Rob Hopkins Undefeated in Nomination Challenges

He has no money to hire PIs to follow people. He even lacks the funds to hire a lawyer. But so far, Rob Hopkins is undefeated in his fight against defective nomination petitions in the Democratic state committee race.

Lehigh County contributes seven seats to the Democratic state committee. This year, seventeen candidates filed nomination petitions. Nine were full of glaring deficiencies, like Republican signatures or the same person signing every name.
Hopkins would probably agree that a close case should be resolved in favor of keeping someone on the ballot, allowing the voters to decide. But should an unregistered voter or a Republican have a say in a Democratic state committee person?

Hopkins, himself a member of the state committee, is stepping down at the end of this year. He needs a break from politics, but still dug into his own pocket to challenge the nine petitions. Three of these candidates - Joseph E. McAndrew, Carlos Salas and Nancy I. Rodriguez - have voluntarily withdrawn. Another two hopefuls - Shelly Lee and Mariah Simpson - were ordered removed from the ballot yesterday.

That's five down, with four to go, starting tomorrow.

Rob Hopkins Challenges 9 LC State Dem Committee Hopefuls

Pennylvania' Democratic State Committee includes seven seats from Lehigh County. This year, there are an unusually large number of candidates. Seventeen people have filed nomination petitions, including Allentown Mayor Edwin Pawlowski.

Some people believe Pawlowski is already too powerful and partisan. I've previously questioned whether his election would violate Allentown's Home Rule Charter.

Interestingly, many of those running have been encouraged to do so by Walter Felton. Remember him? He just lost a close race for District Judge in Allentown, and is himself a candidate. Is Walter trying to become a state-wide political force?

But there's a problem. A lot of these nomination petitions have glaring problems, like Republican signatures or the same person signing every name. They've bothered Rob Hopkins enough to challenge nine of these petitions on his own.

Is Rob doing Pawlowski's bidding? Since he managed Hizzoner's campaign four years ago, that would be my first guess. But Rob would like to get out of politics for awhile. A member of the state committee himself, he's stepping down, and had no involvement in Pawlowski's most recent race. In a conversation with me a few months ago, he told me he'd like to be another Steve Shaack, an erstwhile political consultant who gave it all up for the glamorous world of ... abstracting titles.

So why'd he do it? Maybe because the petitions are just that bad. He was bothered enough to dig into his own pocket to pay the necessary challenge fees. Nobody funded him. He'll have to pay to have these served, too. These bills alone will cost him over $1,000.

Acting pro se, he'll be spending a lot of time in court the next few days. The petitions he has challenged are those filed by Shelly Lee, Mariah Simpson, Joseph E. McAndrew, Fulton T. Thornton, Veronica Clemons, Carlos Salas, Cecilia Gerlach, Nancy I. Rodriguez, and Barbara L. Redmond.

Some of these challenged candidates have already played the race card. But Hopkins is an active part of the Pa. Diversity Network.

Maybe he's just a guy who likes to see things done the right way.

Update: LVPoliblog has an interesting post about Lehigh County Dems. It's a blue county, but they continue to get clobbered in the 'burbs.

Hershman Demands Debate With Hopkins & Pawlowski

Yesterday, I gave you three explanations about who was really behind the anonymous, last-minute smear campaign against Allentown City Council candidate Lou Hershman.

In their "official" explanation, contenders Mike D'Amore, Mike Schlossberg and Ray O'Connell admit funding these unidentified anti-Hershman robo-calls. But they had no idea former Pawlowski campaign manager Rob Hopkins would be so sneaky. Privately, the whole fiasco is blamed on Pawlowski, who may have even picked up the checks for Hopkins. Pawlowski was supposed to help fund the robo-calls, too, but backed out at the last minute so he could deny everything. In his story, Rob Hopkins falls on the sword. In a lengthy statement, he claims no one knew his specific intentions.

Hershman has his own impassioned statement, which appears in Jarrett Renshaw's Queen City Daily. "I have to ask these gentlemen, what are you afraid of? Why does a 73-year old senior citizen named Lou Hershman scare you?"

Ray O'Connell, to his credit, feels pretty bad about the whole thing. He told me, "If I could see Lou in public, I would reach my hand out and say, 'Lou, I'm sorry about what I did and it will never happen again." That was a noble gesture from O'Connell, and Hershman just as quickly accepted the apology. "I know Ray and when I read his name, I couldn't believe it. He's not like that at all. I accept his apology."

One person who has offered no apology is Rob Hopkins, the Pawlowski sycophant who actually prepared the anonymous attack. He piously claims no one has dared disagree with his assertion that Hershman allowed young police officers to retire early, costing the city a gazillion dollars.

Well, I disagree. Of all people, Hopkins should know the truth. Hershman had actually sued to stop these police pensions. But in 2005, a desperate Pawlowski begged Hershman to drop it. At the time, Hopkins was Pawlowski's campaign manager, and they were trying to wrangle an FOP endorsement. In a meeting arranged by Julio Guridy, Pawlowski promised Hershman that only between 9 and 12 officers would retire, and this would actually save Peanutville $240 thousand. Hershman took Pawlowski at his word, only to learn later that he had been misled. Fifty-three cops would retire.

Quelle surprise.

As you all know, even the filthiest criminal is entitled to face his accusers. But not Lou Hershman. Hopkins and Pawlowski made sure of that. That's pretty amazing from someone who relies on the Constitution to justify anonymous sleaze.

Yesterday afternoon, Hershman exercised some constitutional rights of his own. He is demanding an opportunity to face his accusers. "I want to debate Hopkins and Pawlowski to refresh their memories."

When I reached Hopkins yesterday, he seemed stunned. "Well, I'll have to ... I'll have to ... um ... think about it." He said he'd be happy to meet Hershman face to face, but I told him public accusations warrant a public setting for response. Hopkins is very quick to make anonymous accusations, but seems much slower in defending them.

I'll be happy to arrange a venue.