Charlie Thiel, an Allentown School Director, is on a leave of absence from his job at Communications Systems, Inc., so that he can run full-time for Allentown Mayor. A former Republican, he switched parties a few years ago because the political reality is that Democrats tend to do better in city races. But in truth, his is neither the Democrat nor Republican party. His is the money party. He is backed by the Jenn Mann cabal, which consists of lobbyist Mann and the duo of State Representatives who at one time served on City Council, i.e. Mike Schlossberg and Pete Schweyer. Mann distinguished herself in office by moonlighting as a consultant. Schlossberg is now a legend for his ghost voting and Schweyer is keeping his Latino district safe for Gringos by filing nomination challenges against anyone who dares run against him. Given who supports him, I have a problem with Thiel, fairly or unfairly.
I consider him a Fed Ed Lite. A few weeks ago, he ran a push poll telling his callers that he is the only honest candidate for Mayor. Now he's doing something even more sleazy. Through an intermediary, he has approached several Mayoral candidates, offering them a job in his administration if they back out. I have confirmed this with the intermediary.
This is political logrolling and is completely legal. It is also completely sleazy. It solidifies the impression that government is for sale,which is the whole point of a federal pay-to-play investigation.
The latest word on that is that there will be two indictments this week, and that one will have Edwin "Fed Ed" Pawlowski's name on it. Though this is a rumor, it makes sense that if the the feds would charge, they would do so before the primary election.
50 comments:
Change one Democrat for another Democrat and what do you get?
No difference.
Another come to Jesus guy.
God save us.
No really, God save us.
Who is believed to be 2nd person ???
Charlie Thiel was the recipient of the infamous Pawlwoski/Schlossberg/Schweyer PAC's money for his school district seat. The guy is slippery, just like "Fed Ed" and doesn't deserve any political support. To elect him would be like electing Ed Pawlowski Junior in. Good on the indictment, I guess him and the old black codger from Reading will be walked in front of Judge Santos for a bail hearing. Fast Eddie will still deny, deny and deny until jail time; then he'll sing the blues, ala, Jesse Jackson Jr.!
"Who is believed to be 2nd person ???"
I'm declining to name this person until it happens.
This just stinks, why in the world is it legal? To me it's a form of bribery?
The Banker
Fleck gone rat.
Fran copped a plea.
Ed's going down.
The last one standing is the money person,
Lisa.
Heard Lisa filed for divorce.
Banker, It is called political logrolling and is completely legal.
Understood. This fits the category of 'should be illegal.' Ridiculous, and another item on the list of whats wrong with politics.
The Banker
Please no more Jenn Mann......PLEASE!!!!
Check the election laws. promising jobs to people in return for their support is illegal. it's politics 101.
I vote in every election and the only "push" poll I know of in Allentown is the one Fed Ed did where the choices were: Is Ed only Great? Wonderfull? or Magnificent? -- choose one. I was polled on the mayor's race by what I assume was Thiel's campaign but only asked about issues of importance to me and my preferences among all candidates, after reading comparative profiles of each. That was definitely NOT a "push" poll. And there was NO weighted comments, about Thiel or any other candidate, like those you described. As for the "Mann Cabal", I would rather back a candidate who has the support of elected officials, and others, who know what it takes to be an effective mayor and who back a candidate who is running a real campaign. Also, why would Thiel try to get anyone out of the race? He stands a better chance in a crowded field where Ray O'Connell and Sam Bennett are attacking Ed (because that's all they know how to do), who is also trashing them back, a young well meaning rookie like Seigal and Jones, who also isn't running a real campaign?
I know the election law and it is completely legal. The payment of money in exchange for a ghost job would be a bribe. But an exchange of political support for a bona fide job is politics. Earl Warren supported Eisenhower and was rewarded with a seat on the Supreme Court. This subject was discussed extensively by the Seventh Circuit in the Blagojevich case. Sleazy, but legal.
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/whitecollarcrime_blog/2015/07/us-v-blagojevich-logrolling-is-not-a-federal-crime.html
9:24, Thiel definitely did a push poll in which he was referred to as the only Mayoral candidate with integrity. I know two people at the receiving end. It's typical Jenn Mann sleaze.
Thiel may be well meaning but he's accomplished nothing of substance. On top of that, everyone is discussing his underhanded tactics with disdain. Everyone is tired of "Trump" style politics and just being nasty about your opponents garners no respect, whether you're "disguising" it as a poll and just telling outright lies to people. If you can't run on your successes, don't run.
Would either of those two people who told you they received a "push poll" from Thiel be connected to Bennett's campaign? The reason I ask is because I saw only one reference to "push polls" before you mentioned it and that was on Bennett's campaign facebook page (I follow them all). This is typical Bennett victimization tactic that she has repeatedly used in her past two failed mayoral campaigns as well as in her losing Congressional campaign.
9:35 comment sound just like what one of O'Connell's biggest supporters, the guy that owns a bar, is always saying. In fact, so does the comment posted at 6:57 am.
No. I talked to a Ray O'Connell supporter and another person who hadn't decided but was turned off by the push poll. If Sam Bennett is claiming the same thing, the that corroborates what I'm saying. I did not actually hear the poll.
"9:35 comment sound just like what one of O'Connell's biggest supporters, the guy that owns a bar, is always saying. In fact, so does the comment posted at 6:57 am."
Your anonymous attempt to identify other anonymous commenters sounds like the kind of sleaze coming from a candidate who is trying to buy off other candidates and who engages in push polls.
Bernie, Did you even consider that if you didn't actually hear the poll but are only relying on what a supporter of another candidate (O'Connell), a supposedly undecided voter and a claim by Bennett (also a candidate with a history of playing the victim) told you that you may in fact be getting scammed? Hard to believe I know but it is possible that both of these candiates know you don't like Mann and are trying to create controversy where non exists. Hey, it happens to the nest of us.
Bennett's comments on Facebook were not intended for me. As for the other two people, they have integrity and would never try to scam me. In fact, this kind of suggestion betrays a dark view of others that I would expect in a campaign that tries to buy off other candidates. And in that matter, I spoke directly to the intermediary, and he confirmed it. You're running a sleaze campaign, Charlie. Knock it off.
If you do in fact follow everything you must have seen where a council candidate stated in a group page that she indeed did receive these calls. Thiel's campaign did it, just admit it and move on. The more you try to cover it up or deflect responsibility the more dishonest you look.
One, I am not Charlie. Two, you are getting played. Three, keep peddling fantasy and fiction. It is very entertaining.
When the person who has offered a candidate a job in exchange for dropping out confirms it in a conversation, I am not being played. Your anonymous comment here is an attempt to pretend you are not doing what you are doing. You are either Charlie or someone in the Jenn Mann cabal.
I agree!!!
Agreed!!
I don't trust her sincerity EITHER!
What is the difference between all the candidates running for mayor. They were all Pawloski supporters at one time or another
Some only had to play as a supporter for fear of losing there job, this is not to mention the acts committed against one or there family. Than the ones that were and are are just athletic sopporters and the collectors of such remnants?
He is still preferred over Scam Bennett.
@4:33 only to you.
I've heard that the 2nd person to be named is a further employee of the chamber and former council member. But I've heard that for months now. There are so many people it could be, at this point.
This is the type of shadow campaign that one would expect from Scam Bennett. It is time to nominate someone who is not part of the old establishment.
5:10 I'd vote for Ed before I'd vote for Bennett. Her claim about escaping from a racist family friend who kept her as a sex slave is just too much, even for her.
I have to laugh at the lack of integrity displayed by anonymous cowards who challenge Bennett's integrity. All you are doing is helping her. The topic here is Charlie Thiehl's sleazy tactic of offering jobs to candidates who agree to drop out and support him.
You know sadly that is true, sad that it happened. I've known about it for over 30 years and I think she's been brave in bringing up such an ugly and awkward subject. Most women would continue to push that type of thing under the rug or minimize it.
@7:30 Bernie, it doesn't take much to scratch the surface to find slease in Democratic candidates. just because Pawlowski is a criminal (which I believe he is), that doesn't mean that all of those who oppose him are "saints" in comparison.
Sam Bennett is a shady opportunist who was utterly and completely disgraced in the Allentown Properties of Merit scandal about a decade ago. That's why she left town. Now she's back, and she's hoping we forgot that she and her friendly Board of Directors voted to pay her a hugely inflated salary, paid by taxpayers and granted by Rendell. Combine that was some very seriously kooky public appearances, and many people long ago concluded that she is unstable and personally corrupt.
I've got news for ya 9:30 pm. Your political talking points are stale and expected from one who doesnt have the stones to state his name. The reason I know your full of shit is that I was the president of Properties of Merit. I would engage you in a rebuttal point by point on your tirade but at this point find such a response a childish game of tit for tat.
Scam Bennett got gobs of money from her backseat linmo buddy Fast Eddie R. Properties of Merit handed you a golden rake and she was paid a ton of money. In fact most of what they got went to her, right? It was reported on this blog.
The Scam defenders are nervous. They think people will forget all her moral and ethical lapses over the years. This new story of her perpetual victimization is just another example of her lack of self-respect.
This Theil guy may be a dog but she is right there with him. You won't get change with either of them. In fact I would not be surprised if she was not behind this as a False Flag operation.
These are two candidates to avoid. She is too busy as the CEO of her house.
(Above comment reeks of sexism) When Sam Bennett ran for U.S. Congress in 2008, incumbent Dent chose to attack Sam through the highly successful Properties of Merit funded by Governor Rendell and PA DCED to go statewide. Bottom line? When the dust settled, THE PRESS AGREED that THERE WAS NO WRONG DOING: “consultant finds nonprofit made a ‘good faith effort’ to set an appropriate salary.”
Unfortunately, the press never corrected two important points:
1) That out of Sam's concern for this non-profit that she had founded in 1984 in Oneonta NY where it still runs to this day – Sam, over the objection of the Board of Directors, halved her salary herself. Not the reverse.
2) Sam ”recused” herself from any meetings having to do with her salary. The Board of Directors on the findings of a consultant recommended by the Pennsylvania Association of Non-Profit Organizations (PANO) made ALL salary decisions.
5:02, I mean Sam, Of course the Board of POM made all the salary decisions. The Board was packed (by you) with a bunch of syncophants. This is a pattern that has worked in political campaigns for mayor and Congress for you in the Lehigh Valley. It didn't work so well in DC when the Board of the organization there (which you were not able to pack) realized you had scammed your way into a high paying gig so you could get your mug on national TV, promote yourself as a champion of women candidates, and build a bigger rolodex for your own personal political gain. They threw you out as soon as they found out. Now you are back in the Valley raising money from the locals to pay yourself back for "loans" you suppposedly made to your 2001 and 2005 failed mayoral races. It is clear that your main talent and "qualification" is being a serial grifter. Not suprising that you came back to the Valley. People here are much easier to scam than in DC aren't they?
The Mann Mafia expands...
Your argument is very flaccid 7:10 you should take viagra before you use your political sword
Jim Molchany, you just proved 7:10's point.
Wow...just Wow!!!! I'm catching up a bit late, but Gov. Rendell asked Miss Bennett to take Properties of Merit statewide which I'm certain would be a substantial amount of responsibility. If your responsibilities at work quadrupled, I'm hope you would expect a raise. Also, the board approved the raise considering it was expanding. I don't see how that made her a bad person.
Thiel's backers have an irrational disdain for Sam Bennett, who is the only woman running and is backed by some prominent people like Allentown's very own Iron Lady. I like Ray, but respect her knowledge of Allentown.
From this point, I am going to delete anonymous personal attacks aimed at Allentown Mayoral candidates. If you want to do that, you'll have to sign in with a name that can be traced.
Jim Molchany, I deleted you bc of your unnecessary personal attacks and lousy grammar. If you want to help Sam, buy some yard signs, but put duct tape over your mouth. You don't help her, but hurt her. Sam is quite capable of taking care of herself and has several eloquent supporters. You are not among them. If you want to help her, shut up.
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