STEPHEN ZAPPALA AT HIS VICTORY PARTY. | PHOTO BY JAMES PAUL | PITTSBURGH MEDIA PARTNERSHIP

Sometimes — OK, most of the time — I can go a few days without remembering to check my mail. One day in late October, I found a pile of cardboard political ads arguing about Stephen Zappala.

Zappala, the Allegheny County District Attorney in these parts for two decades and counting, was elected as a Democrat for most of his political career. Facing a primary defeat from Matt Dugan, Zappala campaigned for write-in votes as a Republican, winning that party’s nomination; last week, he won the rematch with Dugan and was elected to another term.

Those cardboard advertisements I pulled out of the mail said little about substantive issues or (heaven forfend) political philosophy. Instead, they simply argued about whether or not Zappala was a Democrat. Zappala’s ads called him “Democrat Stephen Zappala,” eager to cast the party-swapping as a political maneuver only; Dugan’s ads called the incumbent “Republican Stephen Zappala,” seeking to make lifelong blue voters wary of the suddenly red prosecutor.

In the end, the labeling didn’t matter. Republican voters opted for Zappala, correctly seeing him as the more right-leaning of the two candidates. Democratic voters were split; while most supported Dugan, enough repeated their votes from the primary and continued to back Zappala.

It didn’t come down to whether Zappala is a Democrat or a Republican; it came down to basic electoral math.

SARA INNAMORATO GIVES HER VICTORY SPEECH TUESDAY NIGHT AFTER CLINCHING THE ALLEGHENY COUNTY EXECUTIVE RACE. | PHOTO BY SHANE DUNLAP, TRIBLIVE

Meanwhile, in the race for County Executive, supporters of Joe Rockey — and a seemingly endless network of PACs — frantically tried to sink Sara Innamorato by crying “socialist” from the mountaintops. No other word is wielded as a weapon, blunt though it certainly is, as frequently by the American right wing; it’s invoked in tones so dire, you can replace it with “boogeyman” in most usages without altering the sentence.

Ads and talking points attempting to discredit Innamorato were almost singularly focused on the socialist label, at the expense of ever telling us much about what Joe Rockey’s vision for Allegheny County looked like. And for that focus, Rockey and his supporters managed only to lose by slightly less than expected.

While the name-calling undoubtedly swayed some voters — Rockey overperformed for a Republican in Allegheny County — it was plainly an insufficient tactic. Voters did not care what label was hurled at Innamorato, just as they did not care whether a tiny R or a tiny D appeared next to Zappala’s name.

This should be a reminder that political races, even with a neatly divided electorate, come down to more than mere name-calling. You cannot win an election simply by trying to other your opponent; it’s a tactic that didn’t work for Matt Dugan or Joe Rockey, two ideologically opposed candidates united by their misguided campaigns.

Much to the chagrin of the loudest partisans, the majority of American voters tend to be closer to the center than they do to the extremes of the political spectrum. Many others have a blend of opinions, biases and concerns that do not neatly fit with either party. Seeking to reduce politics to my-team-versus-the-bad-guys is a reductive and tired tendency and, in many cases, electorally ineffective.

We don’t care what our leaders are called. We care about who they are.

Even if that doesn’t fit on a cardboard flier in an overstuffed mailbox.