Bill Heydt, who served as Allentown's Mayor from 1994-2002, will be the next Chair of the Lehigh County GOP. At a meeting last night, he was the only person nominated, so his election is assured next week when the party regulars meet. It will be by acclamation.
Heydt succeeds Wayne Woodman, a divisive party boss, who was absent from last night's meeting. Woodman refused to run candidates for city Council and mayor in Allentown, hoping to depress the turnout so that ultra-conservative Scott Ott would be elected Executive.
Ott has since resigned his seat as Commissioner and moved to Texas.
Heydt's election appears to mark the end of the so-called "Reform Team" in Lehigh County, which attacked mainstream Republicans like Dean Browning for voting with his conscience.
Hopefully, it will also mark the re-birth of democracy in Allentown. As Ron Beitler point out at his Lower Macungie Smarter Growth blog, "What better person to help identify and cultivate quality city candidates and bring right of center viewpoints and perspective into the urban conversation than the last Republican Mayor of Allentown?"
10 comments:
Not ONE comment?
Wow ...
The best news in years for republicans. Lack of comments to me indicates lack of criticism.
Yawn....
That is a typical Blog mentor comment. Unlike him, I don't make up comments.
Bernie, As for me just like to add my two cents to many of these discussions. Some of your commentors may find my comments only worth two cents, so be it.
"What better person to help identify and cultivate quality city candidates and bring right of center viewpoints and perspective into the urban conversation than the last Republican Mayor of Allentown?"
Many people like Bill. That said, there are smarter, more energetic and skilled political people in the Republican party in Allentown than Bill. Bill hasn't won an election since 1997. He lost 2-1 to Pawlowski in 2005. I welcome a more competitive Republican party in Allentown, but this guy isn't the one to make it happen. From my perspective, the R's just got more boring and the D's laughably more incompetent.
If there are people who are more "skilled" or more "energetic," their names should have been placed into consideration; the MAIN thing Bill Heydt brings is (finally) some kind of possibility that the energy and commitment of committeepersons [and voters] might be welcomed even if they're not zealots.
I think Bill will support The Allentown City Committee and nurture City candidates at the same time Bridge the divide with the more conservative voters and candidates in the county.
Bar, your response above on what happened to you was classy, just like you are. While no one is perfect, the attacks against you were unmerited.
In my opinion, the nomination process for LCDC chair was abused at the reorganizational meeting. As customary in other groups or organizations, each candidate should have been asked if they accepted or declined the nomination first before they gave a speech. They then should have spoken on why they should have been elected chair and ruled out of order if they attacked another candidate, since no rebuttals were allowed by any candidate nor did the attackers have to verify the 'facts' they presented. I await the results of the investigation the LCDC will conduct on the charges made against Bar.
What makes the charges against Bar even more outrageous is that she is slated to receive the LCDC Volunteer of the Year (she is more like the Volunteer of the Past Decade) at its annual Rhapsody in Blue dinner, which coincidentally has been postponed twice now.
I suspect Walter Felton will not get as much help as he expected in his campaign for state senator against Pat Browne unless he apologizes for what his two supporters did. Some Dems will not lift a finger to help him until he does. He was already going to have a problem getting endorsements from some labor unions anyway. I think Tom Wolf, Mike Stack, Pete Schweyer, Terri Powell and Mike Beyer will get even more help than they expected in their campaigns.
Wrong location for above comment...
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