Gina Cerilli spent nearly $300,000 this year in her successful campaign to be Westmoreland County commissioner.

The commissioner-elect, who balanced work and law school while running her first political campaign, received 38,000 votes in a race against three incumbent candidates.

Cerilli's campaign spent $297,800, including nearly $48,000 during the last month of the race, according to campaign finance reports filed Thursday. Fellow Democrat Ted Kopas, running separately, spent more than $235,700 on his campaign.

Republicans Charles Anderson, who finished third, spent $130,000, and Tyler Courtney, who became the first incumbent commissioner to lose a re-election bid in 20 years, spent $157,000. During the last month of the race, the state Republican Committee chipped in more than $40,000 in additional spending on behalf of the candidates, who ran as a team, the report said.

This year's spending far outpaced previous elections for commissioner, according to Ken Burkley, a longtime political observer and former chairman of the county's Democratic Committee.

“I don't ever remember any race over $200,000. I think that's setting a new bar there,” Burkley said.

The wins by Cerilli and Kopas enabled Democrats to recapture a majority on the board of commissioners, which the party lost four years ago after more than six decades in control of county government.

Inflation is one reason for the higher spending in the election, but increased competition is another, Burkley said. He said for years, Democrats controlled voter registration and, as a result, held nearly every major elected office in the county without much threat of losing in the general election.

While Republicans have trimmed the registration gap, the party won federal and state races in recent years. It was the GOP's sweep of the county commissioners race and all row office seats in 2011 that ushered in a change of attitude and an increased need to spend, Burkley said.

“This is a very competitive county now,” he said. “The races used to be won in the primary. You have to spend money in the general election now, too.”

Judicial candidatesspend near $1 million

The final four candidates for three open seats on the county's Common Pleas Court combined to spend nearly $1 million during the yearlong campaign.

Incumbent David Regoli topped all candidates by spending more than $386,000, including $92,000 in the final weeks of the race. Regoli used some of that money to air a controversial television commercial that criticized Republican candidate Tim Krieger, a state representative from Delmont, for voting against several House bills connected to child protection laws.

Regoli finished last in the race, 111 votes behind Krieger.

Unity lawyer Scott Mears and incumbent Judge Harry Smail had won both Democratic and Republican nominations in the spring primary and were considered locks to win the judicial seats in the general election.

Mears' campaign for the year spent more than $228,000, including $26,600 in the final weeks of the race. Smail's campaign listed just $5,200 in the waning days of the election and $202,000 for the year.

According to the financial reports, Krieger's campaign listed more than $40,000 in expenses during the race's final weeks. His campaign spent about $171,000 over the last year.

Rich Cholodofsky is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 724-830-6293 or rcholodofsky@tribweb.com.

---

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)

---