Allentown's Charlie Thiel Faction

Charlie Thiel and Allentown's former Mayor, Edwin "Fed Ed" Pawlowski, have a lot in common. Both are transplants to the Lehigh Valley. Fed Ed hails from Chicago, while Thiel is originally from the Philly area. Both of them went to bible colleges. Fed Ed graduated from Moody's while Thiel attended Valley Forge Christian College. They both engaged in pay-to-play. Fed Ed set up a number of  political action committees he used to extort money from people. He, along with State Reps. Peter "the Gringo" Schweyer and Mike "Darth Voter" Schlossberg set up the now defunct Citizens for a Better Allentown to help re-elect Thiel to the school board. He and Fed Ed also shared the same friends, Miked Fleck and Sam Ruchlewicz. During breaks from preaching the Prosperity Gospel, Thiel and Fleck were drinking buddies. So it's little wonder that Thiel wants to follow Fed Ed's footsteps and pick up where Fed Ed left off as Mayor.

On his Facebook page, Thiel delivers this sermonette: "The people we surround ourselves with either raise or lower our standards. They either help us to become the-best-version-of-ourselves or encourage us to become lesser versions of ourselves. We become like our friends."

So has Thiel become like Fleck, a drinking buddy, Ruchlewicz and Fed Ed? Call him Fed Ed Lite or Pawlowski 2.0. But there are too many similarities between these two to ignore.

He even has a bunch of kool-aid followers, just like Fed Ed.

"Praying that God's will be done," says one cheerleader.

Amazingly, he does have support on City Council. Candida Affa, who hosted the kickoff for Citizens for a Better Allentown at her bar, will vote for him. So will Courtney Robinson. He does everything lobbyist Jenn Mann tells him to do and is the person who asked Dan McCarthy to manufacture a flawed legal opinion about the eligibility of other candidates. A third vote for Thiel will come from Roger MacLean, unless he decides he wants the job himself.

There won't be a fourth. Nor should there be.

Charlie "Fed Ed Lite" Thiel Plans a Wine Tasting Fundraiser

Meow! Allentown Mayoral candidate Charlie "Fed Ed Lite" Thiel will host a wine-tasting fundraiser on Tuesday, April 25, 5:30-7:30 pm, at the Sleepy Cat Urban Winery, located at 1840 W Allen Street. All the beautiful people will be there, pretending they don't fart. Now Sleepy Cat charges only $5 for a wine tasting, but you get to pay $100. It will be oh-so-so-do-so-pa. For $1,000, you get two bottles of wine and a frickin' program.

Fed Ed Lite is picking up right where Fed Ed left off.

Charlie Thiel Seeking $ For Mayoral Bid

Allentown Mayoral hopeful Charlie Thiel is trying to build up a campaign warchest in advance of his official announcement, which he expects to make in mid-January. His campaign chair is NIZ Queen Jenn Mann. She is quite popular in Allentown, but not with me.

His pitch:

I wanted you to be among the first to know that I will be a candidate for Mayor of Allentown. This is a decision that has been a long time in the making, and I have not made it lightly. I have had many wonderful opportunities to serve this city since first moving here in 1991. This is a great city in so many ways, but it is also a city with unrealized potential.

While we have made great strides in the past few years, our city’s progress has been bogged down in controversy, corruption, conflict, and too much drama!

It is time for competence and stability in City Hall.

It is time for a new direction and a new vision for Allentown, and that is what I will bring to the office of Mayor.

I am proud to have the support of former State Rep. Jennifer Mann, who is my Campaign Chair. I am honored by her confidence that I will do the best job for all our citizens as Allentown’s next Mayor.

But I need YOUR support to win the Democratic primary on May 16, 2017. That is the first step in my effort to become the next Mayor of Allentown, and I need your help to get there.

We started this campaign on December 1st and need to raise a significant amount of money by December 31st. The year-end campaign report is a public report that will tell the community whether or not I am a credible candidate.

The contributions we receive this month will be used for polling, online media infrastructure and content, mailers, and community outreach.

I will be publicly announcing my candidacy in mid-January. That announcement will be accompanied by a media campaign, also requiring significant funding.

Can I count on you? Your support is critical to my success.

Please act now, as December 31st is coming upon us quickly.

Make your donation online here, or you can mail your check to: Friends of Charlie Thiel, P.O. Box 214, Allentown, PA 18015.

Thank you for your support!

Charlie Thiel

A-town Rumor: Pawlowski Asks Thiel to Run for City Council

This is the place for completely unsubstantiated gossip and outright lies, so I might as well share the latest rumor. It's that Mayor Edwin Pawloski is begging Republican-turned-Democrat Charlie Thiel to run for City Council. Apparently, Hizzoner has had just about enough from Council members Michael Donovan and Jeanette Eichenwald, who actually question him. They're apparently unaware that King Edwin graduated from Moody Bible College, damn it.

Thiel's CSI is the city vendor that installed all those surveillance cameras with the flashing blue lights. He has posted testimonials from King Ed's mayoral campaign to his business site. Running for City Council might jeopardize his business relationship with the Queen City. Or it might enhance it.

Is this rumor true? Maybe so, maybe not. I kinda' doubt that Thiel has the time. But it's no secret Pawlowski is trying to get rid of Donovan and Eichenwald.