Raja to resign as GOP committee chair
Mt. Lebanon official was facing criticism
Less than two months after losing a special election for state Senate, D. Raja is stepping down as chair of the Republican Committee of Allegheny County.
Mr. Raja, 53, of Mt. Lebanon, said he never intended to seek another term as chair, a move that would have kept him holding the party reins through the 2020 election. The local committee holds elections for its officers each presidential election year.
But, like his predecessor, former county Executive Jim Roddey, Mr. Raja said he will step down early — on June 29 or sooner — in an effort to give the committee ample time to prepare for the presidential campaign, he announced Friday.
“If [the new chair] comes in and has five months for the presidential and all the other elections, that’s a very short period of time to work with the committees,” Mr. Raja said.
In the weeks after he lost the 37th Senatorial District race to Democrat Pam Iovino, Mr. Raja faced criticism from members of his party over his handling of candidate recruitment efforts in the county, among other things, criticisms he says were not factors in his decision.
In an op-ed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last month, Mary Ann Meloy, former chair of the southwest caucus of the Pennsylvania Republican Party, blamed Mr. Raja for Allegheny County having neither a Republican member of Congress nor a state senator in its delegation for the first time since 1936.
Ms. Meloy pointed to a number of examples of Republicans failing to prevail in winnable races in the
county, asserting that it was Mr. Raja’s fault.
“It is the party chairman’s job to recruit candidates for office and get them elected,” Ms. Meloy wrote. “Mr. Raja has failed to do this. Instead, he spent the past year focused on his own, doomed third bid for elected office.”
Mr. Raja, though, said he has succeeded in a “challenging environment,” pointing out, for example, that incumbent Republicans won all of the county’s state House races last fall.
He also touted a 150% growth in committee membership over his tenure, as well as a boost in Republican voter registration in the county. Mr. Raja has been chairman since 2015.
The committee’s leadership team will send out a notice next week advising committee members of an election date to choose Mr. Raja’s replacement. The winner will fill the remaining year of Mr. Raja’s term, then face the standard presidential year election.