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Thursday, October 22, 2009

Local Voter Guides Help Fill Information Gap

Lack of space often results in poor local election coverage from our area newspapers. But in recent years, local blogs and voter guides have helped fill an information gap.

The best blogs for election coverage are provided by the newspapers. As much as we amateurs try to provide election coverage, newspaper blogs have infinitely more credibility because the writers at least try to be objective. Jarrett Renshaw, for example, has an excellent account of the snub that Allentown's Human Relations Comm'n delivered to mayoral candidate Tony Phillips. Bill White takes city council candidate Julio Guridy to task for being so camera shy during a recent NAACP debate. "[W]hen a candidate doesn’t want people to see him on video, even when he’s just talking about his candidacy, it speaks volumes. In fairness to Guridy, if I had his record as a toothless watchdog of the executive branch, I might be camera-shy, too."

For its part, The Express Times has an amazingly detailed Voter Guide. In addition to biographical information, county council candidates supply answers to eight tough questions. For example, will they support a bi-county health department? Cusick - yes, if it's affordable; Dertinger - yes, unequivocally; Dietrich - no; Ferraro - Cost will be driving factor; Garvin - no, too costly; Gilbert - wants to review cost analysis data; Hunter- worried about funding; Pasquali - yes; Thierry - yes, if it can be done without a tax hike; Wallace - yes.

Other Voter Guides are maintained by Forks Action Committee and League of Women Voters.
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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 22, 2009 at 2:00 AM

    Hey Bernie I tried to find Dertingers latst Campaign finance report on line. I can't seem to find it. do you have a link to the last one he filed.

    I want to check on a tip I got.

    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousOctober 22, 2009 at 3:31 AM

    Is that picture of Pawlowski voting

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousOctober 22, 2009 at 6:18 AM

    Bernie,
    What happened with Allentown's Human Relations Committee? Someone said this group may
    even hold its meetings at city hall. There's talk city funds help to sponsor this committee which could be found out by calling city clerk's office.
    We don't know if this is correct, but if true, doesn't it make independent voice questionable, if not impossible?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Bernie O'HareOctober 22, 2009 at 9:45 AM

    His lates finance report will be due on Friday. His most recent report is here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/16788180/Dertinger-2009-Post-Primary-Campaign-Finance-Report

    ReplyDelete
  5. Bernie O'HareOctober 22, 2009 at 9:53 AM

    "There's talk city funds help to sponsor this committee which could be found out by calling city clerk's office."

    I will try to find out how it is funded and whoo exactly is on this quasi judicial body, which should be nonpartisan instead of appointing campaign field directors.

    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.