Penn Hills Republicans will have a mayoral candidate on the ballot in November, but it won't be the man who won the nomination through a write-in campaign in the spring primary.

Robert Larko won the nomination with more than 150 write-in votes in May, but will instead pursue a seat on the Penn Hills school board, a nomination he also won in the primary.

Jim McCollum, a U.S. Air Force veteran and a network communications sales engineer for Sprint, will instead oppose incumbent Democratic Mayor Anthony DeLuca in the fall. The Penn Hills Republican Committee selected Mr. McCollum as it candidate at the regular committee meeting Aug. 21.

"Penn Hills is really stagnating as a community," Mr. McCollum, 56, said. He wants to jump start economic development and get the municipality's sewer debt under control.

Mr. McCollum has served in the ministry of the Covenant Church of Pittsburgh for more than 15 years and has been an associate pastor for more than a year.

His only other venture in politics was an unsuccessful run for Congress several years ago.

He is married and he and his wife have two children.

Mr. Larko decided to run for a school board seat "because of my children," the father of two said.

He said he believes he can help with the district's tight financial condition through his experience at work. He is controller/assistant vice president PNC Dealer Finance.