Bethlehem Mayor Willie Reynolds will be announcing his plan to seek re-election this week. He had planned on announcing sooner but spent the past week determining the financial ramifications of an initial deluge of executive orders issued by President Donald Trump after his inauguration.
Reynolds is a life-long resident of Bethlehem, a magna cum laude graduate of Moravian (where he played hoops and taught in Allentown before he was elected Mayor in 2021. Prior to that, he served as a member of City Council since 2007. He was the youngest person ever elected to city council.
During his tenure as Mayor, the City's long-term debt has continued to drop from a high of $171 million in 2015 to $88.5 million today.
Reynolds faces a possible primary challenge from Grace Cramsie Smith, a Bloomsburg and Lehigh U graduate who was first elected to City Council in 2019. She was a school counselor but may have retired.
I'll have more once candidates file nomination petitions. I am told there will be numerous Council candidates, and from both parties.
18 comments:
Doesn't smith understand that she is not supposed to mess with the bedlum dynasty
Wee Willie Woke - a legend in his own mind
Bethlehem hasn't had a decent mayor since J Callahan
There will be no more leftover Covid money to bail out local operating budgets. There will be closer attention to wasteful government spending.
It will be more difficult to secure Federal funding.
So, yes. The next four years are something for our politicians to ponder.
Willie Wonka: Another woke loser like Allentown's Tuerk
I like how the Bethlehem insiders Club of Donchez & Morganelli pick their Mayors. The city passed over a competent candidate for this wokester!
Time to install more flag poles. Woke Willie sure loves his flags
I think Smith will bring transparency and ethics back to Bethlehem. Reynolds stopped meeting with the public like Donchez did, doesn't take or return calls or emails and used his office to threaten 3 churches to sell him their property, which exploded in his face once it came out.
I hope Willie gets a Primary challenger. He has been getting away with doing whatever he wanted to do for a very long time.
Trump must start deporting Democrats
I would love for J.W. to face a challenge, though I know he will be down and dirty because he can’t handle criticism. Question him about something and he has a fit or one of his handlers ushers him away. If the rumors are true, then Ms. Smith may be a good choice. Will make for a fun primary.
Willie Reynolds is an incompetent wokester who is following the party's marching orders!
Me too, he's terrible!
So do I. He needs to be held accountable for his abuse of power. He is the most pompous and arrogant person I have ever met.
That is a understatment! He has rabbit ears and can't stand people questioning him!
Amen to that!
I believe competition for any elected office is good for the electorate. When I ran against Reynolds in the 2021 primary, I did so because I watched him in action on City Council. The night that he told residents they should move to one of the townships if they didn't like the zoning matter that was being considered by Council, I knew someone had to challenge the perceived next democrat up status in Bethlehem. Also as a part time councilmember he had taken contributions from several of the larger developers, which I felt was not conducive to being independent of that kind of influence. I felt projects should stand on their own merit, not the size of a campaign contribution, and told one of the major developers exactly that, who wanted to support my mayoral campaign. To his credit, Reynolds didn't take those kinds of developer contributions in our race (actually returning one), probably because of the attention I brought to it. He has isolated himself from residents. As a long time city administrator I personally witnessed Mayors like Ken Smith and Jim Delgrosso pick the phone up when it rang and engage with people. Bob Donchez and Gordon Mowrer had open office hours. Reynolds seems to be hiding from the public, and one has to wonder why. In the end, if Grace Crampsie Smith challenges him in the primary, or another candidate does in the general election, I think Bethlehem residents benefit from that competition.
When one hides from the people he represents, one has something to hide. What Reynolds tried to pull against three churches speaks volumes of how crooked one can be.
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