On Friday, I spent my lunch hour listening to wonks discuss the perilous state of our municipal finance during a well-attended RenewLV brown bag session in downtown Easton. I actually had been looking forward to it, a sure indication of just how boring I've become. I'll have a separate post on that little adventure soon, but my focus right now is on one of the wonks who attended and participated heavily in that mini-seminar. He even brought a brown bag! He's Bob Freeman, a state representative seeking re-election to the state house. His opponent, for the third time in a row, is Northampton County Oddball Ron Shegda. Some might portray this as a battle between elitist liberalism and populist conservatism, but the reality is that this is a confrontation between a man of integrity who does his homework, and another who has an increasingly unhealthy obsession with getting elected to something.It's wonk v. wingnut. The battleground is the 136th Legislative District: (City of Easton; Boroughs of Freemansburg, Glendon, Hellertown, West Easton and Wilson; Townships of Bethlehem wards 3, 4 (district 1), Lower Saucon (Hellertown, Leithsville, Lower Saucon, Shimersville and Wassergass districts), Williams).
Republican: Ron ShegdaWebpage located here.
His YouTube channel indicates he really likes Lou Rawls' "You'll never find another love like mine."
Campaign Finance: Two online reports indicate that philanthropists Roland & Doris Sigal are Shegda's biggest contributors, having kicked in $7,800 so far this year. In return, Shegda carts Sigal to ball games. LV Conservative Voice PAC, which snubbed LV Congressman Charlie Dent at a pre-primary candidates' forum, actually gave him $300. The only other candidate who got anything from them is payjacker Sam Rohrer.
Shegda is blatantly using the supposedly "nonpolitical" LV Tea Party to fund his local radio program ("They're paying for this microphone because people in the tea party movement care about this nation."), In a recent broadcast from "Tea Party Platz," the local tea party pays for video that features two "Ron Shegda for State Representative" signs. As Shegda drones on, some kid in the video does a dumb bell workout while occasionally giving thumbs up signals at Shegda's campaign signs.
In addition to the LV Tea Party, nonprofit Notre Dame High School briefly linked to his radio show until this blog called attention to the politics.
Shegda annoyed the hell out of Bobby Gunther Walsh on WAEB Radio when this perpetual candidate said he's running to "serve people with the abilities God gave me."
He is against polygamy.
Democrat: Bob Freeman (incumbent)
Webpage located here.
Campaign Finance: Two online reports reveal his campaign treasury has $33,000, but he's only raised $750 over the first two election cycles.
Bob chairs the state house local government committee, where he shepherded the Elm Street Bill through the state legislature. That program helps revitalize older residential neighborhoods. He is currently working on legislation that will provide grant money for municipalities who struggle with revenue lost to tax exempt properties.
17 comments:
Is Bob Freeman still alive?
So Freeman "shepherded the Elm Street Bill through the state legislature. That program helps revitalize older residential neighborhoods"
So he took someof my tax dollars and made someone else's neighborhood better.
When the rebublic was new, those residents would have done that themselves.
"When the rebublic was new, those residents would have done that themselves."
Give me a break, Do you think our Boston patriots refused to fight in Pa. or Virginia bc it wasn't their neighborhood? There's a difference between conservatism and selfishness, or just plain stupidity.
you compare fighting in the American revolution to "revitalizing" a neighborhood? Give ME a break.
In the meantime sit on your ass and wait for someone to fix up your neighborhood
I'm one of the five members of the Lehigh Valley Tea party group who was interviewed by Ron Shegda at Musikfest. For full disclosure, I have also done a previous interview with Shegda on his regular Tuesday morning program, last November, about the health care reform bill and a physician-organized event on the Capitol steps in Harrisburg.
I've just made a point of listening to the interview I did with Shegda to make SURE that there was nothing in it that could be considered political.
There wasn't. In fact, I worked hard to express the local group's NON-political nature.
There was no mention of the fact that Shegda is a candidate for political office ANYWHERE in the show, nor were there any signs or campaign buttons or anything else present at the site of the broadcast which would have promoted Shegda's campaign.
And I'm sure that nothing anyone ELSE said on behalf of the tea party group, during either of the three Sunday interviews or the two on Wednesday, had ANYTHING to do with Ron Shegda's campaign.
The Lehigh Valley Tea Party group DID NOT fund Ron Shegda's campaign through the opportunity we had on WGPA at Musikfest to express the group's positions. Payment for the time on the station was made TO WGPA, and not to Ron Shegda or his campaign, and it wasn't even paid for BY the Lehigh Valley Tea Party group - a private citizen purchased the time and donated it to the group.
As the media generally portrays both the national tea party movement and our local tea party group in a biased and inaccurate manner (as this blog has done on occasion) we took advantage of an opportunity to express our positions in a level of depth generally unavailable to us on several important issues on Shegda's program.
There's no way our group could afford five 15-minute blocks of time on WAEB, so participating in a program on WGPA, admittedly a MUCH smaller audience, was an excellent option. Since the main stream media can't seem to cover us fairly, we need to seek out alternative methods for getting out our message.
TEA PARTY PLATZ HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH SHEGDA'S CANDIDACY, which the Lehigh Valley Tea party group neither endorses nor opposes, and we know that Ron Shegda, who is a member of our almost 1,300-member group, understands this and has NEVER claimed to be the "tea party candidate" or any such thing.
Our group stresses INDIVIDUAL political advocacy on the part of our members, but not as an organization, and to say that we sponsor any candidate's election effort is completely inaccurate. We thought we'd made that clear enough to local media during the whole Jake Towne band mess, but obviously not. (BTW, Jake Towne IS NOT a "tea party candidate" either, despite the Callahan campaign's continuing claims in their press releases trying to tie him to our group.)
Bernie, I will be more than happy to discuss this, or other issues concerning our group with you as they arise. You don't have to like us to cover us accurately - all you have to do is ask what's going on.
Additional information about our NON-political, NON-partisan, NON-profit educational organization is available at www.lehighvalleyteaparty.org.
I apologize for the double post - not sure why that happened.
Wow! Ron Shegda, now there's a man that is totally confused. I talked to him once and it was like watching paint dry. He was all over the place and said nothing. as a democrat, thank you to the Republican Party because you know that it would take a very special person to beat Bob. Just keep letting him run because Bob will always win.
Donna's comment never mae it onto blogger, so I'll post it for her:
"I'm one of the five members of the Lehigh Valley Tea party group who was interviewed by Ron Shegda at Musikfest. For full disclosure, I have also done a previous interview with Shegda on his regular Tuesday morning program, last November, about the health care reform bill and a physician-organized event on the Capitol steps in Harrisburg.
I've just made a point of listening to the interview I did with Shegda to make SURE that there was nothing in it that could be considered political.
There wasn't. In fact, I worked hard to express the local group's NON-political nature.
There was no mention of the fact that Shegda is a candidate for political office ANYWHERE in the show, nor were there any signs or campaign buttons or anything else present at the site of the broadcast which would have promoted Shegda's campaign.
And I'm sure that nothing anyone ELSE said on behalf of the tea party group, during either of the three Sunday interviews or the two on Wednesday, had ANYTHING to do with Ron Shegda's campaign.
The Lehigh Valley Tea Party group DID NOT fund Ron Shegda's campaign through the opportunity we had on WGPA at Musikfest to express the group's positions. Payment for the time on the station was made TO WGPA, and not to Ron Shegda or his campaign, and it wasn't even paid for BY the Lehigh Valley Tea Party group - a private citizen purchased the time and donated it to the group.
As the media generally portrays both the national tea party movement and our local tea party group in a biased and inaccurate manner (as this blog has done on occasion) we took advantage of an opportunity to express our positions in a level of depth generally unavailable to us on several important issues on Shegda's program.
There's no way our group could afford five 15-minute blocks of time on WAEB, so participating in a program on WGPA, admittedly a MUCH smaller audience, was an excellent option. Since the main stream media can't seem to cover us fairly, we need to seek out alternative methods for getting out our message.
TEA PARTY PLATZ HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH SHEGDA'S CANDIDACY, which the Lehigh Valley Tea party group neither endorses nor opposes, and we know that Ron Shegda, who is a member of our almost 1,300-member group, understands this and has NEVER claimed to be the "tea party candidate" or any such thing.
Our group stresses INDIVIDUAL political advocacy on the part of our members, but not as an organization, and to say that we sponsor any candidate's election effort is completely inaccurate. We thought we'd made that clear enough to local media during the whole Jake Towne band mess, but obviously not. (BTW, Jake Towne IS NOT a "tea party candidate" either, despite the Callahan campaign's continuing claims in their press releases trying to tie him to our group.)
Bernie, I will be more than happy to discuss this, or other issues concerning our group with you as they arise. You don't have to like us to cover us accurately - all you have to do is ask what's going on.
Additional information about our NON-political, NON-partisan, NON-profit educational organization is available at www.lehighvalleyteaparty.org."
Donna, Look at my video link. During the time that you were discussing health care issues with Shegda, someone back at the station was pointing to Shegda signs and giving them a thums up. So like it or not, you financed his political campaign.
Thank you for making sure my post made it onto the blog. When I looked the first time, it was there twice. Then, apparently, it disappeared, leaving only my apology for the double posting.
At your suggestion, I LOOKED at the feed of the interview, which I had previously not watched but only listened to.
It came as a complete surprise to me (and probably even to Ron Shegda) that the person in the studio hung campaign signs at some point after the interview began, gestured to them, and then left them up for the remainder of the interview. He shouldn't have done any of that.
That said, I suspect that very few people actually WATCH the images in the booth when they listen to the download of the show, as I didn't. And, of course, people actually listening on WGPA would have had no idea what the young man in the studio was doing.
If ANYONE saw the little campaign sign dance and assumed that the local tea party group was somehow endorsing Ron Shegda, that's unfortunate, since our group doesn't endorse ANYONE.
Had we known what was going to happen in the studio, we would have objected - even though I suspect it was merely the silly actions of an overeager young co-worker who probably didn't think anyone other than the broadcasters on the scene were watching.
It may not have been a violation of campaign finance law, but it was tacky.
Bottom line - the Lehigh Valley Tea Party group did not endorse Shegda (or anyone else), did not donate money to his campaign, and did not authorize anyone doing a silly little dance with his campaign signs during any of our interviews.
This is the definition a of the Wonk !
Synonyms: bookworm, dink [slang], dork [slang], geek, grind, swot [British], weenie, nerd.
Near Antonyms: goldbrick, goof-off, slacker, underachiever; lowbrow.
Now the definition of a Wingnut !
One who advocates extreme measures or changes!
I think I will go with the wingnut, thanks for setting me straight Bernie !:)
Vote Shegda in 2010 ! Time for a change ! :)
Freeman, anonymous longtime Harrisburg backbencher with nothing but a fat pension to show for it. Shegda, not.
If I were Shegda, that's how I would campaign.
Well, this is picking the lesser of two evils.
But it is still evil.
This is the very best we can get? Wow.
Freeman is an affable clock puncher who has essentially stolen his salary for his entire career. He's never led on a single issue of importance and has been a loyal Rendell lapdog, voting to bankrupt the state at every turn. Bob has never not voted for a tax increase. His record is perfect. Bob Freeman should show some decency and limit his own terms. He's been around long enough. It's time for a lucrative and lazy retirement with his buddies at the bridge commission. Bob Freeman exemplifies the worst legislature in America.
Even the Bridge Commission will elude Bob. With a Republican Governor coming in you will see the Republican hacks get the jobs this time.
I predict Bob will die in office and two years later someone will realize it and that will be that.
Classic.
Math lesson for the day:
Value of S = infinity (Priceless)
Cost of S to taxpayers = very low
where S = Ron Shegda
Value of (O+F+L) = zero
Cost of (O+F+L) = an arm and a leg
where O+F+L=(Bernie O' Harebrained + Bob "Freeloader" Freeman + the rest of the libs in DC and Harrisburg)
Conclusion: S > O+F+L
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