The room, which included about 200 Bethlehem Democrats who had voted, burst into applause.
That's the price John Callahan paid for endorsing Donchez's opponent, J. Willie Reynolds, during the May primary.
After the race was over, Callahan did patch things up during a lunch with Donchez, who understands how politics works. But he never after that asked Donchez to appear with him at any event, leaving Donchez supporters free to believe what they wanted.
The same is true of Glenn Reibman, who had a strong core of supporters.
During the primary, Callahan made a point of reaching out to local officials. That stopped after he became the nominee.
Callahan's endorsement of Willie was honest and showed leadership. But it did hurt him politically.
60 comments:
Of course it hurt him. People who supported Me Donchez disliked Willie and Callahan seemingly made it no secret he ONLY supported Willie. Callahan acted as if the race was over well before the election. Bethlehem dems (who have close friends and family as public officials especially) don't appreciate the callousness of Callahan and Willie.
It was politic selfishness not leadership. He preached the team approach with all Democrats but by alienating a significant portion of city Democrats, he hurt not only himself but the other Democrats running with him. Even though city council candidates they were shoe ins, the city Dem candidates did nothing to help get out the vote for anyone else running. Very sad and more self-centered Bethlehem politics from some real spoiled brats.
The guy is self-centered. So are his many supporters. If you look at the results, he outpaced the highest Democratic council candidates by 4000 votes. It is not unusual for the Executive candidates to get more votes in a one on one race but that was a big difference. Over twice as much as Brown and his folks.
If even 25% of the exclusive Callahan voters had voted for county council candidates, the top three candidates would have been elected.
So basically Callahan and his tribe blew taking the Executive position and screwed over the people running with him all over arrogance of power and ego.
Hopefully, his time in office is over. Many told you he was like Reibman on steroids, as a self-centered pay to play politician but you didn't listen.
So now the county is in the hands of the teabaggers. They are more shrewd then the Lehigh County variety and after the primary hid it well. Tighten your belts Northampton County. As for you county employees, hahahahaha!!!!!
jc earned his lost by his past actions
the world will now see the real donchez
bethlum loses
Both the Donchez and followers are disgusting.
When John was tossed from a wrestling match for berating a referee, it became very clear to an area of rabid wrestling enthusiasts just what kind of asshole Callahan is. It was a simple, singular event that defined him as an immature punk. His scrambling to get the ref's forgiveness in the form of a press release indicated that he knew he'd shit outside the pot. We've all been to youth sporting events and we all know the type. A chance to vote against an idiot like that is a rare opportunity and many took it.
The voter turnout was because a Gregory is in the big house.
John reached out to no one in the party and ran a closed campaign. Where any of the sitting County Council people invited to participate I this campaign? Where any of the sitting County Councilmen invited to his Victory Party? Did he even work with Hanover people? We'll we didn't see him up here once in Hanover Township. Maybe if he spent less time snubbing people who actually won elections that where contested, he may have had a chance. Instead he relied on Naggy to sink his unsinkable ship. Good bye John Callahan. I hope you donate your money to the Northampton County Democratic Party so they can become relevant again. But you won't
John believed Bernie's posts and phoned it in. He thought he was pit stopping on the way to the governor's office. Now, he's just completed an employment application for Fleck's dumpster diving business. Go figure.
Yesterday's NY Daily News had headlines of the Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio and current Mayor Bloomberg sitting at a desk enjoying their morning beverages, same happen in Bethlehem between Donchez & Callahan?
Bernie, 724am puts you responsible for Callahan's defeat - says Callahan followed your advice and lost.
How does it feel to have a blog with that kind of power?
All hail the King!
The Banker
ps - for the morons out there, this is sarcasm.
8:07, they are together today for next years budget address that Callahan will be sticking up Donchez's asshole but the funny thing is, Callahan will be the one crying so bring your tissues!
Banker, I had no idea i was so powerful.
Not cool to gloat too much, no matter how happy you might be at another's misfortune.
The blame goes to Callahan for the Norco dems crash & burn. John is a power abusing self absorbed person. You reap what you sow Johnny Casino.
Vanity is John's favorite sin
He had the opportunity to mend fences but took no advice. He alienated people who could have helped him. When you surround try self with a bunch of YES “men” you are not looking to receive good advice. It’s He treated a lot of people pretty poorly over the years and they have not forgotten.
Elections are really a numbers game. What percent of Ds will a D loose and what % of Rs and I/Ns will i get. Looking at the Bethlehem numbers especially north side--it's clear the election was lost there.
The campaign geniuses who missed not winning Bethlehem by a significant margin are guilty of malpractice. John would have been a great Executive.
The campaign geniuses who missed not winning Bethlehem by a significant margin are guilty of malpractice. John would have been a great Executive
Maybe john should have listened to the people who were trying to direct him. it’s not just the campaign...it’s the candidate.
You can’t sell something people don’t want to buy
Besides that Nagy kid who was advising Callahan and responsible for this debacle? who was polling?
JC's frat boy attitude caught up with him. That, and the party is a ship of fools.
Now we all pay.
The 7:24 post was about Callahan believing Bernie's endless puff pieces and confident predictions. It had nothing to do with advice. Bernie was hardly the only one who thought Callahan had it in the bag from Day 1. He was the one of the noisiest, however.
Was anyone asked for ID? I was. Just curious about others' experiences.
The dude was too cool for school.
John obviously was not getting good advice and I cannot believe Bernie was on his inner core of advisers.
So who messed this up? Campaigns are team sports it's not just the candidate that blows an election. Was it Fleck, his congressional campaign team.... who?
The funny/sad part is that J.C. and his sheeple, led by Cheer Leader in Chief,Ms.K.D., are casting about looking to blame everyone but those responsible.
It's the voters fault. It's your fault.
It's my fault.
It's everybody's fault but Johnny C's and his merry band of yes-men.
Never fall for your own goofy-ass PR.
I agree pr is self-deluding. However, he got advice not to define brown though he had resources to do so; someone ignored bethlehem voter problems which polling can detect (and had time to correct to ensure the large victory needed to sustain county losses); and money was NOT spent to get out the vote-which u only do if ur up by alot.
Blame John for message and record but the other stuff is the failure of his team. So not fleck then who called the shots? Bernie?
John Callahan lost because hubris is not endearing to the majority. John Brown won because he strategically identified precincts in and near Bethlehem where hubris is especially frowned upon and asked the frowning for their votes. The plan was simple; yet elegant. It worked.
GOTV, at best, accounts for a 1 per cent impact. not enough to help in this instance.
fleck had naught to do with the Callahan campaign
Does anyone really think anyone except Callahan called the shots? He is not known for taking the advice of others
So an experienced politician like Callahan had no polling, no advisers, no media/mail person, no phone banking, no one who ran a county-wide campaign volunteering or working for him? No way...
And btw if Bethlehem had been addressed early and high demo performing wards targeted for GOTV with resources (and therefore more than 1%bump), Callahan would be announcing his cabinet.
Frankly, turnout was a les an issue than the entire Bethlehem 14's precincts not voting for Callahan. Many Democrats knew that a year ago. The Callahan machine refused to face reality and as its noted hubris proved, with its money and worshippers, took down not only itself but a few very good county candidates.
To me that is the biggest shame. I really think the county is facing some serious issues and I know I wanted to get the experience of a few people in county government. Now that is lost due to the arrogance of a political gang.
And who were the members of the Callahan "gang" that allowed this to happen? It's stunningly stupid.
It was rigged. I wrote in Elmer J. Fudd and I found no record of it being recorded. I wanted my vote to count, Dammit!
If Jeff Parks turns Arts Quest over to John it will be a disaster.
Bottom line-- he was a relatively effective cheer leader co Bethlehem, if you go for the Joe Collage type. He was never more then a moderately successful administrator, to be kind, and a moderately, to be kind, effective politician. He got his job by being a yes-man to Don.
He was full of himself. People got tired of it. People did not come out to vote because they did not want to vote for him. It's time for him to find a real job.
The spontaneous cheer that went up at the crosstown Democratic event says it all!
Karen Dolan and company went big for Willie but did no fence mending and contributed no value added for John-Boy.
Hopefully Willie has learned a lesson about humility from this.
I have no such hope for Dolan.
John, like Don, couldn't tolerate a disagreement. Even small disagreement on policy issues. You're either with them or against them. In a one-party town this allowed them to make enemies or at least to disregard many good Democrats.
In this regard they were not all that different from the mayor of Allentown. Just that their mandate was that they were so hip and cool and sexy, and Mayor Ed's mandate is a mandate directly from heaven. Jesus supports what he does.
My way or the highway. It finally caught up with Johnny
Damn shams Callahan screwed it up for Deb Hunter and others.
Don's band needs a roadie.
Johnny C was a public cad. Bethlehem's only gonna put up with that for so long. Folks saw enough.
With any other person running as the county executive candidate, the Dem's would have taken at least three if not four of the county council seats, even if the executive would have lost. Never saw as many "antivotes' in such a long time in Bethlehem and elsewhere.
This is all on Callahan and his gang of worshipers. The loss was less a John Brown victory and more a complete repudiation of John Callahan. Other than those telling him what he wanted to hear, all the signs have been out there. Why do you think he has two opponents in his own party.
Sad he had to screw over the county in the process of learning just how unpopular he is.
Word is many Donchez supporters not only wouldn't vote for Callahan but because of him, didn't vote for the county council candidates they erroneously saw as part of "his" team as opposed to being part of the "Democratic" team.
I give special props to Jerry Seyfried and Ron Heckman who were willing to be part of the 'team'
to help the council candidates. Had both run independent campaigns they may have very well won.
Great and decent guys. I wish them well in the future. Wish one of them would run for Executive in 2017 but I doubt it.
man creates god in his own image.
in this comment chain, a couple folks who hate Callahan are recreating the facts of this loss to justify their hatred of Callahan.
bottom line is, D turnout is AWFUL in Norco in off-year election. In the last decade, about 80% of our at large council members have been R. John Stoffa is practically an R. Reibman only won re-election because his opponent was the scary Ron Angle.
Callahan did not cause the death of this ticket. Rs voted straight ticket-Ds did not
It's your fault. It's my fault. It's everybody but his fault.
Turnout is an easy trite answer encompassing all reasons for council and executive race losses while missing the point of a campaign which is to anticipate and act accordingly to ensure victory.
Whoever the inner core of the callahan campaign failed on multiple levels to remedy D defections probably only in bethlehem and maybe just the north side. That failure combined with message failure; failure to define Brown in unacceptable terms;failure to coordinate attacks on Brown; failure in mail and media; failure on ground game. And give the size of his war chest if polling was not done, malpractice is confirmed
John deserved better and had the resources to change the outcome. And that sucks.
And one last thing about the focus on turnout-check the final tabs in northampton county. More Democrats voted and Rs. Democrats always split ticket in northampton county that's why an effective campaign finds votes on r side and I/NA side while stopping the bleeding on D side.
John should be Executive-elect today.
I am curious is this all the doing of the Nagy kid? or did Bernie Jerry Seyrfied, Cunningham or whomever John listens to simply miss what was happening?
In response to the posters speaking on behalf of Bob, Willy, Karen and other council members and Bethlehem Dems, YOU HAVE NO IDEA what you are talking about. After the primary, fences were mended as best as they could following such a divisive race. This mending effort began days after the primary, when all candidates pledged to pull together for one another. All Bethlehem Dem candidates split up the door-to-door delivery of GOTV lit that supported all Beth and County Dem candidates, and that included a pro-Callahan and pro-Donchez message, on the same brochure! Donchez and Reynolds appeared together in support of Muller. All Dem candidates met on election-eve and divvied up their signs for equal and shared effort. At the Donchez victory party, it's true: people cheered, but Bob was red in the face, maybe, possibly, shocked at the collective bile of those who supported him, and that's a very sad story in itself that Bob will have to handle. Bernie, as you know, just because people write on this blog as if they are 100% sure of something, doesn't mean they aren't full of shit liars.
I am a native of Bethlehem, third-generation. Irish stock. I vote every election. Respectfully, I believe Mr. Callahan got exactly what he deserved. Having said that, I wish him no ill will.
8:26, I know that all too well. I had heard that Bob sat down with John and they worked it out. But that should have been made very clear to Bob's supporters and was not. Hence the applause. It is easy for me to sit back now and say what should have been done. Like everyone else, I thought the only contest was over the Council seats.
"Fences were mended." Yeah. Got it. That's clear as can be.
Fences were definitely mended.
Got it now.
It's quite simple really,outside the Karen Don Willy Nagy inside baseball network anyway,lots of people just don't care for John Callahan. As they say in the infantry, his shit was thin.
End of story.
I think it would be a mistake to count Callahan out. He's a smart guy, has a lot of charisma, and is one of the few politicians I know who actually learns from mistakes. It's sad to see people kick other people when they are down. Not cool.
Anon 9:12, you know nothing. You are an out of the loop, pull stories out your butt kind of guy. Do you even know any of these people? Forget I asked. I know you don't. Reading your post was funny.
John's a very classy guy.
@9:30 I believe that anonymous 9:12 made it very clear he/she
was "out of the loop".
932 u are correct Joh is an asshole..and finally got what was due Him, Now once donches takes over and all the illegal shit comes to light maybe callahan will be right next to Gregory in Graterford State Prison where the underhanded bastard should be......
If you claim Callahan belongs in state prison, shouldn't you sign your name?
Yeah, how did that 'charisma" work in the election? Many Dem's voted, just not for Callahan. The better voters knew hem the les they wanted him. The guy is a smarmy mess, a better looking Mike Solomon and people got it.
i ran into soloman so im sure he agree not good looking as callahan and he was all pro callahan when i tried talk him out he was all john got good soul but jail maks a man find God.
Im afraid Donny and Johnny are not as close as they once were.
Any thoughts on that BOH ?
I believe there was a rift, but it's over and has been for some time.
Post a Comment