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| Tom Muller |
As most of you know, I'm a bottom-feeding blogger. I have spies everywhere, hiding in closets and going through garbage. Sometimes they eat it.
As a result of my illicit activity, I know that Lehigh County Republicans did a poll in early September. At that time, Exec candidate Scott Ott had an 8-point lead. But that was before the government shutdown, which was caused by people who think exactly like him. That was before Tom Muller, who is not a politician, started making his own voice heard. That was before Ott began lying in campaign literature about cutting spending that actually increased, something that both I and The Morning Call have noted. This was before Ott refused to respond to Morning Call or Patch questions, although he had time to appear with right wing radio host Bobby Gunther Walsh. This was before many Allentonians felt that Ott insulted them at a NAACP debate.
Net result?
According to an unscientific sampling, it's now a dead heat. The real poll is tomorrow. My prediction is that Muller will win, but only if he is able to nudge the Democrats to come out and vote.
Party boss Wayne Woodman and Ott have tried to portray Muller as the "business as usual" candidate, whatever that means. The Wizard of Ott, in contrast, has a "reform" team. It would more appropriately be called a counter-reform team. It's one we've seen during the Great Depression. At that time Herbert Hoover was QB, and refused to lift a finger for starving Americans. "Have they no family? Have they no church connections, no neighbors that love them?" President Hoover might have asked. But it is actually Scott Ott who said those words, when he advocated against a grant to feed our needy seniors.
This is reform?
This thinking has awoken a sleeping giant. Though Democrats outnumber Republicans in Lehigh County, they rarely turn out to vote in municipal races. But that has changed as Lehigh County Commissioners have threatened to stop block grants to help low-income communities.
In Emmaus, Commissioners threatened to send $209,000 in CDBG pass thru funds back to the federal government rather than use the money to make much-needed repairs to the borough triangle. That was enough to prompt Emmaus Council member Wes Barret to run. He'll win, too.
Lehigh County Democratic volunteer Bar Johnston tells me that, for the first time ever, the Democrats actually have their act together.
Pawlowski has his big knockers out, too. This weekend, over 200 of them knocked on doors, reminding Allentown residents to vote for King Edwin and Tom Muller on Tuesday.
Michael Donovan, who opposes Pawlowski, is making his last-minute push as well with a motivated volunteer base.
Will this increase turnout in Allentown? If it does, just a little, Muller wins.
In the meantime, GOP party boss Wayne Woodman is playing the very "business as usual" that he claims to despise. He is doing his best to suppress turnout. There are no Republicans running for City Council or Mayor. Two primarily Allentown Districts in the Commissioner races have been ceded to the Democrats. Woodman did discuss the Lehigh County races in a radio interview this weekend.
In Pittsburgh.
One Republican campaign manager, the smartest guy I know next to Shawn Millan, tells me Ott is in trouble. His campaign is pressuring party people to put up Ott signs without success. Instead of hundreds, he has about four people who will actually knock on doors for him. Many solid Republicans are turned off by Ott's shady financials, which funnels Woodman and Scheller money through a PAC in Harrisburg.
They've already had to have Charlie Dent endorse Ott twice.
Ott nearly beat Don Cunningham four years ago, but nobody really knew Scrappleface and were voting Republican to register disdain for Obamacare. Now, all they know about Ott is that he was once president of an elementary school PTA, and that he pushed hard for reassessment.
Don Cunningham warned that older people in older homes in the boroughs could be hurt by moving so quickly, but was ignored by those who know better. And guess what? These older people on fixed incomes were hurt. This issue has come up in some of the school board races.
Ott sponsored this reassessment.
At every opportunity, Ott and his so-called reform team have voted against seniors, low-income residents and county workers in an attempt to restore Herbert Hoover's vision.. I believe Lehigh County voters have finally seen through the nonsense. Barret will win over Mike Schware. Muller will win with just a small spike in Democratic turnout. Tom Creighton may survive, although Bill Leiner is running hard.
23 comments:
Remember Bernie., We were told that Mittens Romney had momentum at the end. How did that turn out.
Sorry, your mustachioed country club hero of the poor, will not get to pad his already sizable county pension.
He will have to make do with his four year old corvette.
But keep on believing. Maybe he will ride to victory on a multicolored unicorn.
the people realize that muller has been part of the problem for 7 years. Ott wins
If Ott looses, do you think Woodman will be encouraged to leave town?
Unbelievable....it appears the Morning Call has printed the Primary ballot in the Newspaper. Is this the price we pay for having a paper printed from out of the area? Did someone not proof read this?
Ott has gotten very full of himself.
I hope you're right Bernie, and contrary to what I said yesterday this may very well turn on the turnout in Allentown.
Here's hoping.
The Banker
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Unbelievable....it appears the Morning Call has printed the Primary ballot in the Newspaper. Is this the price we pay for having a paper printed from out of the area? Did someone not proof read this?
6:51 AM
You're right. Haven't you noticed so many stories are national? Not local news. Huge photos of national events or local events in other states that have no relevance to Lehigh Valley? Try calling Customer Service! Try getting a paper when yours hasn't been delivered.
"Unbelievable....it appears the Morning Call has printed the Primary ballot in the Newspaper. "
Since one of the main reasons for a newspaper is to preserve democracy, this is inexcusable.
Like some are saying its gonna come down to the turnout in Allentown. Woodmans just gonna have to work with Armstrong and build back up the republican city committee. We will see how many moderate republicans wind up staying home tomorrow. I am hearing some moderates will not vote Muller but will just stay home.
You're entitled to your opinion about the local election but you are very wrong on Herbert Hoover's economic policies. Hooever in fact was much a Keynesian and in many ways very similar to what FDR would become as President.
You cite the commonly held opinion (and that of the often wrong Paul Krugman) of Hoover but it's grossly inaccurate factually. Hoover was quite the interventionist into the economy.
It's just that almost all of his interventions, especially his attempts to maintain high wages, failed.
If you want to cite a Presidnet with true laissez faire economic policies, Van Buren or Coolidge are better choices.
@9:06 that is completely and totally the opposite of what I'm hearing. Moderate R's will line up to vote for Muller. Most reasonable R's realize Ott is off the deep end.
Read The Worst Hard Time for an accounting of Hoover's refusal to intervene during the Dust Bowl, and the impact his decision had on the people who lived there. Then tell me he was an interventionist. I will continue with the Hoover analogy, though I'll agree there may be better examples and you appear to be better read on this topic than I.
We can agree that, whatever you call the Ott philosophy, it is by no means "reform." Some might call it cruel and insensitive, which has certainly been the result of laissez faire thinking.
Muller is the antithesis of everything either party stands fo. He was an architect of the LCA takover of the Allentown sewer system, he pushed hard to drill huge wells on the banks of the Little Lehigh Creek, he has never met a union member or a government contractor who he didn't ask for money from, and is a rude and haughty ugly American. Why would anyone vote for him?
Hey Bernie what do you think will happen in the Wild vs Dougherty race? I didn't see anything about it in your post and I'm in district 2.
Try talking to the staunch stubborn senior republicans in the high rises still reeling from the Romney loss. Scared of the T party and have never voted for a Democrat are in a fix. Not aware of Mullers roots some have said for the first time they will not vote.
Dougherty.
The most interesting LC commissioner race is Barrett vs. Schware.
Anon 9:33
Besides being a complete loon, Ott is also a front man for Woodman. Wayne and Lisa Woodman have put a butt load of money in the County Executive and Commissioner races this year. This is really all about Woodman. Ott is not smart enough nor does he have the connections to raise the kind of money he has for this race. Woodman is doing this as a means of furthering his agenda in politics. He wants to be a National Committee person in the worst way.
Bernie I must disagree about the race in District 2. I'm an R and got many mailers and my friends all got visits from Wild. Not much from Dougherty. Im curious as to your thoughts on why he'll win though?
He is well-entrenched in that district. That is all I mean to state.
Rich Uncle Pennybags has no clue how to serve the working poor he's labored tirelessly to create in his lifetime. He'd make a better country club Rockefeller Republican, but his golf game is a joke.
http://www.forbes.com/2006/11/20/uncle-pennybags-money-tech-media_cx_de_06fict15_monopoly.html
Other than deriding his physical appearance, do you have anything substantive to offer? Is this the "reform" Scott Ott intends to bring?
It is Scott Ott who said this of hungry seniors:
"Have they no family? Have they no church connections, no neighbors that love them?"
You deride Muller while ignoring the disdain Ott expresses for hungry seniors.
One of the missing pieces is that this time Lehigh County employees are going to vote for their job. That alone could and should make the difference. They realize who the rational candidate is, and isn't.
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