Updated: St. George and the Sheriff

Unlike Northampton County, Lehigh and most other counties elect their Sheriff. Ron Rossi, Lehigh County's Sheriff for the past 27,000 years, has decided against seeking re-election. He threw his support behind Democrat Ed Zucal, a Sergeant on on Allentown's police force. But most of the money, even union money, has gone to Joe Hanna, a Lehigh County detective and the Republican nominee. From J.B. Reilly to Abe Atiyeh, he is the pick of the crony capitalists. Since most of these contributions were made before news of the federal investigation broke, I'd be inclined to give Hanna a pass on accepting nearly $62,000 from what I'll call the Citizens for Oligarchy. But what I won't forgive is the $1,000 he accepted from St. George. I have no problem with St. George slaying as many dragons as he likes or being the patron saint of England. But I do have a problem with St. George donating to a political race.

Actually, St. George is innocent. My real beef is with Hanna and the St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church. According to Hanna's campaign finance records, he accepted $1,000 from the St. George Charity Fund on 1/21/15. Not only is this contrary to state election laws, it also us contrary to the IRS ban on political activity by churches and charities.

Most of St. George's parishioners are from Syria, Greece or Allentown. There is no shortage of needy families in any of these places. I am appalled to see a charity fund perverted for a political campaign.

12:40 pm Update: St. George Slays the Blogger! - St. George does not just slay dragons. He gets bloggers, too. While the above posat is accurate, it fails to tell the complete story. In my effort to play gotcha', I failed to look at the post-primary report filed by the Hanna campaign. It reveals, quite clearly, that Hanna returned the $1,000 contribution made by the St. George Charity Fund. He returned the money on May 13, approximately four months after it was made. It likely dawned on someone in his camp, maybe Hanna himself, that this kind of contribution is unlawful.

Had I done a bit more research, this would not be a story. While the Church obviously abused its tax exempt status, the error was caught and rectified. I am quick to point out errors on campaign finance reports, so I have to acknowledge mny own mistake, and apologize to anyone who was misled by my faux pas.

(Originally published 12:07 am.)