How About Those Lehigh County Races?

Over the past few months, I've been quite absorbed with the Northampton County races, which have suffered from a dearth of news coverage. The Allentown City races have been covered well by The Morning Call. The Lehigh County races have been covered poorly by all of us. Here's my take.

Executive - Because incumbent Tom Muller has decided to step down and enjoy himself, this seat is wide open. The Executive is the chief executive officer and administrative official. He executes and enforces all county ordinances and presents the financial plan and budget to County Commissioners. The term of office is four years, with an annual salary of $75,000. Democrat Phillips Armstrong and Republican Brad Osborne are the two contenders.

Lehigh County Republicans refused to participate in the Trump cult, unlike their counterparts in Northampton County. Comm'r Brad Osborne may have held his nose and voted for Trump, but you won't find pictures of him posing with The Donald or Kelly Anne Conway. Believe me, I've looked. He's a pro-business Republican cut out of the same mold as Charlie Dent and Pat Browne.

Osborne served as a South Whitehall Tp Comm'r for eight years, and has been a Lehigh County Comm'r since 2012. A chemical engineer, he was the Plant Manager for GEO Specialty Chemicals in South Whitehall until his recent retirement.

I expect he will win, and will suffer none of the backlash that Dems in Northampton County are rightfully dishing out to John Brown and GOP boss General Lee Snover, who actually equated Charlie Dent with the swamp in D.C.

I saw Phillips Armstrong, ironically enough, at a "Fake News" seminar hosted by the AAUW on Saturday morning. I was there to pick up pointers. He served as a Whitehall Tp Comm'r for four years. He's a retired educator and coached girls' basketball at Whitehall and Emmaus High Schools.

Armstrong recently ran and lost a race for State Representative. I considered him the most qualified of all the Lehigh County candidates, Republican and Democrat, incumbent and challenger. He was defeated by Zach Mako, the least qualified of the candidates, Democrat or Republican, challenger or incumbent.

I commiserated with him on Saturday about the lack of news coverage. He ruefully replied that there is little interest in covering candidates who are civil to one another. Though he's right, he probably could have made better use of his time on the weekend before an election than in attending a "fake news" seminar in the heart of Northampton County.

I consider both candidates well suited to the position, but Osborne has a bit more executive experience. I would vote for Armstrong because I find his outlook and optimism refreshing, but Osborne is going to win this race.

Commissioner - In Northampton County, the legislative body is called County Council. In Lehigh County, it's called the Board of Commissioners. It is a nine-person body whose members are elected to four-year terms. They are part-timers who receive an annual salary of $7,000. Their most important duty is approving or amending the Executive's budget. They also confirm his appointments and must approve larger contracts. In a bit of an over-reach, they've also injected themselves in labor negotiations.

In Northampton County, five at-large seats are up for grabs. In Lehigh County, it is five district seats. Because these are localized races, I expect the national mood to make little difference.

Geoffrey Brace and Nathan Brown are unopposed in Districts 3 and 5, but there are three contested races.

District 1: Democrat Bob Elbich v. Republican Marc J. Grammes.- This is the northern portion of the County. Incumbent Tom Creighton, who is very conservative, is running for Magisterial District Judge. This seat will remain Republican.

District 2: Democrat Shoaib Chaudhary v. Republican Percy Dougherty. - A consummate politician who has perfected the art of telling people what they want to hear, Dougherty will win hands down.

District 3: Democrat Amy Zannelli v. Republican Bob Smith. - Dems have a shot here. This is east side Allentown and west Bethlehem, both of which vote Democratic. But Bob Smith is a legitimate hero while Zannelli is the chicken lady.

In 2010, Smith tried to stop a female patient at a personal care facility from jumping off a third-floor roof, but was pulled down along with her. He landed underneath her, broke both arms and had a serious head injury. She walked away unscathed. He put his life on the line for a fellow human being, the epitome of service.

Zanelli, in stark contrast to Smith, was terminated in 2012 from a child protective services agency in New Jersey at a time when staffing shortages and increased complaints had reached crisis levels. She appealed her Jersey termination and an arbitrator ruled against her. She simply refused to work, letting our most vulnerable element, our children, go without protection.

The same thing happened in Northampton County, where she was terminated before her probation was up because of a disagreement over the number of hours she would work. Once again, she let down the most vulnerable element of our society.

She's also the chicken lady. In 2015, she inappropriately flashed her Children, Youth and Family caseworker badge at a Hanover Township Supervisors' meeting in which she accused officials of fowl play for refusing to allow her to own backyard chickens. I have nothing against chickens, but do have problems with people who abuse their authority.

Zanelli is a bad candidate and her election will ultimately be a problem for Lehigh County. But I expect her to win.