When I was a new voter in my college years, the Lehigh County Republican Party had begun their Fall. Democrats took back the County Executive’s job in 2005, a job the GOP has not won since, across three different elected Executives. The Lehigh County GOP had just face planted in 2001 in Allentown after a couple of terms in charge, then they lost to Ed Pawlowski and never got that job back either, three elected Mayors later. Lehigh County only has a small piece of Bethlehem, but they lose a lot there too. They managed to hang on to some visible power for years with Pat Toomey, Charlie Dent, and Pat Browne, but all of them have been sent off to the GOP inquisition for excommunication at the altar of Trump. As all of this went on, the Lehigh County GOP managed to lose all four at-large seats in the 2019 and 2023 elections and be relegated into a deep minority status on the Commissioner board, regardless of who the Democrats run and who funds the race. In short, the Lehigh County Republican Party has a recent record of success that looks like the New York Jets.

It’s safe to say the Lehigh County GOP has no “Broadway Joe” walking in to save them anytime soon though, so the Jets comparisons are fair. Instead they have Roger Maclean, a former Democrat that says he was always a Trump voter, and served as Ed Pawlowski’s hand picked city councilman and police chief, rubber stamping Pawlowski’s corrupt budgets. Maclean made a fool of himself in a recent debate, where he said he would fix the looming fiscal crisis in the county caused by the state’s overdue budget magically- “we’ll get our money.” Despite complaints to the contrary, Maclean was actually a terrible police chief too. Not only was there law breaking going on in city hall, Maclean had cops arrested in connection with rape, sex trafficking, and other horrific charges while he was chief in Allentown. Basically his cops were assaulting prostitutes and stealing money they recovered in drug busts, allegedly. Not only that, but crime fell immediately after Maclean left the job, both overall and in violent crimes. This guy is a dud.

Not only is the Lehigh County GOP running an ex-Pawlowski Democrat that was asleep on the job, they’re encouraging voters to “vote to honor Charlie” Kirk. Look, it’s awful that the guy was gunned down by a psychopath, but he has literally nothing to do with Lehigh County. I would venture a guess that over 90% of the folks who have discussed him in recent weeks never watched him. This has nothing to do with keeping Cedarbrook open, or how much to cooperate with ICE detainers, or running the children and youth departments, or open space preservation, or really anything within Lehigh County Government. It’s just a straight appeal to the most animal instincts of one portion of the electorate to be mad. Of course, in fairly blue Lehigh County, that won’t be enough for them, but they’re kind of just hoping more normal, moderate voters don’t notice this.

Unfortunately for them, that probably won’t happen.