City Hall As Campaign Machine

Although incumbents always have the advantage, Pawlowski is exploiting the taxpayers in an unprecedented fashion. While City Council reacted to a town hall mailing,  it pales in expense to his other exploits.  The street department has been concentrating in the deep West End,  where Pawlowski hopes to wedge away a few votes from Hyman and O'Connell.  However, unlike with the minority demographic downtown,  I doubt that this ploy will yield many votes.  The Cedar Beach Pool stunt cost the city millions of gallons of water and overtime for dozens of employees.  That dog and pony show also involved the sodding of the grass and other items not in the original pool budget.  The Park Director has been acting as no less than a hand maiden for the Mayor's campaign.

We must understand that ethics are no longer a factor to Pawlowski.  He faces 54 criminal counts,  and at this point he could care less about any perception of misusing city hall.

Political Strategy and Blood

A few weeks ago when I reported that the new Cedar Beach Pool was leaking, a media production guy who has done work for Pawlowski criticized me for negative speculation.  When Allentown Public Works confirmed the leak five days later, needless to say the filmmaker had nothing to say.  A public relations guy from NYC is now saying that Pawlowski is innocent.  Pawlowski's lawyer has asked that the indictment be dismissed.  Both these news releases are just last minute attempts to deflect from the gravity of the charges against him before voters go the polls.  The Morning Call took the bait and put an alert breaking news banner in red across the top of their website. They used an out of context distortion as a sub headline.  WFMZ also treated the political ploy as a legitimate news story, and even went farther.  They taped Pawlowski's attorney making his case that Pawlowski is the victim of an over zealous prosecution. His attorney could well have a second career as a political strategist.

Meanwhile, back in Dodge City, aka Allentown, the bullets and knives have been flying.  Pawlowski's paid mouth pieces can deny the criminal charges against him, but the blood and bodies speak for themselves.

Besides The Mayor's Race

While this blog and been focusing on Allentown's mayoral race,  lets examine some other contests.  Although there is no contention for the 4 year seats on Allentown City Council,  one of the four candidates will be a new voice on council.  Ed Zucal is a former police officer and has been waiting for the opportunity to serve again.  The only contested race is for the 2 year seat, and here the voters have a unique opportunity.  Lou Hershman is once again willing to serve Allentown with his deep institutional memory and no nonsense approach.  Lou is both a former councilman and controller. The voters are fortunate that he is on the ballot.

The Allentown School Board has five people seeking four seats.  I'm hoping that Robert Walker(R) prevails on Tuesday evening.  Walker is a life long Allentonian, and devoted to helping the district progress.

South Whitehall has the first contested race for commissioner in several election cycles.  Mark Pinsley(D) would add some new blood on that entrenched board, and they certainly need it. I would encourage the voters to cast only one vote in the both the Allentown School Board and South Whitehall Commissioner races.  This under-voting technique amplifies your vote, and their probability of winning.

A New Mayor For Allentown

One week from today Allentown elects a new mayor, hopefully.   I believe next Tuesday will be a long night for the top three contenders.  On Facebook this morning I saw a Hispanic congregation rooting and praying for Ed Pawlowski.  He spoke there on Sunday,  and apparently they believe in him more than the FBI, which has 54 counts of pay to play against him.

It still appears to me that The Morning Call is doing all they can for Ray O'Connell. They position his ad at the top of their webpage, and feature one letter of praise after another for him.  I remember in 05  when they buried my ad on the inside bottom of a middle page.

Nat Hyman has been endorsed by Charlie Dent.  Dent is popular across party lines, and hopefully his endorsement will be sufficiently conveyed to the voters.

While a Pawlowski win might still give O'Connell a delayed victory in 2018,  after Pawlowski is found guilty, the city would remain in paralysis for another 6 months.  It would be much better for  Allentown to awaken from its coma next week, and elect Nat Hyman.

Influence and Politics In Allentown

I found the Pawlowski campaign financial report very discerning.  Although he faces 54 counts of pay to play,  he led the pack in campaign contributions.  It demonstrates how much self-interest drives so many people, and how little integrity plays into their thinking.  Leading the pack for Pawlowski were the labor unions.  Although the Hispanic Community are Pawlowski's biggest fans,  their shallow pockets couldn't pony up much money.  However,  the Syrians filled that void.  Like the labor unions, the Syrians vote and contribute as a block, betting on keeping their influence.

It's informative to understand the bet on Pawlowski.  Although he might win in November, his time in City Hall is limited. At some point the trial will end,  and he will be packing his bags for prison.  Apparently, those who contribute to him are counting on his appointed replacement to honor historical backroom understandings.  It is for that reason that I support Nat Hyman.  Allentown really needs a fresh start. 

Excuse Me

Yesterday was a sad day in the local political peanut gallery.  A political strategist for an independent mayoral candidate released links pertaining to two old court cases involving Nat Hyman.  What drives candidates and their surrogates to such desperation? As Douglas Slifkin noted on Facebook, the night after the election the independent candidate will be home watching reruns of Everybody Loves Raymond.  Most of us are way too small in business to be involved in any litigation with international corporations.   I made the mistake of referring to this strategist as a campaign manager,  and he adamantly corrected me.  All I can say is  EXCUSE ME.

According to the FBI,  Allentown City Hall has been for sale for years. Of the three top candidates,  only Hyman can come in with a clean broom.  Pawlowski, win or lose,  will be spending January and February across the street on trial in federal court.  As a council member, the write-in candidate voted yes for Pawlowski's schemes dozens of times.  I'm concerned about Allentown's future, not some old dug up court case.  If Allentonians wants the sun to shine on a better city, they best work to get Hyman elected.

Allentown's Mayoral Debate

As it turns out, Tuesday's mayoral debate organized by Robert Trotner was the only one which will occur this election cycle. Trotner's square off only attracted the two independent candidates,  John Ingram and Solomon Tembo.  The Morning Call reported that Tony Iannelli  announced that the debate between Pawlowski and Hyman scheduled for Business Matters has been cancelled.  Although,  the article contains an old comment from this past summer by Hyman stating who he would agree to debate, he had no part in yesterday's cancellation.

Both Schlossberg and Schweyer have endorsed Ray O'Connell.  While I understand their desire to disassociate with Pawlowski,  for party politicians to endorse a write-in is unconventional.   Is it that they think that O'Connell is such an opportunity for Allentown, or is it their partisanship?  Perhaps sans the partisanship,  they would have endorsed Hyman.

ADDENDUM:  I have a hunch that Iannelli cancelled the debate because he couldn't justify wedging O'Connell onto the podium, and that The Morning Call didn't want the optic of only Pawlowski and Hyman without O'Connell.  Anybody who doubts the channel between Iannelli and The Morning Call hasn't seen the full page ads of him praising the paper as his source for local news.


UPDATE; While Ray O'Connell's ad dominates the top lead space on the paper's website, not one more word has appeared either on The Morning Call or WFMZ about the cancelled debate.  Only the local politicos ponder that here and on Facebook.

photo by Ed White

Gays For Pawlowski

Ed Pawlowski wants the voters to continue the success under his leadership,  to finish what they have started together.  This message has resonated well with the minority communities.  In these last weeks before the election, Ed is throwing everything against the wall that he can find.  He has announced body cameras for the police department.  With the exception of a former police chief's son,  there haven't been allegations of discrimination against local police departments.  The body cameras won't help with Allentown's biggest crime problem,  thugs shooting thugs.

Ed and the gay community have always gotten along well.  Allentown's gay activists have come to maturity during Pawlowski's endless terms.  We now have an LGBT community center behind Hamilton Street.  Yesterday Ed announced on Facebook that Allentown received some designation as gay friendly.  We all know that there is no shortage of organizations which award endless commendations for endless reasons.   While Ed's posting of this designation was clearly placed to attract the gay votes,  I'm wondering how many he will actually receive.  The gay community is highly informed.  I don't know if they're inclined to vote for a soon to be convicted felon.  However, for the most part they are Yellow-Dog Democrats,  and may well figure that when Pawlowski reports to prison,  fellow Democrat Ray O'Connell will take over.  I'm hoping that they will decide to make their vote more meaningful for Allentown, and vote for Hyman.