"No Labels" Behind the Edwards and Wild Attacks

Rev. Greg Edwards

It started like a minuet, but is quickly becoming a donnybrook. I'm speaking, of course, about the Lehigh Valley's Democratic Congressional primary. The negativity started when Allentown Attorney Sue Wild broke her word to fellow candidate John Morganelli and blasted him with distortions and outright lies. She continued her attack in two recent emails dunning her supporters for money. "[O]ur biggest competition is a Democrat who supports Donald Trump," she lies about Morganelli. She also enlisted the assistance of Emily's List, which will air TV ads and five direct mail pieces tarnishing Morganelli. Now candidate Greg Edwards is getting smacked around, too. Lehigh Valley residents opened their mailboxes this weekend to see a glossy flyer from United Together, attacking Edwards because his wife and children have jobs at his church. And Wild, who started this, is getting her comeuppance on Facebook. 

Silly season is officially here.

Who is behind these attacks? Someone has already blamed Morganelli, of course. "Together United Inc is a Right wing Front group that put itself forward as a charity. It has direct ties to Tom Severson. In 2016 Severson used them to attack Phil Armstrong other opposition candidates."

This is utter nonsense.

First, neither Morganelli nor anyone associated with his campaign attacked Greg Edwards, whom John respects.  If John responds to Wild's rants, he'll take responsibility.

Second, Together United really is a legitimate charity, and has no involvement in politics. This mailer comes from United Together, which did not even exist until late 2017.

United Together is a Super PAC tied to a bi-partisan group called No Labels. It describes itself as "a movement for the tens of millions who are fed up with the dysfunction and will no longer put up with a government that does not represent the interests of most Americans." It calls for "a new politics of goals-focused problem solving to our government. … No Labels has never called for people to entirely shed their party affiliations. … As long as they are intellectually honest, we respect conservatives, liberals, and anyone in between who has a sincere desire to address the nation’s problems.”  The honorary No Labels Co-Chairs are Senators Susan Collins (R-Me) and Joe Manchin (D-WV). No Labels credits itself with the House Problem Solver Caucus, a bipartisan group of Congressmen.

The Chicago Sun Times has linked No Labels with United Together and other Super PACs through interviews with donors as well as review of finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. They show that No Labels financiers have helped start these PACs.

No Labels has its own PAC, and had $331,000 to spend on April 1. It raised no money locally, but did contribute $10,200 to Charlie Dent in 2017.

According to The Chicago Sun Times, No Labels uses United Together and United for Progress to contribute to Democrats. Contributions to Republicans are funneled through Citizens for a Strong America.

This image is on the facebook page. 

United Together was registered with the Federal Elections Commission last year. Its treasurer is Bruce Goren. He is also the treasurer of United for Progress.

According to FEC records, United Together had $826,000 to spend on April 1. Most of this money comes from three sources: Chicago Bulls and White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf ($300,000); John Arnold, the King of Natural Gas, and his wife Laura ($400,000); and former Commissioner of Baseball Alan H Selig, known to most of us as Bud Selig ($125,000). 

Though Reinsdorf has contributed to numerous Republicans in Illinois, he also gave $50k to Rahm Emmanuel.

Prior to April 1, United Together spent about $20,000. Much of that went to campaign consulting firm SCR Strategies, based in Charlotte.

According to No Labels, "Our ranks include liberals, conservatives and everyone in between. But we believe true leaders must be willing to come to the center when that’s what it takes to push back on the extremes and push forward ideas that make the American people’s lives better."

So No Labels, through SuperPACs and regular PACs, is behind these attacks. John Morganelli told me he hates this kind of campaigning and would like to see changes in the Citizens United ruling.

Greg Edwards Feels the Bern

The Morning Call reports that LV Congressional candidate Greg Edwards has received Bernie Sanders' endorsement. Congrats to Rev. Edwards, who really does represent the liberal wing of the Democratic party.

Allentown Pastor Seeks Dem Nomination in 15th

On Thursday night, US Congressman Charlie Dent (PA-15) stunned the local district by announcing his decision against seeking re-election next year. "[W]e need to give a stronger voice to the center at the moment," he said. "The sensible center is being left behind in too many cases." Two Lehigh Valley Republicans - Justin Simmons and Ryan MacKenzie - have already announced their intention to seek the GOP nomination. Bill Leiner announced as a Democrat so long ago that everyone has forgotten about him. Now you can add another Democrat to the mix in what is promising to be a hotly disputed race.

He's Greg Edwards, a colorful and sometimes controversial preacher at Allentown's Resurrected Life Church. Edwards claimed to respect Dent's statesmanship "in a time when civility in Washington has become increasingly rare.” But his candidacy is bound to take people out of their comfort zone.

According to his campaign announcement, "This moment does not call for moderation or incrementalism, but for revolutionary ideals rooted in true progress: single-payer health care, livable wages, strong public education, affordable college, good jobs, and a commitment to rebuilding the American dream."

He also jabs at Authoritarian Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans over Obamacare. “Since January 20, the drama of the politics of division and unchecked power run amok, has played out daily on our TV screens. This President and the Republicans in Congress are more interested in: taking healthcare away from millions of Americans to give unnecessary tax breaks to the 1% at the expense of our hardworking middle class; giving more to those who have sent our jobs overseas than in saving good jobs here; rewarding those who have so much while hurting families working hard just to get by.”

I first became acquainted with Edwards in 2014, when he was part of a federally funded task force concluding that the cause of wealth disparity is racism. "In fact, denying that racism exists is the new racism," charged the task force report.

Dent was the token centrist participating in that otherwise one-sided forum. He gently reminded that audience that wealth disparity is the necessary result of a free market economy. "We've always had it," he noted. He also cautioned against changing that approach to one in which power is concentrated. Under other systems, "You will see less prosperity and a heckuva' lot more cronyism," he warned, in an obvious reference to totalitarian regimes.

I also heard Edwards deliver the keynote speech at a Bethlehem Elks luncheon in 2016.

"We've got 18,000 children, a graduation rate of about 60%, and only 19% of that 60% go on to college. Almost 90% of our children qualify for free or reduced lunch. Eighty or 90% of our children are determined to be "at risk" in terms of poverty. Ninety per cent of the children are children of color and really, if I wasn't a preacher I'd cuss right here, but really, nobody cares.

"There seems to be a lack of outrage. We have churches everywhere. We have nonprofits everywhere. But there really seems to be a lack of consciousness on how important and how valuable our children's futures are when it comes to education.

"I firmly believe that one of our greatest civil liberties is public education."

But he claimed that we suffer from what he calls "educational apartheid."

"If our children cannot read by third grade, you know what happens academically. From Kindergarten to third grade, children are learning to read. After third grade, they are reading to learn. California already begins to forecast how many prisons they build by the reading scores of third graders.

"In my social context, in Allentown, nearly 70% of our third graders are not at third grade reading levels. So now, Ray Ray and Pookie can't read. Then what happens is our children go into middle school. What happens in middle school, those transition years? They go through puberty. Some of y'all remember that, right? You survived it, they'll survive it, too. But their bodies begin to change. Their voices begin to deepen. But at the end of the day, they're our babies, our children. But they are placed in the hands of people who have some level of cultural dissonance and don't understand that just because a child is different doesn't mean he's deficient.

"Now because our children have struggled - can't read - they begin to see some behavioral issues. They no longer become cute. Now they're in crisis and they begin to be labeled. But the state gives every school district extra funding for special education, which is therefore why our children end up in special education.

"We are funding what I call educational apartheid in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

"It is not required for a child to go to kindergarten. So you can have a 7 year old show up for school, never having been around children his or her age which means they have not been socialized to the learning environment. If we cannot socialize to the learning environment, your behavior begins to be different. But because our teachers in large part don't look like our students, there is empirical categorizing and there is the evolution of a slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow change."

"Our children think they are dumb. I have never encountered a child who can not learn. I've encountered a whole lot of folk who can't teach, but I have never encountered a young person who is not creative, who does not have some level of artistry residing in him, who does not want to be listened to or heard. But I have run into some incompetent people who call themselves teachers."

Edwards is a great and inspiring speaker, and precisely the wrong kind of person to represent Pennsylvania's moderate 15th Congressional District. The Democrat who wins this race will be a person who speaks Charlie Dent's language and who appeals to the "sensible center."

That person is John Morganelli. In January, long before Charlie Dent's "sensible center" remarks, Morganelli penned an op-ed that asked, "Where has the sensible middle gone?

"There was a time in American politics when those who were able to straddle the "moderate middle ground" were the most successful. Today just the opposite is true. The most successful are those who, in their respective parties, adhere rigidly and strictly to the party ideology. Until that changes, it will be difficult to govern with any type of consensus and America will be evenly divided as we have seen in recent elections."

Someone like Morganelli can pick up where Charlie left off.