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Nazareth, Pa., United States

Monday, June 23, 2014

NorCo GOP To Pick Leaders In Secret

DeFranco and Snover
Northampton County is a Democratic County. But Republicans are in the driver's seat. They control the Executive's office and currently have a 5-4 majority on County Council. Even most of the judges are Republican. So you might think this is the one county party that has its act together. They'll meet this week on June 26 to select the Chair and Vice Chair for the next four years. But ironically, the county party with the most victories also has the most in-fighting. When the cops get called to one of your meetings, you should know you've got a problem.

Personally, I think these party committees are little more than a relic of the patronage days. Even Ed Rendell, who has bucked his own party more than once, dismisses them. "They have no significance, no political power, no punch."

Why are Republicans winning? Because they vote. Even in a Democratic county like Northampton, people are disgusted by President Obama. They stay home.

In the meantime, it's fun to watch wannabes make idiots out of themselves in their quest for power. Tom Carroll, Tony Simao, Tricia Mezzacappa and Ronnie Del Bacco are among those appropriately calling themselves the RATs. Loser might be more appropriate. They have yet to win an election.

Historically, Republicans and Democrats both reorganize at the Courthouse. That's where Democrats picked Obamaphile Matt Munsey as their new boss two weeks ago. Though only committee members may vote, everyone is welcome. It's the people's building. Before all the layoffs at local newspapers, they usually dispatched someone for the show.

In a break from tradition, Republicans will reorganize somewhere else this year. Privately  Instead of using the courthouse, they will meet in the tea party's underground lair at the Chrin Community Center. The RATs complained about a public meeting. Some say they want to keep bottom feeders like me away. Others say that the gun nuts want to open carry. Whatever the reason, it's yet another amazing demonstration that the RATs are hellbent on destroying transparency and accountability.

Who are the contenders?

DeFranco and Snover

Roseto resident Craig DeFranco, the current Chair, is seeking re-election. He's a Villanova grad and former Plainfield Township Chief of Police. An accountant by education, he's currently the CFO at a public company offering Internet music and games.

DeFranco is joined by Lee Snover, who is also running for re-election as Vice Chair. She manages her family construction business in Northampton and chairs the busy Bethlehem Township Planning Comm'n. She's worked dozens of campaigns in decades of party involvement.

I don't know DeFranco. I do know Snover. Anyone who calls her a RINO is nutz. She is a hard core fiscal and social conservative. But she tolerates people with different views. Even me.

That's her mortal sin.

DeFranco and Snover argue that you don't change a winning team..

"We won the County Executive election (John Brown) and all five County Council at-large positions (Peg Ferraro, Glenn Geissinger, Seth Vaughn, Hayden Phillips, and Mat Benol). Republican Judge Emil Giordano was overwhelming retained as Judge of our Northampton County Court of Common Pleas. On top of that, a majority of Northampton County voters – despite a Democrat party registration edge – voted to retain our Republican state-wide judges (Ronald Castille and Susan Peikes Gantman) and voted to elect Judge Vic Stabile to the PA Superior Court. The NCRC was recognized in a letter from Governor Corbett at our 2014 Lincoln Day Breakfast for our 2013 election wins."

Morey and Anderson
Anderson and Morey

DeFranco and Snover are being challenged by two RATs who represent the worst in local politics. Just this Spring, they engaged in a vicious state committee race that included a vicious website as well as negative mailers and robocalls against fellow Rs. All were done anonymously. If I had to describe them, I'd say they most closely approximate a circular firing squad.

These folks don't believe in transparency or accountability, which explains why they insisted that the election take place at Chrin. As explained by one of their acolytes, defamer Tricia Mezzacappa, "The Norco GOP will have its reorg meeting in a private place this year, to make sure that O'Hare cant get in."

The RAT candidates are Cynthia Anderson and Mike Morey, both of whom are coming off embarrassing losses to state committee. Anderson, a realtor who has bounced around from state to state, was Congressional candidate Matt Dietz' campaign manager. He lost, too, finishing dead last.

Morey claims to be an IT consultant.

In other words, he is unemployed.

No wonder they don't want me at their meeting.

RATs are going to committee person houses, telling them they have to support them or they have will make sure they have no future in the Republican party. One committee member complains, “It was like a Jimmy Hoffa visit."

I don't think the RATS got his vote.

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

Time for a fresh new team in the GO. With people like Peg Ferraro and Ro9n /Angle calling the shots, the Party has no where to go but down.

Anonymous said...

Spoken like a loser who can't/ hasn't won any election ever!

Anonymous said...

Time to go to bed Ronnie and dream of better days.

Anonymous said...

Bernie
On one hand you say that political parties have no significance, no political power, no punch –
But then you say Republicans are winning because they vote.
Why do you think Republicans vote?
One of the primary functions of a political committee is to turn out their party's voters. Considering the results in Northampton County don’t you think the Northampton County Republican Committee deserves some credit here?

Anonymous said...

Fact is the RATs strategies to get their chosen candidates elected have all been abysmal failures. They need to quit acting like Pinky and the Brain plotting to take over the world and figure out how to get candidates elected.

Anonymous said...

Fact is O'Hare again is cant help mentioning the West Easton woman who he portrays as a nutcase, for about the millionth time in the past three years.

What I see is a twisted obsession by an old drunk, disbarred and desponded psycho with an axe to gring

Anonymous said...

The West Easton woman should be mentioned because her past and present actions make her a PERFECT example of why RAT candidates should never be elected to any position. RATs may try to keep her in the background, but voters should know the type of cRaZy people they have in their "organization."
And it should be pointed out that she wasn't singled out by name. Three other mental midgets were named along with her.

Bernie O'Hare said...

"One of the primary functions of a political committee is to turn out their party's voters. Considering the results in Northampton County don’t you think the Northampton County Republican Committee deserves some credit here?"

Honestly, no. When someone votes, it is not because his committeeman is hounding him to vote. Except in presidential races, there are no watchers at the polls, keeping tabs on who has voted and who has not. So as I said, and I said this in my very first post about these county parties, I think this is meaningless.

I take nothing away from committed people from both parties who disagree with me and may be right. But if someone wants to get elected, the last thing he should rely on is his county party.

Bernie O'Hare said...

" the West Easton woman who he portrays as a nutcase"

She objectively is a nutcase. The RATs welcome her. It is important to remember who these people are. They include unelected Chair Tom Carroll, who wants to be a judge, and is going to have a reading of the Declaration of Independence at Payrow Plaza in a false attempt to pass himself off as a patriot. Carroll was forced to resigns as an ADA in Northampton County, and does not practice here, but wants to be a judge. They include his boyfriend or girlfriend Tony Simao, who lost a bid for Bethlehem City Council after being embarrassed by the public revelation that he was posting pics of his pee pee on the Internet. They include Ronnie Del Bacco, another never-won who is all for banning books and requiring Rs to endure some kind of litmus test. All he needs is an armband.

These are intolerant people with a losing record. In a democracy, it is important that a spotlight be kept on these kinds of people, so they don't sneak into office.

Anonymous said...

PICS envy syndrome:

defined : (not classified as a mental health disorder, but mimmicks other personality defects found in common with a sociopath)

" A member of society who is disqualified from owning a firearm, who relentlessly lashes out at those members of society who pass PA Instant Criminal Checks System."


Carroll: Pass
Simao: Pass
DelBacco: Pass
Mezzacappa: Pass
Morey: Pass
Anderson: Pass

O'Hare: Denied

Bernie O'Hare said...

See what I mean? She is nuts and lacks the transparency or accountability to ID herself when she posts this trash. The RATs embrace her.

Anonymous said...

"Spoken like a loser who can't/ hasn't won any election ever!"

I don't know, that sounds like a resume enhancer to me.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Let me add I've never applied for a LTCF. I was never denied, as Mezzacappa falsely claims above. She was, and is suing over it. She also had her LTCF revoked, and sued over that ... and lost.

Ovem Lupo Commitere said...

“I’d rather get 80 percent of what I want than to go over the cliff with my flag flying.” attributed to Reagan

"If you got seventy-five or eighty percent of what you were asking for, I say, you take it and fight for the rest later, and that's what I told these radical conservatives who never got used to it." Reagan

"Moderation is important. Nothing is more repugnant than the intolerant spirit that has, at all times, characterized political parties. In politics, as in religion, it's absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution." Fed Paper #1

Anonymous said...

How many elections did Rick Orloski win?

Anonymous said...

O'Hare refused to a comply with a court ordered mental health exam

he is disqualified from owning firearms.

Anonymous said...

The truth is that the RATS want a private meeting so that they can get rowdy and disturb the meeting with out the press (or O'Hare) as witnesses.

It is their specialty to interrupt, and shout down the orderly meeting with innuendo and blatant lies, and then cry foul when they are told to come to order.
It has been their MO from the beginning.

Bernie O'Hare said...

"How many elections did Rick Orloski win?"

He loses elections bc he runs when no one else will run. His clients love him. He is one of the best lawyers I know, someone who cares about his clients.

Bernie O'Hare said...

"O'Hare refused to a comply with a court ordered mental health exam"

This is more nonsense.

Anonymous said...

RATs follow Saul Alinsky rules for radicals. They have implemented all of his rules which were dedicated to Satan.

Bernie O'Hare said...

The problem with that is that Ssul Alinsky wan't terribly successful. He never ran for office and never served as the mentor of any great leader. So basically, you are using the unsuccessful tactics used by '60s era hippies to accomplish nothing. This is foolish thinking embraced by nutz in the tea party. It does not work and did not work for Alinsky.

Anonymous said...

You underestimate Lee Snover's conservatism. Her yard signs for the primary said 2nd Amendment - that's dog whistle for the gun nuts.

Bernie O'Hare said...

I know very well that Lee is as conservative as any tea party member, if not more so. She is also pro life and considers herself a "conservative Christian." This is the person that Carroll, Simao, Kerr, Del Bacco and others deride as not pure enough.

Anonymous said...

I am sure that Lee Snover and Craig DeFranco are proud to have you on their side.

That should cement their chances of being re-elected.

Anonymous said...

The Supreme Court Disciplinary Board ordered, as a condition of re-instatement after a 2 year license suspension, , a mental health exam to prove that you are emotionally fit to re-instate.

You are not reinstated, not did you comply with the order to get mental treatment.

Its either that you refused, or were declared unfit. Its one or the other.

Can you respond to this please?


deny deflect, lie, delete

Bernie O'Hare said...

The Supreme Court adopted the Disciplinary Board's recommendation that my reinstatement be conditioned upon medical proof that I am "emotionally and physically capable" of practicing law. There never was a court ordered mental health exam. I suffer from alcoholism, and at the time of my suspension in '86, there was still quite a stigma attached to that disease. The court wanted me to produce proof that i no longer have a drinking problem. That's all. You have chosen to misrepresent things, and then accuse me of lying. Typical.

Bernie O'Hare said...

" Lee Snover and Craig DeFranco are proud to have you on their side. "

I am not on anyone's side. But Snover and DeFranco are more tolerant of people with divergent views, so long as they don't threaten to kill elected officials, have their LTCF revoked, are found liable for defamation, and have a growing list of harassment and disorderly conduct convictions.

Peter J.Cochran said...

Lee Snover is a tireless patriot of the U.S.Constitution.She ran selflessly to get others worthy of the voters confidence in the recent midterm also. She is not only pro= 2nd Amendment but 1st and 14th without a doubt. Also if I may add,Most firearms handlers with a higher degree of competency do not display open carry in public or have their photos taken .This behavior draws flies! Open carry is an automatic TACTICAL DISADVANTAGE amongst the civil populace, this includes police,constables and other in non-uniform mode. period,Yes, OLD PETER said that.

chinese buffet said...

Lee Snover didn't wait for Fox News or Glen Beck to tell her to get involved in the local committee. I agree with the last comment, she's a tireless patriot of the U.S. constitution.