worked on the campaigns:

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-local/2023/11/17/allegheny-county-election-results-stephen-zappala-joe-rockey/stories/202311170047

It's so elementary and obvious, it's laughable. Anyone who paid any attention to the these elections could have told you the same without the benefit of polling or having run the R campaigns.

Stephen Zappala is a good, long-serving Democrat and a good DA, but he has pissed off some people in the last few years. The feud with Dugan is just one example, and not everything gets into the papers anyway. I've been voting for Zappala for as long as I can remember, and I think I gave him my vote in primary too. He ran as an independent then. So a lot of Pittsburghers were going to vote for him out of habit, regardless of party endorsement.

Joe Rockey ran a decent campaign from what I saw. I don't think he made any major blunders. The guy sounded OK, but he wasn't very well-known in Allegheny County until this year. On the other hand, a lot of people were unfamiliar with Immorata also. I think the County Manager voting just went by straight party-lines, and the Dems almost always win that. If she messes up, maybe voters will give Rockey a chance next time. We'll see.

I don't have any insider info, I just go by what I see in the newspapers.

Zappala, he's a long time Dem and as you said, plenty of people always voted for him and did again.

Inammorato did have more name recognition because she was elected to the state house and had run in Allegheny county. I think her election was close because voters are tired of uber partisanship that's seeped into every level of govenment. To me, the message from voters was, put all the partisanship aside and govern. I know it's the Rs engaging in the hyper partisan stuff, but still the message was sent to both parties.

The school board elections are a good bellwether, imo. In many cases, even in R school districts like me, the crazies were voted out in favor of candidates who ran on being responsible stewards.