Democrats and Republicans have produced two different candidates to challenge incumbent Northampton County Executive John Stoffa. In addition, a field of eleven Democrats and Republicans will vie for five at-large council seats. Republicans are also promoting two candidates in the judicial race.County Executive Race
In typical fashion, Joe Long Democrats decided to endorse a candidate for county executive at a meeting described on their web page as an "[a]nnual Petition signing and business meeting." Without notice, they endorsed Council President Ann McHale for the job. This is exactly the kind of undemocratic behavior that has led incumbent county executive John Stoffa to call for Joe Long's resignation as party boss.
Last time John Stoffa ran, the local party refused to endorse him. Instead of relying on party machines and county contractors, Stoffa is taking his campaign to the people, as he has successfully done before.
Republicans are circulating petitions for Northampton resident and former Channel 69 traffic anchor J.C. Kelleher.
County Council Republicans
Northampton County's nine-member county council is its legislative branch. Five of these are elected at-large throughout the county. These are the seats currently held by Democrats Joe Capozzolo, Charles Dertinger, Diane Neiper, and Republicans Peg Ferraro and John Cusick. Their terms expire this year.
Six Republicans are in the hunt. Two of them, Peg Ferraro and John Cusick, are seeking reelection. Peg, who will probably be the county's top vote getter, is everybody's mom, a decent person who refused to go along with partisan council members intent on lynching a county employee by asking her to resign. Cusick, a schoolteacher who lives in Williams Township, is council's workhorse. No council member matches his work ethic, which I measure as attendance at committee hearings.
Bruce Gilbert, former player on a Wayne Grube championship football team and successful banking executive, has twice applied for appointment to council vacancies. Twice, he's been rejected by partisans more interested in party than quality. According to Morning Call columnist Bill White, Gilbert was perhaps the "best qualified" of all candidates seeking appointment. This time, instead of asking council members, Gilbert will take his case to the voters. If elected, he would be Northampton County's first ever black council member.
Hellertown's Tom Dietrich, who unsuccessfully challenged Ann "Nice Guys Finish Last" McHale last year, is in the fray again. I've already told you about him here.
Bushkill Township's Barbara Thierry, who currently serves on their Planning Commission, is in the race. Rounding our their ticket is Plainfield Township's Jane Mellert, who has been observing council meetings for the past several weeks.
County Council Democrats
Five candidates were endorsed by Democrats this morning. Only one of them, Charles Dertinger, is seeking reelection. In addition to his regular shouting matches with those who dare question him, Dertinger believes that council has no obligation to listen to anyone unless they own real estate. That should get him the landed gentry vote.
Radio man, Dent protester and ousted elections commission chair Wally G, aka Walter Garvin, has party machine written all over him. I'll have more to see about his candidacy in the coming weeks.
Another Democrat anointed by the party machine is Bill Wallace, a former candidate who refrained from the divisive politics encouraged by Long's Democrats in district races last year. He instead mounted a clean campaign focused on bringing passenger rail to the Lehigh Valley. Mike Dowd, who defeated Bill 5027 to 4082, is ironically the council member who introduced the rail transportation study.
Democratic committeeperson Lorraine Pasquali and Nazareth resident Deborah Hunter round out the Democratic ticket. I will have more about them in the coming weeks.
Judicial Race
It is becoming increasingly apparent that popular state representative Craig Dally would like to be called "Your Honor." In addition to Lenny Zito, Republicans are promoting Dally.
A black R on council would be very embarrassing to Ds. Long doesn't like to be upstaged.
ReplyDeleteBruce Gilbert is a wonderful person... he spoke this morning at the NCRC Lincoln Breakfast and was by far the most energizing candidate out of the other republicans seeking election on Northampton County Council.. they didn't have Cusick or Ferraro speak.
ReplyDeleteGilbert is a great candidate. You must ahve missed the Ferarro and Cusick speeches....all 6 candidates spoke
ReplyDeleteI was a candidate seeking to fill Wayne Grube's seat on County Council! After hearing Mr. Bruce Gilbert making his case for the seat, I suggest that Mr. Gilbert was the most qualified person seeking the seat and I will vote for him at election time. D's on Council are very poor excuses for public servant status. Joe Long is the worst Party Chairman in the history of our County. The D's on Council and elsewhere take his advice and counsel to their great detriment as they tried to force their candidate into the seat and more recently...the Solicitor position nonsense. Joe Long can't deliver 10 votes for anybody is my opinion & I will never know why electeds think he can do anything to ever help them or the D Party politically. Justin Jirilanio must be rolling over in his grave with nonsensical Long now as D Party Chair. Ask Sam Bennett how many votes he garnered for her with his endorsement. Go figure.
ReplyDeleteI know Heckman tolf Long sometime ago he was thinking of running. I asked if he knew about the endorsement of McHale and he said no. He said he wasn't surprised as he has neve rbig the favorite of top party people.
ReplyDeleteI asked if that would determine if he continued to run or not and he said not at all. He stated it has more to do with time and career commitments than endorsements.
Of course Long would sell Heckman out, he can't stomach anyone who won't kiss his ample ring.
ReplyDeleteHas a black person ever served on NorCo council? Please advise.
ReplyDeleteI follow NorCo politics closely and was completely unaware there are blacks living in NC. I live in Nazareth, however.
Appreciate this always informative space. Thanks.
Are the Republicans circulating blank petitions for County Executive ?
ReplyDeleteIs "workhorse" John Cusick circulating petitions for both County Exec. and Council ? Cusick has one of the worst attendance records are regular meetings of County Council.
ReplyDeleteNot Bernie O'Hare,
ReplyDeleteI am black Irish. If elected, Gilbert would be the first black member of Northampton County Council.
Anon 9:38, Actually, all council members have pretty good attendance records at regular meetings of the entire body.
ReplyDeletePeg Ferraro is hardly a kindly grandmother figure. She's a fierce partisan, former Republican Chairwoman, who actually expropriated her County Exe. opponents identity to run a dirty nasty smear campaign against him.
ReplyDeleteExpropriated?
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, if she is so fiercely partisan, why would she fgo after a fellow R?
Peg Ferraro is a kind-hearted lady who, unlike fellow council members, is willing to listen to everyone. She will even occasionally go along with something despite her personal misgivings. But like most good mothers, she can only be pushed so far. She seeks a common viewpoint on council, but no one should ever make the mistake of taking her lightly.
My $0.10 on the judicial candidates. Hollenbach is my 1st choice, having a wealth of legal experience, and having practiced in both Norco and Lehco. Candi Heimbach also a solid candidate. Zito certainly has judicial experience and years going for him, however, the whole illegal-aliens-aren't-lawbreakers statement has made me suspect his judgment.
ReplyDeletePeg's Palinesque discussion of Obama's "terrorist" connection must disqualify her from having the term "decent" applied to her.
ReplyDeleteThat's the mistake many make. They take statements comeone makes about national issues and applies them to local issues. There's a bit of a disconnect there. In my experience, the most intolerant and partisan bunch on council has been the Joe Long Democrats, led by Charles Dertinger.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, I would agree that the "Do we know who his friends are?" question, asked by Peg, was inappropriate and was rightly condemned by the McCain campaign.
The McCain campaign was a flaming disaster for good reason. The new administration has rewritten the books on crooks.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Peg. We all should have asked more questions.
When I look at Peg Ferraro and then look at the rest of the characters on County Council she looks like Mother Theresa. She has my vote for sure.
ReplyDeleteAnd so does Bruce Gilbert. Everything I hve seen him do has been a benefit to our community.
Peg Ferraro and the truth rarely meet. She is an extreme partisan and she runs very negative campaigns. If she is a mother figure, its the Adams Family for sure.
ReplyDeleteWhat is your opinion of the Long move. Someone told me Heckman is now circulating for County Council. If that is true, he will at the very least be second to Dertinger and would easily win in Novemeber.
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling that would be a nightmare for the Long backed slate. A Dem on Council who doesn't owe Long a thing.
Just checking in and I'm glad to see I have not missed anything, seems business as usual here.
ReplyDeletelet us recap
Stoffa is great
Dirtinger sux
the Republicans are doing a good job
and something bad about Long
based on your favorable mentions I will be sure to Vote for Dirtinger and the D's this year.
you speak of partisanship and you're the biggest hack of them all carrying on the Stoffa excuses for doing nothing.
and your offering Ferraro as a mother figure answers a lot about your personal disfunctions!
And here you are on a Sunday night, lapping it all uo and even leaving comments ... but without the courage to ID yourself. Quelle surprise!
ReplyDeleteDon't you have some "Tony Branco for DJ" function to attend. "Vote for me. I need a job where I won't get fired."
Stoffa is a great guy.
ReplyDeletethe members of his party twice vote not to endorse him.
Something doesn't add up ormaybe they know him well enough to make an informed decision.
Maybe some information you would never find here.
Joe Long's Democrats voted against Stoffa, butr rank and file Dems support him. That's something that machine Dems like you conveniently ignore.
ReplyDeletePoor Boonie, Stoffer is history, and it is going to be humiliating. Your days of using courthouse bathrooms as your own private turkish baths are coming to end you fiend.
ReplyDeleteStoffa will defeat McHale, as he did Reibman and Bob Nyce. People are on to Charles Dertinger, Ann McHale and their cronies.
ReplyDeleteBoth Long and McHale have good long term relationships with Heckman. If he ran for County Council and won, that would be seen as a positive. No one dislikes Ron, nor would they not want to work with him. However, there is some concern about his political viability after that poor showing in the Bethlehem City Council race. I think Ron's best bet is to get behind McHale and help her defeat Stoffa and win the General Election !
ReplyDeleteSo how many voting committee persons were at that meeting. 15? 20? Out of how many committee person slots - that's 2 for every district in the county. Was there even a quorum at this meeting?
ReplyDeleteWhat about the fact that this was not announced as an endorsement meeting? Why wasn't Stoffa invited and provided an opportunity to make his case? Was the McHale endorsement unanimous
Just another piece of Dertinger/Long political theater.
Annon 11:51 my information is that even Heckman wasn't invited to the meeting. Once again this was in the bag from the beginning. Long and is crew of Dertinger, McClure et all, have always had this planned.
ReplyDeleteDo you really think that Heckman who has actually run and won County wide without the help of these 'important' Dem's is going to really want to play nice and back McHale.
I hear he has qietly lined up some groung troops over the past three years and if he does not run I wonder who he will ask them to support.
Blowhard Long didn't do McHale any favors with this snub of Heckman. Maybe smarter people will get involved. Long is a real jackass but then who doesn't know that. Frankly, I think Heckman would be the last person team Dertinger would want on Council now.
More male mother issues serfacing in this article. Is there anywhere on this blog a woman is not insulted? yikes. I doubt any hard working, under paid, educated public servant trying to run a government wants to be called "a mother" of her male counter parts. And it seems that's the best you got for any female you discuss Bernie.
ReplyDeleteNot a mother, a Leader. A skilled respected leader.
ReplyDeleteTry that.
I don't know Peg but I am trying to get more informed on County Council on this site.
"I don't know Peg but I am trying to get more informed on County Council on this site."
ReplyDeleteThere are several female candidates. I have spoken to one and hope to speak to the others. Hope that will help you.