LVAR Withdraws McClure Endorsement

If you look at local campaign finance reports, you'll eventually see that some candidates for local office get contributions from the Lehigh Valley Association of REALTOR® (LVAR), while others do not. But what you won't see is an incumbent who loses their endorsement, once he or she has it.

Until Lamont McClure.

Real estate mavens endorsed Lamont McClure when he ran for Northampton County Council four years ago. But in a first for Lehigh Valley politics, they've withdrawn their seal of approval in favor of his opponent, Matt Connolly.

According to LVAR CEO Ryan Conrad, before making their decision, they submit a questionnaire to each candidate and conduct an interview. "We make every effort to be fair," he explained. Locally, LVAR supports an "immediate countywide reassessment of all real property," and are opposed to increasingly frequent point of sale reassessments, which shift the tax burden away from those who can afford the legal costs of an assessment appeal to the many residential owners who can't. LVAR also supports residential rental inspection ordinances, regional rail (ugh) and affordable housing, but opposes an increase in realty transfer tax fees.

Its legislative agenda is a combination of liberal and conservative principles, but somehow McClure blew it.

Maybe it's McClure's 0% attendance record at Committee hearings last year. This year, he's attended one. He was MIA at an important budget hearing last week, too.