Chuck McCullough Update

This will be in two parts. First the "it's restored my faith in the rationality of those with whom I disagree politically" part:

Squirrel Hill business owner and former County Council President Rich Fitzgerald legged out a victory over County Controller Mark Patrick Flaherty in the Democratic primary for Allegheny County executive on Tuesday night.

Fitzgerald will face Mt. Lebanon entrepreneur D. Raja, who handily beat former County Councilman Chuck McCullough in the Republican primary 71 percent to 28 percent, riding a wave of endorsements, cash and concerns about criminal charges filed against McCullough. [emphasis added.]

And now the part that could completely up end that first part.

It started with this Tim McNulty Early Returns post from early yesterday evening:

Here's our first juicy election rumor of the day:

An effort is underway today to write-in a certain big Republican name for county District Attorney, to take on Stephen A. Zappala in the fall. It's an attorney who has held elected office. He's been praised in the Post-Gazette recently for his legal acumen -- he's also been mentioned in the P-G many many for his own issues with the law.

Chuck McCullough.

All he would need is 500 write-in votes and he's on the ballot.

A few hours later McNulty posted:

Chuck McCullough never did call us back to confirm the write-in bid for District Attorney, but a last look at the numbers below is all you need. Republicans inked 1,418 write-ins (with 500 necessary) for the DA spot and only 357 in the next-highest tally for county exec.

This might turn out to be something completely different, as McNulty always points out. It won't be known for about a week exactly whose name is on those write-ins.

But still, it looks pretty suspicious.

Have you seen the most recent Docket with Chuck's name on it? As of this writing (7:26am on 5/18/11) he's still facing 24 charges - from violating 18 § 4906 §§ A (Filing a False Report) to violating 18 § 3921 §§ A (Theft by Unlawful Taking or Disposition). We can go charge by charge, you know.

Is this the guy that 1400 Allegheny County Residents want as the DA?

Geez, I hope not. I hope the rumor is completely untrue and it turns out to be something completely different.