s right and we will get it done.”

McCormick, a businessman from Peters Township, held a 67-vote lead on election night, but when the elections office tabulated slightly more than 800 absentee ballots later that week, the race “flipped,” giving Shober a lead in the neighborhood of 30-some votes he did not relinquish during a tally of provisional ballots that sealed the outcome of the race for the third spot on the board two weeks after Election Day.

In an amendment to an earlier report, McCormick’s committee filed a letter from the Republican Party of Pennsylvania showing a $27,375 infusion of spending for mailings and postage, some of which also supported the election of appellate court judges. The letter to McCormick stated, “You should report this as an in-kind contribution.” In the mailings, McCormick blamed Shober for increasing county budgets and failing to conquer the heroin problem and branded the former AT&T employee who was a Chartiers Township supervisor and Chartiers-Houston School Board member as a “career politician.”

McCormick listed among his expenses a $3,000 reimbursement for monthly rent at his Venetia home.

Irey Vaughan, who was part of Washington County’s last Republican majority on the board that occurred between 1996 and 2000, itemized an in-kind contribution worth $2,875 for a mailing through the Republican Party of Peters Township, an expenditure of $6,679 to the Brabender Cox media company that lists an invoice number but does not specify the type of service purchased, and $1,400 to Harper Polling Co. of Harrisburg. She finished second in the race, in which voters had a chance to vote for two candidates, with the three top vote-getters being seated when the board takes the oath of office in January.

Shober spent $4,747 during the Oct. 20 through Nov. 23 period, ending with a cash balance of $45,431 and reporting unpaid debts of $20,186 owed to himself. Maggi, who has led the ticket each time he has run for county commissioner since 2003, reported an ending cash balance of $150,220 for his political committee.

In the race for Washington County district attorney, Democrat Peter Marcoline III, who failed to unseat Republican Gene Vittone, spent $33,175 during the 30-day reporting period and reported unpaid debts of $7,313.

Vittone’s committee reported expenditures of $23,563 and unpaid debts of $59,500 owed to the candidate and his father, a Peters Township resident.

Washington County has 128,783 registered voters, and on Election Day, 42,197 of them, or 32.77 percent, cast a ballot either in person or by the absentee process. Of the 42,000-some ballots, voters cast 4,079 straight-Democratic Party votes, while 3,452 straight-party votes went to Republicans.

J.J. Abbot, aide to Gov. Tom Wolf, said 732 voters took advantage of online voter registration or used it to make changes to existing registrations after the feature was introduced in August. The figure reflects 466 applications and 266 changes in registration information, according to figures available on the Department of State website. Washington County Republicans represented 352 of the online interactions, Democrats 295 and people of other political parties or no affiliation, 85.

Statewide, there were 31,317 new applications and 19,560 who made changes, representing 27,435 Democrats, 17,666 Republicans and 5,776 others.

Presidential election years have the highest voter turnout, and state officials said they wanted to introduce online voter registration in advance of 2016.