LC Exec Wannabe Eckhart's Honesty Claim

LC Controller Glenn Eckhart would like to be LC Exec Glenn Eckhart. So yesterday, he issued a news release. He announces no new initiatives. He makes no pledges. The reason for his missive is to announce that he's honest. You know things are really bad when a politician actually thinks it's newsworthy to announce that he's being honest. And perhaps it is.

But Eckhart starts off with a canard. Here's his first paragraph:

(Lehigh County, PA) Glenn Eckhart, Lehigh County Controller and Republican candidate for Lehigh County Executive makes good on his promises to the taxpayers of Lehigh County. In the heat of a campaign, politicians tend to make one empty promise after another, Eckhart observes. Eckhart believes it is a good thing he is not a politician; but instead represents a rare breed of true public servants. “Talk is cheap, but I am proud to say that I have followed through on three very important promises that I made to the people of Lehigh County.” Said Eckhart.

Can you find the lie? Yes, it's his claim that he's not a politician. He went from Salisbury Tp Comm'r (2000 to 2005) to Lehigh County Comm'r (2006 to 2011) to Lehigh County Controller (2012 to present). He's also an elected state committee person for the GOP. He proves he's a politician with this obvious falsehood.

He goes on to say that he's really cool because he kept his word when he said he'd take no payraise, no pension and would present a plan to save $5 million.

“I think it is important to be honest with people. I don’t expect everyone to agree with me all the time, but when I say I am going to do something, I am going to do it.”

In case you missed it the first time, he says it again.

"What I say I am going to do, I am going to do. It is just that simple. I am going to be the advocate for the taxpayer. ”

Eckhart never bothers telling us what his plan was, or whether it was actually implemented.

When it comes to honesty, what I know is that Eckhart pretended to support an anti-pay-to-play ordinance in Lehigh County, but behind the scenes, he attempted to kill it. In a 10-31-16 email to Comm'r Dan Hartzell, Eckhart claimed he wanted to "repeal the whole thing," calling it a "bad ordinance."  He said his Solicitor opined that the law is unconstitutional, but correspondence from her says no such thing.

So when Glenn wants to brag about his honesty, I suppose you could say he's honest compared to Fed Ed But that's not saying much. I see no difference between Glenn and his opponent, Brad Osborne, when it comes to honesty. They are both politicians.