The man who once served as Allegheny County's first elected executive is stepping down as chairman of the county Republican committee.
Eighty-three-year-old James Roddey announced his resignation at the party's Spirit of Lincoln Dinner on Monday night.
Roddey says the county party raised $1.3 million under his leadership and that the Pittsburgh-based county now has more Republicans than any other county in the state.
Roddey served as the Democrat-dominated county's first executive from 2000 to 2004 after voters approved a charter abolishing a three-member board of commissioners in favor of an executive and 15-member county council.
Roddey was asked to chair the Republican Committee of Allegheny County in 2008, when it was struggling with understaffing and unpaid bills. The committee's membership has grown from 352 to nearly 1,000 under Roddey.
