State House & Senate Candidate Forum This Thursday at NCC

When polls open in just 33 days, we'll be deciding a Congressional, U.S. Senate and Governor's race. Those are the biggies. But there are also several contested state house and senate races here in the Lehigh Valley. Many of them will be available for questioning on Thursday, 11 AM, at Northampton Community College's Laub Lounge, which is located on the second floor of the College Center. (Directions here.)

You're welcome to attend. All LV State House and Senate Candidates have been invited. Following an opening statement, the floor opens to questions from the public.

131st: Justin Simmons is shadow boxing Michael Horton over the seat being vacated by Karen Beyer. Simmons has knocked on 87 gazillion doors. It would be 88 gazillion, but his mom wants him home by 7 PM every night. Horton thinks all he has to do is say, "I went to West Point," and he's in. But he's not running in the Lehigh, not Hudson, Valley.

133rd: Incumbent Joe Brennan, 18' feet tall, and acupuncturist Dave Molony, are the wits of this crew. I think they should have a yo' mama' laugh off. This race was over before it started. Joe's district is about 99.999% Democratic, and the other 0.001% is Communist.

136th: Incumbent Bob Freeman is in serious trouble. You see, Ron Shegda is actually Jesus in disguise. At least that's what he says. Must be one helluva' disguise.

137th: This is Rich Grucela's seat. Charles "Don't call me Charlie" Dertinger will have an opportunity to use his trademark "Good Day!" and really impress the hell out of LV natives with his NY accent. Opponent Joe Emrick, a teacher, may be stuck in a classroom. This is my district, and I gotta' tell you, these two candidates are an excellent argument for a "none of the above" choice in the ballot box. I can't do that, but I can still vote for Grucela.

183rd: Incumbent Julie Harhart, who has been in office since 467 BCE, is going against Green Party candidate Rex D'Agostino. He's a doctor, you know. He's only been in the LV for 5 years, but he rescues greyhounds and everything.

134th: Incumbent and former Assistant DA Doug Reichley is running against Patrick Slattery, who says he "has nearly 20 years of community service experience providing leadership for a local not-for-profit organization." That's nice, but Patrick never bothers telling us the name of that non-profit. He does mention quite a few other non-profits on a deceptive campaign web page implying that outfits like DeSales University and the Lower Macungie Youth Association have endorsed him.

Waiting in the wings is independent Carl Stevenson, whose ballot access appeal is still being considered by the state Supremes.

187th: Incumbent Gary Day, whose ethics statements reveal he receives outside income from the Fred Jaindl estate, is running against Richard Stine. According to blogger David Najarian, he asked Day to explain that Jaindl income two years ago. "The answer I got was a tongue lashing from some for asking the question in public. The tongue lashing caused me to resign as GOP committee person as I am a voter first. I then asked the question privately and got also no answer. I am persona-non-grata in the party methinks."

I'll give you a run down on the state senate races tomorrow.