In the race to succeed Rich Fitzgerald as Allegheny County executive, Republican Joe Rockey has cast himself as a moderate. Democrat Sara Innamorato, by contrast, has cast herself as a progressive. The county has a long history of electing both Democrats and Republicans, but it’s been nearly a quarter-century since a Republican was elected to the county’s top office. Rockey’s campaign will be one test of whether county voters will support a candidate who says he wants the votes of conservative voters but who is focusing his campaign messages on appeals to moderates. WESA and PublicSource reached out to voters via social media and face-to-face interviews in Downtown and McCandless in early October, seeking urban and suburban voters with diversity roughly mirroring the county’s. The interviews solicited a spectrum of liberal, moderate and conservative voices, while avoiding participants professionally involved in politics. The voters shared nuanced views of what it means to be a moderate and what they look for in a candidate. Many of the voters said they didn’t know anything about Rockey or Innamorato, but they did have opinions about whether a candidate pitching themselves as a moderate would work for them. Some voters said that a moderate candidate is appealing to them, although they would want to look more closely to see if the candidate is truly moderate. On many of the issues the voters cared about most — such as abortion or homelessness —– those voters disagreed about what being moderate means.

Photo credit: Clare Sheedy/PublicSource