"I've been tossed out of better places than that," quipped
Allentown Mayoral candidate Dick Nepon. Yesterday afternoon, he was ignominiously ejected from Muhlenberg College's campus. He had been standing outside the Student Union building, collecting signatures for his nomination petition, along with the phone numbers and email addresses of several students who agreed to be part of his grass roots effort.
He was wearing no raincoat. But someone horrified by the notion of political activity at a college campus complained. We'll have no free speech here! An embarrassed security officer came by to ask Nepon to leave.
"If it were up to me, I'd let you alone," said the lawman.
Last night,
Nepon told his Facebook Group "You would think that Muhlenberg would support civic involvement, instead of shooing me off-campus." He was able to pick up about sixty extra signatures before being tossed.
Interestingly, as Nepon was being confronted by security, the very next person to walk out of the Student Union building just happened to be Adrian Shanker. Until last night, he was copresident of
Muhlenberg College Democrats. Adrian denies anything to do with Nepon's ouster, but defended it. After all, Muhlenberg is private property.
So much for political speech on a college campus, where freedom of expression should be cultivated.
This ouster, incidentally, is illegal. In 1981, Pennsylvania's Supreme Court reversed trespassing convictions against an antiwar group distributing fliers at a private college. The Court reasoned that the college had made itself a public forum by permitting the public to
"walk its campus freely and use many of its facilities" and by
"encouraging the public to attend the symposium."After defending this suppression of free speech, Shanker acknowledged his group does plan to make an endorsement in Allentown's mayoral race and will select someone who "best represents the voice of young voters." I asked whether he had offered Nepon an opportunity to present his views, and the Shankman conceded there had been no contact.
"You're going to endorse Pawlowski," I concluded. Shanker denied that, but his group has made no effort to contact the only other Democrat running for mayor. Seriously, who do you think they are going to endorse - Tinkerbell?
To cinch things, Shanker also acknowledged he's got a brand new job - field director for Ed Pawlowski. Sound impressive, doesn't it? He's resigning as co-president or whatever he is and someone else will take over. I'm sure his group will still give Nepon a fair shake. Muhlenberg was so fair in 2005 it excluded then mayoral candidate Michael Molovinsky from participating in a debate with the major party candidates.
While Muhlenberg tossed Nepon, city officials are expected to try to use their "ethics commission" to
force him to choose between his candidacy and city job. But apparently, since everyone in Allentown government is so ethical, the terms of most commissioners have expired.
Oopsie!
After making sure that Dick Nepon was safely ejected from Muhlenberg's campus, nonresident bluebloods who call themselves Democrats endorsed former Chicago resident Edwin Pawlowski for Allentown mayor. Shanker stepped down as president and walked right into the Pawlowski campaign as field director. Looks like this outfit is learning machine politics, pay to play and how to stomp all over the First Amendment.
While a bunch of political wannabes scurry around Muhlenberg College, very impressed with themselves and lauding a decision to toss a political foe off campus, I am reminded of a different time when young people realized that free speech is a little more important than some goofy primary endorsement. Rather than acting as field directors for some Chicago pol, this group aimed a little higher.
