Bringing in the Bacon For ArtsQuest

Bacontopia at Musikfest Cafe to support the arts

That was the idea behind Bacontopia, a celebration of bacon at Musikfest Café. Tony and Kristina Page, proprietors of Rooster St Provisions, served up a variety of bacon dishes, from Sweet and Spicy Roasted Bacon to Bacon Lollipops. Before going into the bacon biz, Tony was Executive Chef at Emeril's.

The idea was to bring in the bacon to help support hundreds of free programs offered to at-risk children by ArtsQuest, including P's and Q's every Saturday morning and free Summer family movies at the Levitt lawn.

Tony and Kristina Page are proprietors of Rooster St Provisions

Geeting Picks Bethlehem Resident as Easton's Next Mayor

Fast on the heels of claiming that "John Callahan’s County Executive Loss is All Eric Nagy’s Fault," self-appointed political expert Jonathan Geeting has announced the Lehigh Valley's newest Democratic leaders. He picks Gretchen Longenbach as Easton's future Mayor, apparently ignorant that she actually lives in Bethlehem. ... And just might be a Republican.

Geeting identifies himself as a "public policy expert."

He sure is no expert on facts.

One Last Callahan Post-Mortem

Since Tuesday's upset victory by Bangor Mayor John Brown in the Northampton County Executive race against favorite John Callahan, I've noted several factors that might have added up to a loss. A poor Democratic turnout; the lack of any real difference between the two candidates on the issues; the contrasting personalities; the possible involvement of Charlie Dent; the damage done to Democrats by Obamacare; the failure of the County party; Callahan's endorsement of J. Willie Reynolds over Bob Donchez in a hot Bethlehem Mayoral race; and finally, a lousy ground game. Today, I want to focus on Callahan's campaign team in my final autopsy.

Blogger Jonathan Geeting, in one of his typically uninformed and mean-spirited essays, blames everything on Callahan's campaign manager, Eric Nagy. That's nonsense. If you want to lay the blame at any one person's doorstep, that person would be John Callahan. He was the candidate, not Eric Nagy. Callahan would blame himself, I am sure. Besides, how can a person who ran such a brilliant primary campaign, in which Callahan got a majority in a three-way race, suddenly be so terrible? That makes no sense to me.

If there is any one person who is free of blame, it is Nagy. He never lost that sense of urgency in this race and was working 24/7, even over the Summer months. But others did.

Congressman Charlie Dent, who to my knowledge has never lost an election, has often said, "There's only two ways to run - hard or unopposed." John Callahan ran hard in the primary. He was in every municipality in the County and had numerous public events that created an air of inevitability about his race. But after the primary was over, Callahan stopped running hard. He ran as though he were unopposed. And lost.

Callahan has an inner core of advisers who met with him every Monday during the primary race. They left nothing to chance. Every proposal made by Nagy was reviewed and, sometimes, overruled. But those weekly meetings topped after the primary was over. There no longer was a sense of urgency. The race was in the bag, so there was no reason to run hard. No news conferences about County issues.

Nobody told Callahan's opponent, John Brown. He thought he was in a race.

Callahan's field director, the general of his ground game, was let go after the primary and never replaced. So when Callahan decided to go to Israel for a month week or more at Israel's expense, there was no one hounding him about the need to knock on doors in Chapman.

Some of Callahan's advisers wanted a mail drop that included pictures of Callahan with his primary opponents, Glenn Reibman and asbestos lawyer Lamont McClure. They wanted a drop directed to Bethlehem residents, showing Callahan with Bethlehem Mayor-elect Bob Donchez. But that never happened. Because there were no weekly meetings, there was no one to question this failure. There was also no one to question why mailers skipped people under 40, or why there was no mail addressed to Republicans.

Callahan's message also changed. In the primary, Callahan made a point of telling voters that he would be Executive of the entire county, not just Bethlehem, and would be interested in what they wanted. He proved it with public appearances in Easton, Nazareth and the Slate Belt. But in the general election, Callahan's focus was a long goodbye to Bethlehem. He would wistfully tell voters how great things are in the Christmas City, even in his literature.

That's nice, but the people in Stockertown don't want to be Bethlehem. They are proud of their own community. Callahan's message was off. But his advisers, most of whom work for or live in Bethlehem, never noticed. With no weekly meeting, nobody was there to remind him he was running to represent the entire community.

Nobody insisted on a return to the ground game that was so effective in the primary. Sure, there were 30,000 robo-calls made in the last two days, but that just pisses people off. When Brown was trudging in the July heat, up and down the streets of North Bethlehem, Callahan was getting no votes in Israel.

Had someone been invested in the field, Callahan would have learned he had a problem in Easton. Since Obama's election in 2008, Easton Democrats have been a force. But that fell apart this Summer. On election day, just one person was calling voters.

Nagy has been taken to task for going into the final days of the campaign with $118,000 in the bank. It's a good thing he had that money. Brown had been sand-bagging Callahan, luring him into complacency, and then suddenly had $40,000 in last-minute contributions for TV ads and mailers. Because Nagy held on to that money, he was able to counter these TV ads with ads of his own, along with mailers.

The fault lies not with Eric Nagy, though I am sure he is beating himself up and makes a convenient scapegoat. The fault lies with Callahan for not taking the race seriously. I didn't take it seriously, either.

Charlie Dent is right. There are only two ways to run - hard or unopposed.

Don't Tell Scott Ott About Home Heating Help

Shhh! Don't tell Scott Ott, but the feds plan to help one out of every ten Pa. homeowners with their heat bills this Winter. Though Ott claims Lehigh County Commissioners are the "last line of defense" for the poor taxpayer, those Commie bastards in D.C. snuck this right by his nose.

"Have they no family? Have they no church connections, no neighbors that love them?" is what Ott asked about those sneaky 85 year old seniors getting fed at taxpayer expense. But that was just $30,000. This will be $375 per family, or $175 million statewide.

Maybe they could just burn Democrats for fuel, but I understand we smell bad.

Republicans Can Play a Ground Game, Too

Lehigh County Republicans and Northampton County Democrats had no ground game on Tuesday. Nobody expects much on election day from Republicans. They have never been known much for canvassing and driving people to the polls on election day, at least not around here. They'd rather point at Democrats and accuse them of "knock and drag," or try to pretend that calling someone a "thug" and "corrupt" is part of a positive campaign. But Northampton County Republicans were different this year.

The local party is a mess, with all kinds of in-fighting. But outside the party structure, Republican John Brown pieced together an excellent ground game in Bethlehem. It even included the use of Spanish-speaking poll workers in South Bethlehem. The sole Hispanic person on the ballot in Northampton County was a Republican.

Northampton County Republicans reached out in the Bethlehem. Lehigh County Republicans wrote Allentown off.

You saw the results.

Benol, Geissinger Display Some Class

Aside from Peg Ferraro, the two most qualified people running for NorCo Council were Jerry Seyfried and Ron Heckman. Given the years they've invested into the County and their love for it, I was truly sorry to see them lose. But in a very gracious and classy move, Mat Benol and Glenn Geissinger have reached out to them both with, of all things, a thank you.

Benol, speaking for himself and Glenn Geissinger, said this: "Both gentlemen showed class and character. They also freely shared their ideas for making the County better, something you would not expect from ‘opponents’, especially from a different political party. It would have been a pleasure to serve on Council with them. I am hopeful that Glenn and I will be able to call on them during the next four years for insight and help."

What Benol does not say, but what I think he means, is that the election is over and it's time to govern. He's hoping that he can call on Jerry and Ron, and I'm sure he can.

Muller's Margin

In the chart below, you can see the votes by municipality/township in the Lehigh county Exec race between Tom Muller and Scott Ott. Muller's margin of victory came from Allentown and Bethlehem, which gave him a very big cushion. Political consultant Michael Fleck concentrated resources on increasing turnout there. It does not sound complicated, but a failure to do that in Northampton County resulted in a Democratic loss.

Muller also did better than expected against Ott in the outlying areas. For example, he won South Whitehall and came within 133 votes in Lower Macungie.

Tom Muller Scott Ott Exec Race Numbers

In the meantime, Lehigh County party boss Wayne Woodman is blowin' oil. He refused to go on a taping of Business Matters about the local races unless host Tony Iannelli would agree in advance to play a tape of a Fleck phone call to him the weekend before the election. In it, Fleck had told Woodman he was looking forward to kicking his ass on election day.

Fleck's call was prompted by a radio show that Woodman had broadcast that weekend, in which the supposed positivve campaign of Scott Ott claimed that Fleck is a "thug" and that Muller is corrupt.

Iannelli refused to get into the tape game, and Woodman went on the air, but apparently insisted that Fleck could not participate.

Then, instead of talking about the local races, Woodman began talking about Virginia.

Dent: Let's Not Piss Off the Germans

Congressmen Charlie Dent (PA-15) and Tim Ryan (OH-13), as co-chairs of the Congressional Study Group on Germany, have sent a joint letter to President Obama about the interception of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cell phone calls.

According to a news release, these legislators told Obama that they viewed the alleged surveillance of the German leader’s phone conversation as a "serious error in judgment" – one which needs to be rectified.

Here's the way I would have put it:

"Seriously, what were you thinking? Are you out of your frickin' mind? You have a wife and two daughters and should know not to mess any woman's cell phone. But you decide to pick on the Chancellor of Germany, a country that decides to take on the world every forty years."

Dent and Ryan want President Obama to send an apology, telling her he thought she was Hillary. They also want him to give Merkel a brand new iPhone with hardly any spy gadgets at all. Last, they want him to offer Germany membership in the Five Eyes pact. That's a long-standing intelligence gathering and sharing arrangement convened between the United States Government and the governments of the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

So then I guess it would really be Six Eyes.

Corbett to Kick Off Re-Election Bid at B. Braun Today

Governor Tom Corbett will be at B. Braun today for his Lehigh Valley re-election kickoff in the Lehigh Valley. Doors will open at 2:00 PM, and the event will start "promptly" at 2:30 PM. It's the new B Braun address at 901 Macron Blvd
Allentown, PA 18109.

You can get tickets here.

Judge Giordano Wins Retention With 71%

Judge Giordano with his sister and brother. Thank God his sister looks nothing like him . (This caption was written by Ron Angle so he is the one you need to hold in contempt, Your Magnificence. )

Northampton County jurist Emil Giordano won retention with 71% of the vote. Superior Court Judge Jack Panella, who started out as a judge in Northampton, was at 69.56%. That's remarkable because, unlike politicians, judges invariably make people unhappy. No matter how they decide an issue, one side is going to walk away disappointed.

Supreme Court justices were far more unpopular. Max Baer won with 58%. Ronald Castille, the Chief Justice, got only 56% of the vote. I voted No to him. There is no doubt in my mind that he would have raised the retirement ages of judges by judicial decree, but for the fact that he was caught.

While discussing judges, let's look at the Superior Court race between Democrat Jack McVay and Republican Vic Stabile. In a democratic County, Republican Stabile defeated Democrat McVay, 16793 to 15308. That's a wider margin of victory than the Brown-Callahan race. It is additional proof that Republicans voted and Democrats did not.

Ott blames Loss on Himself

Failed Executive candidate Scott Ott has taken the blame for his loss. "[T]here is one person who I know is responsible for my loss in Tuesday's election. His name is Scott Ott." I agree completely.

Scott Ott, along with Wayne Woodman, cost his party and its supporters about $300,000 in his primary and general election contests. If his party had gone with Main Street Republican Dean Browning instead of a tea party nut, it would have prevailed in the general election.

Just as Callahan never really reached out to his primary foes, Ott never reached out to Browning and continued to treat him as the enemy. This continued even after Browning contributed to Ott's campaign and financially supported the man who beat him.

Willie Reynolds Endorsement Hurt Callahan

On Tuesday night, while Bethlehem Mayor-elect Bob Donchez was celebrating his victory at Hotel Bethlehem with supporters, Channel 69 announced that the Christmas City incumbent Mayor, John Callahan, had just conceded defeat in his bid to become next Northampton County Executive.

The room, which included about 200 Bethlehem Democrats who had voted, burst into applause.

That's the price John Callahan paid for endorsing Donchez's opponent, J. Willie Reynolds, during the May primary.

After the race was over, Callahan did patch things up during a lunch with Donchez, who understands how politics works. But he never after that asked Donchez to appear with him at any event, leaving Donchez supporters free to believe what they wanted.

The same is true of Glenn Reibman, who had a strong core of supporters.

During the primary, Callahan made a point of reaching out to local officials. That stopped after he became the nominee.

Callahan's endorsement of Willie was honest and showed leadership. But it did hurt him politically.

Bethlehem Township Resists Atiyeh Takeover

Paul Weiss

Last election cycle, controversial developer Abe Atiyeh fielded a trio of candidates to take over in Bethlehem Township. The best of them was his wife Nimita, a very smart and well-informed businessperson in her own right. She was easily defeated by long-time Commissioner Tom Nolan, largely because she has the wrong last name. But two other candidates backed by Abe - Phil Barnard and Marty Zawarski, were elected.

Phil Barnard, despite a relationship to Atiyeh that extends back to their school days, is his own man. But Zawarski, a realtor, is a bit scary. He has accepted real estate contracts from Atiyeh even though Atiyeh is suing the Township. This is a conflict of interest.

Though Atiyeh denies he has any desire to take over the Township, he fielded three candidates this election cycle, with mixed results.

One candidate was his own COO, Mickey Thompson, whose late report revealed that he was fully funded by Abe. Thompson was defeated by incumbent Michael Hudak, 385-314.

The two candidates in another ward were Republican Pat Breslin and Democrat Ray Russin. Both were funded by Atiyeh. Russin, in fact, joined Atiyeh in one of his zoning challenges. These two managed to knock incumbent Paul Weiss off the ballot in the Spring primary. But Weiss fought back, waging a write-in campaign that finally told voters that Bethlehem Township is not for sale.

Things got testy at the polls yesterday, including a shouting match between Atiyeh and Weiss supporters.

Although Weiss won at the Farmersville School by 33 votes, he lost the Township building, and the race, by about 20 votes. The unofficial tally shows Breslin with Bresslin with 360 votes and 339 write-ins.

Capozzolo Up By One in Bangor

Joe Capozzolo was reported to be down one vote last night in his quest for another term as Bangor Mayor, an office in which he has served before. But according to the elections office unofficial results, he's now one vote ahead, leading Republican Robert Rhodes 216-215. There are also 151 write-in votes to be tabulated.

Lehigh County Voters Say No to Extremism

Tom Muller's wife, MJ, can finally sleep. 

Though I was off the mark in Northampton County, I hit a bull's eye in Lehigh. That's good, not for me, not even for Executive-elect Tom Muller, but for the people of Lehigh County. Their vote was a vote against the extremism represented by Scott Ott and his so-called reform team. In fact, one of them, Mike Schware, went down in flames, too. How did this happen?

1) Turnout. - In contrast to Northampton County, Muller campaign manager Mike Fleck took no chances on turnout. He knew that he had to do what he could to drive out turnout in heavily Democrat West Bethlehem and Allentown, and concentrated resources on getting out the vote. It worked. It's too bad that effort was not made in the rest of Bethlehem. Ott's team made no effort to drive the turnout among tea party voters in Lowhill, Lynn and North Whitehall Townships.

2) Real Differences. - Scott Ott's divisive approach to governance includes spurning federal grants to benefit low-income communities. He actually argued against accepting a grant for Meals on Wheels. He promised voters he would cut spending, then increased it. He claimed that a 16% tax hike two years ago was irresponsible, but slipped in a 3.4% tax hike in next year's budget. Some voters are angry at Ott over the reassessment. He refused to speak to the media. He alienated voters at a NAACP debate.  Muller, who has never run for office and was himself a Republican, was so appalled by Ott's brinksmanship that he switched parties and ran himself.

Though 100% of the votes are in, and Muller has a 1,500 vote lead, Ott  only conceded just a few minutes ago. This is the kind of pig-headedness that makes Ott look silly.

Kinda' like Scrappleface.

3) The Wes Barrett Factor. - Emmaus Council member Wes Barrett was so upset by proposed CDBG cuts that he decided to take on Mike Schware, an appointed Commissioner who never actually won an election. Barrett nearly defeated Schware in an area that should have gone to Ott.

4) County Party GOTV. - In addition to Mike Fleck managing Muller's campaign, he could also county on the partyto put on the best ground game they've ever had in a county race. That's thanks to people like Bar Johnston, who was everywhere on the southern end of the County. GOP party boss Wayne Woodman did a radio interview ... in Pittsburgh.

5) Republican Dissatisfaction with Ott.- In Lower Milford today, Republicans in line at the polls began arguing with each other. The tea party types may like Ott, but more mainstream Republicans are turned off by his approach. Their voices were finally heard.

Though Lehigh is much more conservative than Northampton County, they've elected a Democrat while Northampton picked a Republican.

Congrats to Tom Muller, who refers to me as the pseudo press. I'm not sure what Ott calls me, and don't really care.

What the Hell Happened in NorCo?

Well, I sure as hell didn't see this one coming. I knew the Lehigh County Executive race would be tight, but never for a moment expected Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan would lose a race against Bangor Mayor John Brown, a relative unknown. I also never expected to see Republicans sweep all five Council seats. How did this happen? Here's what I think.

1) Turnout. - You would not pick Bangor to beat Liberty, Easton or Freedom High School in a football game. But Bangor would win every time if Bethlehem and Easton players stayed home. And that's what happened in Northampton County. Only 5,000 people voted for Bob Donchez in an uncontested Mayoral race. In Easton, there was no Mayoral race at all. Callahan and Council Democrats needed those votes, but they never came.

2)  No Real Differences. - Both Callahan and Brown largely agreed on the issues, creating no controversy that would draw either party to the polls. With the exception of Hayden Phillips, an extremist, Republican Council candidates took that approach as well.

3) The Stoffa Touch. -  Though Callahan and Brown largely agree on the issues, they have widely different personalities. Callahan is extroverted and likes to joke around. But he sometimes passionately fights for losing issues like a single trash hauler. Brown, in contrast, is introverted, reflective and  appears to dislike confrontation. Kinda' like our current executive, John Stoffa. As much as some people like to beat up Stoffa anonymously on this blog, people like and respect him. Northampton County voters seem to like the laid back approach.

3) The Charlie Dent Curse. - Charles Dertinger, Sam Bennet, John Callahan and Rick Daugherty have all challenged Dent in Congressional races. Although Dent never seemed to take Daugherty seriously. But he took the other three very seriously and pretty much destroyed them at the ballot box. I thought Callahan might have shaken that curse when he prevailed in the Primary. But in the General election, Brown was still using the talking points that Dent had successfully used three years ago.

4) Obamacare - Callahan is aligned with the national Democratic party and may have suffered from the recent problems with Obamacare, which include a flawed web page and the realization that people may not be able to keep their own health plans, which is contrary to what Obama had repeatedly promised.

5) The County Party Failure. - Though the County Republicans have been engaged in very public infighting, it appears that the County Democratic party doesn't do much of anything at all. It is little more than a clique, ruled over by Walt Garvin. Its failure to make any noticeable effort to get out the vote should make this little sewing circle realize it is seriously flawed,and has been for years.

6) The O'Hare Kiss of Death. - Finally, there's me. I have a habit of picking losers in Northampton County. One elected official i know sent me this. "Bernie you are the kiss of death." When i tried to explain that the problem was turnout and not me, i got this. "Don't ever kiss me."

Congratulations to County Executive-elect John Brown and the five Republicans who prevailed against all odds. I think John Callahan should hold his head high, too. He ran a good race. Jerry Seyfried, Ron Heckman and Deb Hunter should have won, in my opinion.

But the people have spoken.

Fuck 'em.

Judge Smith Goes to Washington

Northampton County Judge Edward G. Smith, nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, will be in Washington today. He's scheduled to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee at 2:30 pm. You can see his appearance on C-SPAN.

On the bench since 2002, Judge Smith is also a Captain in the Navy who served in Iraq during the surge.

Though he's a brilliant judge, he thinks his most important job is being a father. He must be doing a good job at that because none of his three sons has any desire to be a lawyer.

Mezzacappa Loses in West Easton Again

For the fourth time, voters have said No to West Easton's Tricia Mezzacappa. According to unofficial results on WFMZ-TV69, Mezzacappa has failed in her bid for a seat on West Easton Borough Council finishing fifth of five candidates seeking four seats.

This Spring, Mezzacappa finished last of the Republican candidates seeking a nomination to one of five Northampton County Council seats. The year before, she lost in another battle for West Easton Borough Council. She also out for a seat at the Republican convention.

It appears voters don't like Mezzacappa.

Slight Increase in Allentown Voters

In order to have a shot at winning this race, Lehigh County Executive candidate Tom Muller needs to have more voters in Allentown than are typical in an off-year election. To that end, a small army of volunteers is at work. These include 210 canvassers, 70 people working the phones and 300 people at the polls. Is the strategy working? Preliminary indications are positive.

As of 10 AM, voting appears to be up slightly in Allentown, West Bethlehem and Whitehall. It is down slightly in North Whitehall, which was tea party central four years ago.

According to Muller campaign manager Mike Fleck, about 10-15% of the turnout should be in by this time of day.

UPDATED 3:30 PM:

1) Muller canvassers in South Allentown were able to rescue two people from a fire, after which they went back to work. I'm told Channel 69 has hopped onto that story. So those of you slamming these people, accusing them of "knock and drag," might want to rethink the hate.

2) Turnout in Lower Macungie is high. Ordinarily, this would be a good sign for the Republicans, but not this year. Residents are angry at Ott over his refusal to vote for a TIF that would bring a Costco to Hamilton Crossings. Rightly or wrongly, they think Ott might cost them a Costco.

3) Turnout in Lynn, Lowhill and North Whitehall is incredibly light. This is the tea party heart of Lehigh County that nearly ousted Democrat Don Cunningham four years ago.

4) Turnout in Allentown and Bethlehem is just slightly higher than it was two and four years ago.

5) There are 740 absentee ballots in Lehigh, with a higher percentage of Democrats than two and four years ago.

UPDATED 3:55 pm: Voter #409 just left in Upper Mac 4  Total registration is 4,508 so turnout there is less than 10%.

UPDATED 6:25 pm: The Morning Call is now reporting that turnout is slightly up in Lehuigh County. This is a positive sign for Muller.

UPDATED 6:30 pm: 880 in Lower Macungie 2, meaning it is headed to a 25% turnout. In the Primary, there were under 600 voters.

UPDATED 7:23 pm: 480 in South Whitehall 5 at 7:15 pm, which represents a 23.9% turnout.

UPDATED 8:31 PM:  In one Lower Macungie District, the tally is in! Muller - 341; Ott - 215.
Lower Mac 2: Muller - 458; Ott - 506 (unofficial).

My next post will be when results are more certain.

"Knock and Drag" Saves Two Lives

Early this morning, Allentown blogger Michael Molovinsky derided canvassers who scour Allentown neighborhoods in search of votes. His real objection to this practice, in which both parties participate, is that Democrats do it better in these parts. It's core political speech, fundamental in a system that elects its leaders. But Michael called it "knock and drag", implying that voters are being forced to the polls against their wishes.

Ironically, a Muller campaign worker did drag two people today. Milagros Cintron, a college student, managed to save a man and his wife from a fire in South Allentown while canvassing a neighborhood.

I don't think this couple minded being dragged. I think the college student forgot to knock.