District Three includes the Nazareth area.Morning Call: "Elect Republican Mark H. Schwartz to replace Lamont G. McClure Jr. Mr. Schwartz has eight years experience as an elected supervisor in East Allen Township, a tenure in which he showed a respectful desire to serve and be available to residents. The incumbent has been in the thick of council's political obstructionism and already has been rejected by the voters once."
Express Times: "[V]oters in the Nazareth/suburban Bethlehem area should oust Democratic incumbent Lamont McClure in favor of Republican Mark Schwartz, whose experience as a state police dispatcher, emergency medical technician and Navy Reservist would provide expertise on the 911 center, emergency management and veterans' issues."
I agree with both endorsements. Mark Schwartz is spending less than $250 on his campaign. You won't receive fancy fliers of soldiers saluting each other from him. That's because he is a soldier. That's just one of his five jobs. He's an East Allen Township supervisor, state police dispatcher, an EMT with two different ambulance corps, and a corpsman in the Navy Reserve.
In contrast to a busy Schwartz, McClure's work record on council is abysmal. Although council's standing committees conducted twenty-two meetings last year, McClure attended just four, less than anyone on council except Dertinger. He also ignored pledges to start a child exploitation unit and to yank a $3 million county grant for a road to Walmart. Now he's campaigning he'll get those Internet predators when he did nothing at all about it during two years in office. He's cynically sending out campaign fliers with soldiers saluting each other but has never himself spent a second in military service.
He's also violated the Sunshine Act, and attempted to bully me for pointing it out. He's pontificated about criminal fines collections and a theft in the criminal division, but has never even visited the office.
In his last losing campaign, McClure raked in about $10,000 from big city lawyers. Unions kicked in another $3,440. DA Morganelli, who employs McClure's wife, donated $1,500, and one of his detectives provided an additional $500. Reibman sweetened the pot with $1000 in pool party dough. The money he's collecting this time is pretty much a repeat performance, except that developers like Atiyeh ($1,000 on 11/16/06) and Haddad ($1,000 on 9/27/07) are getting in on the act, too. If elected, McClure's allegiance will lie with unions, lawyers and the DA. In fact, DA John Morganelli is Godfather to one of McClure's children.
By electing McClure, voters will give developers, the DA and big city lawyers another voice on council. Wouldn't you rather see taxpayers have that voice?
7 comments:
The more I learn about John Morganelli, the more I am repulsed.
Bernie,
Do you mind getting rid of the above. There's no place on this or any blog for hatred and bigotry.
Anon 6:01, Agreed. I've removed the offensive comment. It's sad that some people could be so sick.
How much of an affect do these newspaper suggestions have on the voters?
No one really knows. The newspapers will be the first to tell you that voters will ignore their advice as often as they listen.
I suppose it's just like anything else - it all depends on how much research a voter does on each politician. Sadly, many choose based on a road sign.
It depends with the newspapers. I donot believe a single endorsement means much. If they beat on a candidate over and over again. If they get their reporters and editors to hype headlines and storys to negativly paint a candidate over time; while simultanesly portraying the opponent as great, I believe it does have an impact with undecideds. Unfortunately, many in the community believe the newspapers are neutral observers and some still believe everything they read is true. The newspapers have and continue to destroy those they want out and hype those they want in, based on their own agendas-e.g. Health Depatment, Stoffa, etc.
Its been going on for decades.
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