Here are some of my election observations. Feel free to add your own.
1) Republicans are on the wrong side of a woman's right to choose. - During the primary, Democrat Brian Panella barely mentioned this topic and was nearly defeated on his own side. In the general, he made sure voters were aware that he fully supports women's rights. It worked. We are very polarized, and I suspect few Democrats or Republicans would split their tickets. I believe Panella picked up most of the independents.
2) People like to be asked. - In the general election, Panella pounded the pavement, looking for votes in all four corners of the county. He visited hard-core conservative areas like the Slate Belt and Lehigh Tp, This strategy, conducted with a different campaign team than he used in the primary, probably won over some voters. In stark contrast, Council person John Cusick ran what I'd call a stealth campaign. He raised no money other than what he sunk into the race himself. He made no attempt to reach Democrats who would have supported him.
3) Voters had little information. - Our local news outlets no longer have the staff to cover local government, and voters are left with little choice but to vote their party or for a person whose name they like.
4) Landfill foes swept in Lower Saucon Tp. - I've received numerous comments over the past several months telling me that Lower Saucon Tp's silent majority supports the landfill. This narrative is contradicted by election results showing they swept in the Township Council races.
5) Money matters. - Candidates like Jeff Warren and Ken Kraft spent a great deal of money. Kraft would likely have won anyway because his district is heavily Democrat. But Warren's district is much more competitive, and he outspent his largely invisible opponent by a large margin.
25 comments:
I agree that it certainly appears we are a nation of baby-killers - no better than Hitler and Mengele. America is going to hell.
Another Panella in the judiciary may be the saddest chapter in this election. Terrible for honest citizens.
So apparently all candidates who want to win need to promote the killing of babies? Elections and our time on earth are short compared to what awaits us in the “afterlife”. Panella’s new campaign team did nothing but attack his opponent, twist the truth about her beliefs and claim endorsements that were actually false. Cusick, unfortunately, did keep too low of a profile. Tara has no clue how to do this job but she apparently won. That old saying, “Be careful what you wish (vote) for” will prevail here. Good luck Norco. Another botched election with these voting machines and directions from the election board (vote the opposite, come back later, do a paper ballot - oh we just ran out, no worries, the machine is right even though the paper isn’t). Sheesh. There’s no do overs now but this reeks of 2020. It’s clear that Northampton County is a key county to win in 2024. God help us if this happens next year.
All of McClure's stooges were elected and I believe he donated money to most of them (Keegan, Tzara, for sure, and I assume Patella, er, Panella).
McClure went on TV saying he's ultimately responsible for fair, legal, and accurate elections and blamed the "glitch" on someone else.
On her Facebook page, Tzara said that "I had thought that I had lost for a moment until o [sic] got a text saying there were 12,000 more mail-in ballots."
Nothing to see here, I guess.
Many, if not a majority, of Republicans are not on the wrong side of abortion; it's just that many want some restrictions and regulations. The press and liberals just spew that nonsense that they all want to ban it outright which is not true.
- M.P.
The comments from yesterday were filled with a lot of whining and excuses by some GOP fan boys. The simple fact is that their messaging, while highly effective with their base voters, only appeals to a minority of the population and because of that they lose and will continue to lose (and then make excuses and blame others for the loss).
Some of these fan boys like to paint the stereotypical Democrat voter as someone from the third world lands like "Kensington" or "North Philadelphia" having never been there or known anyone from there. Sadly the same is true in reverse and Republican voters are now being stereotyped for their fealty to Trump and embracement of White Christian Nationalism as their brand.
The GOP needs to blow up and rebuild. Dump the racist dog whistling bullshit and provide policies and answers to help ALL Americans have better lives.
I thought the Lehigh Valley News website (Not Lehigh Valley Live) did a pretty good job of highlighting a lot of the local races and candidates.
Bernie, perhaps you could post an update on the provisional vote counting?
Take it for what it’s worth: had breakfast about a month ago with someone who is a Lower Saucon resident and who pays very close attention to the environmental aspects of his township’s government.
His observation was that the pro-landfill people accelerated a lot of projects by one or more to raise the township’s projected annual budget, then claimed the landfill expansion was critical to ensure property taxes would not need to be raised. That was a clever move.
I hope the matter of the library and compost center can be addressed quickly. The administrative nuttiness of moving a Northampton County/Bethlehem district library into a Lehigh-Carbon district would require township residents to go for years without a home library.
Ah yes. The Abortion debate was the decider. Because there is so much a common pleas judge can do about that issue.
@1:35- think Abortion should be legal, up to the third trimester...in college.
If Bernie can publish your disgusting point of view, he can certainly publish this.
@7:37- I'll pray for you. There's apparently a huge stick stuck up your a**.
Panella did not take any money from McClueless.
Anon. 8:34,
You can be darn sure that if we had a Republican in the White House and a Republican majority in the Senate, and this country was in this same state of disarray, and Democrats got their clocks cleaned on the local level whilst there were documented technical problems with voting machines and we had a Republican County executive go on TV and basically say 'nothing to see here; all is fair and correct' whilst every one of his cronies won their elections, the local Democrats would be whining and giving all kinds of excuses, too.
People really think a person with no accounting experience is the more qualified to be controller? People really think a man who has 30 years' fewer experience practicing law is the more qualified to be a judge? People really think that voting machine problems were as petty and insignificant as McClure said; especially after every candidate he endorsed won their race? Local Democrats are lucky that for what their voters lack in intelligence and integrity, they make up for in quantity.
@7:38 M. P. - No, the majority of Republicans are on the wrong side of abortion. They want a total ban. Period. Trump said in 2016 that he'll only appoint Supreme Court nominees who'll overturn Roe and he did. All three of his nominees committed perjury during their nomination process saying that Roe was "settled law" and they will not overturn it. First chance they got, the overturned it. And, the Republicans celebrated extensively.
Meanwhile, the right wing news media lie constantly about abortion. It's Democrats that want some restrictions and regulations. But when you listen to Fox News and Newsmax and the rest of that garbage, they repeat constantly, ad nauseum , "Democrats want abortion on demand and abortion up to the second before birth for any reason".
I have a CPS story about child rape and her late term abortion, but the details are too disturbing that decorum prevents me from sharing. I hope your Republican "restrictions and regulations" would include her, but sadly, they won't.
Regarding Lower Saucon, I'm honestly amazed how effectively Banonis and Carocci motivated the township's citizens (usually a fairly conservative bunch) to vote overwhelmingly for a Democratic sweep and put them in the minority.
Maybe they now realize the error of their ways in habitually ignoring (or worse, mocking and belittling) residents' concerns, making massive landfill enlargement their signature policy priority, and plunging foolhardily into multiple pointless and expensive legal fights with Hellertown. Seems pretty clear that the people they're ostensibly representing are fed up with them.
Unfortunately, neither of them were on the ballot this year (they're both up in 2025), but I suspect voters won't forget by then that as council president and vice president over the last couple years they were the architects of the mess that led to Tuesday's result.
It should and is becoming a state issue and decision. Everyone needs to calm down. It's a process and it's as it should be. No matter your opinion the supreme Court basically said it's the state and people decision. We have bigger problems than one issue
Amen. No one gets it
I so agree. How do we ever get anywhere going forward with this mentality
Anon. 11:03:
I disagree. Yes, many do want a total ban but I don't think that's a majority.
- M.P.
It’s where that common pleas judge next that it matters.
@10:59 Vlad - I don't care what Dems would do or say in a what if scenario, it doesn't change the fact that Republicans in general keep repeating their same mistakes election after election by embracing and promoting irrelevant, unpopular, culture war policies while ignoring other problems and highlighting how they can fix them. Then when they lose again they're shocked and blame everything and everyone but themselves.
The GOP message these days is simply shouting "Government is broken!" but offer no material solutions. How does combating "Woke Ideology" improve peoples pay checks? How does it streamline government and prevent wasteful spending? How does it help fund replacing aging infrastructure? How does more God and Church do the same? How does banning abortions do the same? All of the above is just catering and playing to individuals thoughts and feelings, none of it makes governing this country better.
I wonder if Zrinsky will staff her office with middle age, white, left-wing feminists who hate men. I hope so because then I'll be spending a lot of time at the office putting my moves on.
Being county controller is actually about accounting, not accountability #recallzrinski
Actually polling indicates republicans beat democrats on the border, the economy, crime, and federal spending. It’s abortion and mail in ballots they can’t seem to figure out.
One bright side of this disaster, if any, is that maybe #TeamTara will put her dart board away and stop campaigning for whatever office is open. Although, rumor is she's waiting for Boscola to retire and run for state senator. Boscola is only in her early 60s and her term ends Jan. 2027; it's possible that Boscola may give it one more run in '26.
I'll say it now: being county controller does not qualify one for state senator. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Her heir apparent on county council for left-wing feminist who hates men is Kelly Keegan. Sorry, Lothario, Keegan is married.
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