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Wednesday, February 18, 2015

South Side Business Owner Joins Race for Bethlehem City Council

Blogger's Note: Usually, when a candidate runs for office, he sends me an announcement. I feel I owe it to whoever is running to publish it. i also owe it to you to keep you up to date on the myriad of local offices at play. Yesterday, Matt McKernan made his announcement in a personal email to me, betraying a self-deprecating sense of humor that all too often is missing from local pols. I liked Matt's personal note much more than some announcement drown up by a campaign consultant with yet another 5-point plan.

Dear Bernie,

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Matthew McKernan and I am running for Bethlehem City Council. While I am in no means a lifelong resident of Bethlehem, I do love this city and both my family and my business have dedicated ourselves to make Bethlehem our home, forever. Our family has been part of the Bethlehem community for the past 15 years, in both physical location, and in spirit. I currently live at 1969 Easton Avenue, right up the street from Liberty High school (I am sorry you don't trust their graduates, but my son Max will most likely attend Bechi after he finishes at St. Anne's. Yes, I read your blog...).

My wife is currently a teacher at Liberty High School (my apologies again...) and I am a business owner, with my business, Mosaic, located on the South Side, in the Flat Iron building, where I have had the opportunity to struggle and succeed for the last eight years. (notice I capitalized South Side and the Flat Iron building for no reason but for the love of the city and it's diverse and talented community. Yes, it's that important that it deserves to be capitalized).

At the moment, I have not formally announced my intention to run for council, but I have filled out the necessary paperwork, engaged my network and have started collecting signatures to be on the ballot. I plan to make an announcement in the next week.

With that said, I would love the opportunity to meet with you and discuss your vision for the future of Bethlehem, and the Lehigh Valley. Would you allow me to meet you for lunch or dinner (on me of course)?

Just to give you a little background about myself before you respond, please review my LinkedIn profile, as well as the website of my business.

Matt McKernan LinkedIn
http://www.mosaicwebsite.com/

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,
Matt

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well written and refreshing. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

I like the sound of the guy but he has major disadvantages. He didn't go to only Bethlehem schools and he is a real married adult with children.

It will be an uphill battle. What does Willie think?

Anonymous said...

Free eats!?
Bernie, tell him that you will need numerous follow-ups throughout the campaign season.

Anonymous said...

Recruited by Joe Kelly to be a pain in the ass to the Donchez administration. Aside from that, a good candidate.

Anonymous said...

Hey 5:38 if you knew either of those people you would know that what you wrote is just not true. Why would you want to demean Matt by connecting him to Kelly?

Anonymous said...

Love seeing this and I hope others do too. This is the sort of person needed on Council, not the cookie cutter type that J. Willy, who thinks he is Frank Underwood, chooses. Excellent to see this.

The question is Bernie, where you gonna choose to eat?

Anonymous said...

sounds too good to be true. Good luck!!!!!!!!

Anyone except wee willie or rabid recchiuti

Bernie O'Hare said...

"Recruited by Joe Kelly to be a pain in the ass to the Donchez administration. Aside from that, a good candidate."

Just got an email from Joe denying that he recruited this gentleman or that he has animosity for the Mayor.

Bernie O'Hare said...

"Bernie, where you gonna choose to eat?"

I'm looking thru the list of the most expensive, now. Actually, I try to meet pols in coffee shops or other quiet places. I have a satellite office at the 512 Panera.

Anonymous said...

9:14, and you believe him?

Anonymous said...

8:22 Why don't you run for council? That's right you like to hid behide your remarks. Just jealous because they are educated and your not!! Your probably just a fat old bastard they likes putting others down!!

Bernie O'Hare said...

Yes. And unlike you, he identifies himself.

Anonymous said...

He better have an american express platinum card for those meals..LOL

Bernie O'Hare said...

At least.

Anonymous said...

The better question is does Joe Kelly know the man. Once that is answered we can extrapolate from there.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Of course Joe knows this gentleman, and said as much. Why is evvery v=cab=ndidate a plant for this or that faction? Don't you think some people are running because that's what they want to do???

Anonymous said...

I wonder why the Morning Call never reported on this Vaughn Spencer thing?

http://www2.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=519817


On another topic, I wonder if the Rob McCord extortion plea will allow him to avoid serving time?

Anonymous said...

9:57,

still kissing that JC ass hoping it will get you some where

Bernie O'Hare said...

5:46, Neither of your observations is on topic.

Anonymous said...

Wife teaches in Bethlehem public school but kid goes to private school. Is your child too good for Bethlehem's public schools? Difficult to trust someone's view of the future of Bethlehem with such a glaring contradiction.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Many people who teach in public school send their children to private schools. It is not a matter of thinking your kid is too god for public school. inmost cases, it is a big financial sacrifice because they are still paying taxes that send your children to school. There are numerous reasons to support Catholic schools. Some of us believe that it is important to have a child in an environment where religion matters and moral beliefs are discussed. This did not help me, but it has helped many people. If your child is exceptionally gifted or mentally disabled, he is better off in a public school bc they have advanced classes and many programs for the mentally challenged that Catholic schools lack. And kids in catholic schools are going to still have all the same problems that you'll see in a public school, except for one. They tend not to fight as much. If your child is college bound, he probably also has a bit of an edge after going through Catholic school.

Some of it is also the kids themselves. My grandson, for example, loves Becahi and has wanted to go there since he was in the Fourth Grade.

If one of the parents is a teacher, that might be another reason to send a child to the catholic school so as to avoid any appearance of favoritism.

I know kids in both schools and they are mostly great kids. It is parents like you who are the assholes.

Louie Denaldo said...

Irrelevant...

Anonymous said...

"Of course Joe knows this gentleman, and said as much"

There is your answer. In Bethlehem there are now two clans. The Morganelli group with it members and the Callahan clan with its members.

There are little circles within but that is it. People can and do run independently and usually go down in flames. The money and organization comes from one of those two camps.

You don't have to tell someone to run when clearly recruiting someone to run from your camp.

You just don't get Bethlehem.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Excuse me, but Joe Kelly probably knows every person running for Council. You put two and two together and come up with five.