Lehigh County Executive Don Cunningham currently contends with a 5-4 Republican Board of Commissioners. He hoped to change that this year, pouring at least $70,000 into two District Comm'r races. Most of that money went to negative mailers. Cunningham not only failed, but nearly lost his own seat. According to Morning Call results, he squeaked by challenger Scott Ott, a relative unknown, by only 810 votes.That's a stinging rebuke from Lehigh County voters.
What does all this mean? Fellow blogger Ken Petrini concludes, "[O]ur elections are not for sale and the power of bloggers like Bernie O'Hare and even yours truly can't be underestimated."
Ken has sacrificed a lot of time and energy informing you about all these Lehigh County races. It's a valuable and appreciated public service. I try, too. But powerful? Ken, if I'm so powerful, how the hell did Lou Hershman lose in that black hole known as Allentown? Maybe Pawlowski cut the Internet.
What I do think is that, thanks to the Internet, we are collectively able to inform the public pretty quickly about what is going on locally. The local blogosphere has become our very own Lehigh Valley Town Hall. More often than not, it is the readers who set the agenda.
How did that happen in lehigh County? We were able to demonstrate Cunningham's financial connection to two Comm'r races, and in far more detail than you could ever find in a newspaper. We were able to post actual copies of the hit jobs directed at Tom Creighton and Glenn Eckhart. And when Cunningham directed a low blow at challenger Scott Ott, questioning his living arrangements and notifying the IRS, we had actual copies of his letter for you to read and judge for yourselves.
In the waning days of a campaign, most newspapers impose a blackout. Ironically, that's when people are most interested. We are at our busiest during these times, trying to quench a deep public thirst by posting dueling news releases, mailers and the latest claims from opposing camps. On Monday alone, this blog 2,800 unique visitors, more than double the number I usually get.
Because we can provide more information, and do it in a timely manner, you can be better informed when you vote. And I think Lehigh County's informed voters gave Don Cunningham three messages. First, they want independent Commissioners, not people bought and paid for by the County Exec. Second, they dislike smear campaigns, no matter how glossy the mailer. Third, Lehigh County voters are offended by a Cunningham letter, threatening the tax-exempt status of a church housing his opponent.
Interestingly, none of this has anything to do with health care reform, the stim package or the cap-and-trade energy bill. All politics truly is local.
31 comments:
There is much one can read into the County Executive Race. Maybe Don needs to evaluate some of the political advisors in his tight inner circle.
He may need to seek out opinions from experienced people with plain old fashioned common sense who will be frank and honest and not blow smoke up his ass.
He survived, but an unknown with no money and no real organization came closer than any in the Cunningham Camp thought possible.
Clearly Allentown is stuck on self destruct.
Scott Armstrong
I'm shocked by the Cunningham "win" - or should I call it a loss, since he obviously lost some face with this one.
Perhaps he was simply a victim of "Obama backlash" disease. It's possible his sleazy campaign tactics had nothing to do with this slim margin, and everything to do with his party affiliation.
Don't forget that there was incredible apathy about this election. Everyday voters NEVER thought Cunningham needed their vote and many non-Allentonians didn't have a compelling reason to get to the polls. The hard right conservatives are the only group that are energized right now - they are angry - and they mobilized. These people are the likely OTT voters. Tie this with low voter turnout and you've got a squeaker.
I think the mailer mocking Scott Ott hurt Cunningham, I know of several people who were offended by it. I also think he overreached, and people saw what was going on for what it was.
all politics is local, and funneling money the way he did to help other candidates, while commendable, put many people off. It might be legal, but the way it ended up appearing, it was not smart.
Only in Allenton. Mayor lays off employees that are members of the S.E.I,U. union and S.E.I.U. UNION-ACORN put up door hangers arond Allentown yesterday in support of Mayor and democratic council candidates, plus labor thousands dollars of contributions to mayor plus working the polls for the democratic ticket. This is showing support for the employees that lost there jobs. Did Mayor get the ACORN volunteers from New York.
We're all told in school, every vote counts. Just imagine if 900 more L.C. voters came out yesterday in favor of Ott. While Cunningham can smile, a 900 vote difference is not a landslide. Someone said Cunningham spent $60 million on courthouse renovations when he had proclaimed it would cost $20. Someone else said we could have built a brand new courthouse for less than the final cost run.
Chris,
It's funny how Ott could say whatever he like about Don's record - exaggerate and belittle - and when Don sends out a negative piece about Ott people were offended. They should have been offended at Ott's disrespect and disregard of the work accomplished and his penchant for spinning right wing rhetoric - no matter what the facts.
Maybe Pawlowski did get volunteers in from New York. Why wouldn't he. Why wouldn't he try to get re-elected. Why he just may try to get city charter changed to allow him to run for a third term. If it happens in the Big Apple; it can happen here.
He survived, but an unknown with no money and no real organization came closer than any in the Cunningham Camp thought possible.
3:52 AM
Absolutely! Ott had little time to really get noticed. Just heard of him this fall.
The Lehigh County Republican Party should be ashamed of itself for not fielding a serious candidate. No matter what you think of Ott, he was an unknown with no money or support to run a real race. Had the County party ran anyone else they would now have the executive seat. They assumed they would lose and didn't do crap. It's on them!
I do not think Cunningham evcer took Scott Ott lightly. He ran an extensive campaign with paid staff and even paid canvassers. I heard he even had people out in West Bethlehem knocking on doors of Dems, and paid the people knocking on the doors.
Cunningham obviously did some polling and knew it was going to be a tight race.
The reason McNeil and Kwiatik did not run closer was because they were flawed candidates. McNeil had issues with her husband and her township government. Kwiatek was an unknown, which is a flaw. The Dems screwed themselves in those races.
It is very similar to the way the NorCo Dems screwed themselves by not running better known candidates and by closing the primary. If there was a primary race in NorCo, Pasqualli and Garvin and maybe Wallace would not have been on the ticket.
Dems have no one to blame but ourselves.
Orange VOTE DEMOCRAT hanger on my door when I got home last night.
Lovely.
Allentown will get what it deserves.
Cunningham did nothing different than the republicans. Dean Browning ought and paid for two commissioners last night. He and his Lehigh Victory Pac put more money into those two races than Cunningham did. I wonder why no one is equally "offended" by that.
Anyway, it was justa national trend. Cunningham is about the opnly Democrat on earth to have won in a swing area last night.
Christie in NJ, VA GOP sweep.
This was not a referendum on anyone's tactics or anything like that. IT was a national trend, pure and simple.
Don is a good politician but took his position for granted. He turned people off by collecting so much money for gov race and then changing his mind, spending too much time away from the Executive office, not being around enough, pouring too much money that was meant for him into others' campaigns. Hopefully, he can make it up in the next four years and regain confidence.
A good candidate should and MUST run a campaign independent of trends - national state or local. Cunningham should look at all his campaign money left unspent- all the time and attention he devoted to other campaigns and realized his priorities were wrong. He ran a lousy lazy campaign and because of it his credibility is severely diminished.
Oh Don,
How does it feel to spend $72,000. and lose!
To both Commissioner candidates,
How does it feel to spend $35,000.+ of someone elses money and then LOSE?
He ran a lousy lazy campaign and because of it his credibility is severely diminished.
11:24 AM
Mr. Cunningham has lost our respect. He looks like he thinks voters are a bunch of stupid old jokes.
I thought this was supposed to be a wipe out like Pawlowski?
Anon 7:29,
There are no term limits in Allentown, so no need for a charter change as with Bloomberg in NY.
I hate to tell you this, but Pawlowski can be mayor for life if he wants to: Or until D'Amore gets tired of waiting.
Wow - what an depressing possibility, Mrs. Varkony.
:(
Cunningham's negative, religious bashing stuff is always a risky strategy for Ds. Religious conservatives are largely fiscal conservatives who realize he's papered over serious financial problems and is leading the county in the wrong direction. He bought the very expensive seat. He failed in every other respect. He's already a lame duck.
How did Lehigh County Commissioner vote totals for Republicans total 22,887 and Democrats total 17,640 then Scott Ott lost? The Republicans voted for their own Commissioner and then 5,247 + pulled the handle for the Democrat County Executive? That makes NO sense!!
"How did Lehigh County Commissioner vote totals for Republicans total 22,887 and Democrats total 17,640 then Scott Ott lost? The Republicans voted for their own Commissioner and then 5,247 + pulled the handle for the Democrat County Executive? That makes NO sense!!"
Seeing that the make up of the commission is 4-5 that makes perfect sense.
Barack Obama got 60% of the vote in the Lehigh Valley
Charlie Dent got 60% of the vote in the Lehigh Valley
Do you think that makes sense?
Request for a blog entry.
A LV person wants to ramble about something and wants you to prove him wrong.
To whoever thinks they won or lost and whoever thinks it matters and that their side is a victor I say this:
I am not proud to be born and bread US. Look around at all the short sightedness and smoke and mirrors. Nobody is looking at the big picture just at doing the same things over and over and thinking we are SO CLOSE to greatness –IF ONLY our party, R or D, had full control.
This country is not the best at ANYthing. We consistently rank behind the rest of the developed world in every important area: life expectancy, education, equality, health care, crime, and, most importantly quality, of life.
This is all we know, this country. I look around and see many people behaving like sheep. They think these elections really matter, such as who won for a judge or school board.
People are dying every day because we are not taking care of things that matter. It is as if we are rotting inside but are proud that our hair looks good. It just grows back out. There is no promise here, no chance of healing our rotten insides as a country.
People are rude to one another and ugly inside.
Why doesn't our country really do something to take care of ourselves and get to the top of the list in the world in something that really matters like living or dying? Living well or being a mean person who enjoys making others look smaller. Having class, manners, and culture?
I really believe there are enough Americans out there that enjoy hurting others, that they are controlling policies.
Read this blog, look anywhere here, and you will see people are just ugly inside. If someone wanted to take our country to the top in life alerting ways, the haters and uglies would stop them. It’s just all a dance.
We are all free to move from this hell, but you are not going to reap the benefits of someone who was born in that country. You need your family and community.
I would never fight for this country. To those who give their lives I would feel that way about the things I love, its just not this place.
To 6:40
The world has always sucked. Read the Bible, Old or New Testament. People have been acting selfish, greedy, hateful, etc. since people came into existence.
Anon 6:40 PM & 6:56 PM,
That is why there should be a direction or meaning to one's life. Like it has been revealed before LIFE is the most important thing. When you have direction, it leads to the ultimate good. But there has to be something in between the starting point and what it is that you are reaching for.
For some it is HOPE. But what good is hope, if you believe that everything will turn out crappy.
That's when you need FAITH. If you have an act of faith, grace is granted to build upon it.
This maybe mumbo jumbo to some, but look at it from a different view: What if I am wrong! What if there is no God. What if you don't need faith or hope. What if when we die, that is all there is. There is no heaven. --- BUT, you still lived your life like there is a God. You lived your life with hope and faith. And you had hope to live your life in communion with God towards the beatific vision.
Is there anything to be ashamed of? Did you do something that was sooo bad?
It is a win, win situation.
Think about it... look for a direction in your life. Structure yourself. If it was easy, we could buy it at Two Guys!
Peace, ~~Alex
Thank you Alex
if you seek good government as an Allentown resident you had best move out of the city.
Scott Armstrong
I just see so many people who enjoy stepping on others, taking from others, letting others die. I see people who have no credibility running their mouths off, personally attacking public servants, ripping everyone apart who they don't understand, and these same nasty people are on some power grab. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. They get heard. The affect this country. They stop us from being the best in education, quality of life, health care, crime, poverty, etc.
It seems to be all about money in this country, whomever you have to step on to get it. Then kick them a couple times while they are down.
Good people, kind, people finish last in this country. There is pressure to be a selfish jerk or get run over.
I think the American Way sucks.
We mostly come from poor, uneducated immigrants who had nothing to lose by leaving Europe, Mexico, Russia, China, etc. "Give us your poor" We got all poor to come here. Then they worked their butts off digging ditches, mining, hooking, building roads, anything for a buck... At home they beat their kids and drank too much. Here we are a couple generations later with those values in us.
We are offspring of mean, ignorant people. And we think we are #1. In nothing but greed in the US #1.
"I think the American Way sucks."
1:18 PM
Then get the fuck out.
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