It’s tough for any Auditor General candidate to bump his party’s ticket up or down; since those candidates run the same year as the presidential election and typically have far less money on hand than the top of the ballot.

But Eugene DePasquale, the York lawmaker whose grandfather was a Pittsburgh City Councilman, might be able to boost the ticket out west.

Compared to President Barack Obama and Treasurer Rob McCord, both Democrats who ran unopposed, DePaquale (also unopposed) ran slightly higher in western and south central Pa.

In the Pittsburgh media market, DePasquale finished more than 11,000 votes ahead of Obama and 6,416 ahead of McCord. In Johnstown-Altoona, he bested Obama by over 4,900 votes and 1,300 votes in the Harrisburg-Lancaster-York market.

The Dems will need a lift in western PA. Senator Bob Casey of Scranton is also popular in the west, but Obama and McCord are strongest in SEPA (in the Philadelphia market, Obama finished over 52,000 votes ahead of DePasquale; McCord lead him by over 11,000).

DePasquale’s general election opponent, State Rep. John Maher of Allegheny County, finished between 85 and 90 percent of the GOP vote in his contested primary.