…you took the time to prepare and did some research. If you feel confident your making a decision based on the individual merits of candidates. Then by all means please vote.
If you are planning on walking into a booth tomorrow and voting straight ticket (either direction) without having done the homework please don’t bother. Partisanship means very little in local elections up to and including the County. It shouldn’t be a team game.
If you are voting because of signs, because of a palm card you got in the mail or a robocall you rec’d I ask you to please take a little bit of time tonight or tomorrow morning and fact check what you read, saw or heard. Information is not always genuine. Both “teams” are guilty. Spin machines are in overdrive right now. Especially in Lehigh County. Good information is hard to come by.
To that end – I’ve tried to make an effort to try to write more about the County over the last year. I hope it’s been helpful to people. In Pennsylvania counties are truly the forgotten level of government. In local elections – Vote for people not parties.
Here are some thoughts:
Lehigh County: Of all the local races tomorrow the one person I consider essentially important to be re-elected is Brad Osborne. In addition Amanda Holt has proven to be an extremely hard worker.
Controller: I’ve gotten to know Glenn Eckart over the last 2 years. He is a friend and I think he does a fine job in a row officer position that really should be a non-partisan watchdog. Now, Glenn is a party guy Republican. An old YR alumni. But he doesn’t bring partisanship into the Controllers office. He does a very good job.
East Penn School District: Number of good candidates. School district politics in East Penn as always is highly charged this year. . . For the most part I’ve learned not to touch it with a 10 foot pole.
All I’ll say about the race is I will NOT be voting for Charles Ballard. He’s been on the board a very long time. He supported the TIF with justification I didn’t agree with. He was also on the board when the deal was negotiated resulting in school district taxpayers paying the bill for a new road in Lower Macungie. It was and remains a terrible deal. School district money should not go to road construction. Time to give Mr. Ballard a voter term limit. He’s served a very long time. Time for someone else.
Allentown: As most did this year I followed Allentown relatively closely. Real shame what went down with the Mayor. It’s a dark cloud for certain. For the good of the city it’s time for mostly fresh faces. Suburban residents should care about Allentown. Healthy city cores are important for the entire Lehigh Valley.
City Council: Lou Hershman & consider writing in Rich Fegely.
Controller: Steven Ramos
ASD: Consider CeCe Gerlach. She’s young, a very hard worker and always impresses. Don’t know her personally but she seems pretty independent minded. Had opportunity to hear her speak on a couple of occasions and was impressed. Also consider Scott Armstrong. Scott gets painted with a lot of labels. Most I don’t think he necessarily deserves.
Northampton County Council: Attended the Norco debate at Gracedale this year. And followed closely enough to think I have a relatively informed opinion. But caveat I don’t follow Northampton nearly as closely as Lehigh County.
District 3: John Cusick – Wonky. Smart. Sensible. My kind of candidate.
District 4: Scott Parsons – Workhorse. Sincere.
Other: Over in Lower Saucon an insane amount of outsider special interest money has been poured into a local race. It makes the outside money dumped into the 2013 Lower Mac race look like peanuts. Disappointing. I don’t know enough about this race and the issues surrounding it to comment. I just hate seeing outside interests trying to influence a local race.