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Monday, May 18, 2009

Lou Hershman Being Victimized By Anonymous Robocalls

Allentown city council candidate Lou Hershman, if elected, is definitely going to be a thorn in King Edwin's side. It's increasingly likely he will survive the primary, either as a Democratic nominee or Republican write-in. So this past weekend, the smear machine went to work.

Phones began ringing on Friday night and the bells have continued to toll throughout the weekend. In robo calls, Hershman is blamed for all Allentown's woes, from pension fiasco to Billy Joel song. These calls are anonymous, too! Just one day after a local political consultant was charged with election law violations for anonymous mailers directed against a candidate, the same illegal tactic is used against Hershman.

When similar robo calls were directed against Ron Angle and Peg Ferraro less than two years ago, both went on to easy victories. People resent anonymous calls at dinner, especially when the caller is some machine and the message is negative. One Allentonian who resents these anonymous attack robo calls is city council member Michael Donovan.
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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 18, 2009 at 5:54 AM

    Allentown is doomed.

    Scott Armstrong

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMay 18, 2009 at 9:06 AM

    Herschman voted for the pension plan and will never get my vote. Anybody else who did, should be voted off of council too... oh, and look... they are on the ballot too (Julio and Davie). If they make it through the primary, this D will vote for the ONE R on the ballot and then write in other names to avoid voting for the clowns who didn't do their homework and left a broken pension system for my generation to shoulder.

    And Scott, Allentown is doomed b/c under your watch, the city GOP fell apart. There is no viable minority party alternative. Yeah, Tom Burke lost... but he would have won if he had a party to support him.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousMay 18, 2009 at 10:03 AM

    Bernie -

    Regarding your comment that "One Allentonian who resents these anonymous attack robo calls is city council member Michael Donovan."

    How about this - instead of resenting the robo calls, why not do something about it? As a city councilman, Mr. Donovan (as well as Mayor Pawlowski and all members of council) should be DEMANDING that an investigation be launched to find out who is trying to illegally manipulate a city election. Whoever is behind the calls should be held accountable.

    That probably won't happen, since I suspect that the person pulling the strings is none other than Mayor Ed Pawlowski. I'm sure Mr. Donovan does not want to bite the hand that feeds the local party.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousMay 18, 2009 at 6:20 PM

    No name no guts,

    Allentown is doomed because it is a one party town full of one party voters.

    Scott Armstrong

    ReplyDelete

You own views are appreciated, especially if they differ from mine. But remember, commenting is a privilege, not a right. I will delete personal attacks or off-topic remarks at my discretion. Comments that play into the tribalism that has consumed this nation will be declined. So will comments alleging voter fraud unless backed up by concrete evidence. If you attack someone personally, I expect you to identify yourself. I will delete criticisms of my comment policy, vulgarities, cut-and-paste jobs from other sources and any suggestion of violence towards anyone. I will also delete sweeping generalizations about mainstream parties or ideologies, i.e. identity politics. My decisions on these matters are made on a case by case basis, and may be affected by my mood that day, my access to the blog at the time the comment was made or other information that isn’t readily apparent.