Nothing screams transparency more than a text with no “paid for by.” Of course, Bob “Crooksy” Brooks is unclear about who he was bought by- the mother-in-law he ripped off, the Governor/Sugar Daddy backing him, Socialist Bernie, his dark money super pac, Fetterman’s advisors, or the DCCC person that found him from the Harrisburg Swamp. Deadbeat Bob doesn’t mind taking anyone else’s money, but figuring out the disclaimer can be kind of hard until you do.

Crooksy is the most bought and sold politician running possibly anywhere in the country. The man of no ideas or thoughts is running to be a tool of, well… everyone. His super pac with it’s nearly $1.4 million of dark money is trying to fight back now that Lead Left is making sure people know about him. Deadbeat Bob doesn’t like when people see who he is. He thinks that if he and one of the geniuses that blew Pennsylvania for Kamala Harris tell you it’s Republican money, you should believe him. Golden rule with Crooksy- never, ever believe him. Never let him behind your back either.

I’ve spent most of this election cycle telling you who I’m not going to vote for in our Congressional race. There’s a reason for that- I think one of the candidates is genuinely a bad human being, unworthy of anyone’s vote, and potentially another Fetterman. There is a second candidate who is somewhere between being a true Republican and being someone who maybe lacks a true set of core values, based on their life decisions. Under no circumstances will I ever vote for Bob Brooks to be anything, he is that awful in general. If Ryan Crosswell is nominated, I’ll vote for him, but I do think remaining a Republican after January 6th and working for a union busting law firm is negative. I will vote for him if nominated though, as he’s better than Mackenzie.

That left two candidates, and while I was decided very early, I will say they’re both fine. I would be enthusiastic about voting for Carol Obando-Derstine if she were nominated for Congress. She has a wonderful life story, an impressive educational background, and previously served in Senator Casey’s office. She’s a solid Democrat and we’d all be proud if she represented us. She is new to running for office and I think this race has been difficult for her. Even so, I expect her to get a healthy number of votes next week and be a factor in the race. A solid majority of our primary electorate are women, and they will consider a qualified woman candidate.

I’m going to vote for Lamont McClure though. I was there pretty early and I haven’t really changed my mind on it. There are two reasons, and only two reasons for my vote, and I’m going to lay them out as clearly as possible here.

1. Lamont is where I am on policy and did what he said he’d do as Executive. When he ran for Executive in 2017, he said he would do three things- not raise taxes, keep Gracedale County owned, and preserve Open Space. He did those three things. There are critics of his terms as Executive, as there should be, and most of them are mad that he didn’t do other things that they wanted him to do. He did the things he ran on though. He’s a political moderate that fits right in the mainstream Democratic Party positions on core issues like guns, reproductive rights, civil rights, labor rights, and the environment. This is where I believe the country needs to be right now. I really don’t want to make the government a Petri dish for far left ideas and to remake the world in a more (white) progressive populist vision. That will not improve our world.
2. Lamont won two comfortable general elections in the most swing county in the district. In theory, Ryan Crosswell is a strong general election candidate. I mean, he literally was a Republican until like a year ago, so how can they call him a leftist? They will call him a carpetbagger though, they will point to the dishonesty in his story for why he’s running, and they’ll make his political change of heart into an argument that he lacks a political core or convictions. Brooks claims he’s a strong general election candidate, but the man is a literal deadbeat and buffoon. Republicans will convince enough voters to not vote for him and hang onto the district. Nobody likes someone who takes from their own family. Furthermore I don’t see him stopping the deterioration of the Democratic share of the vote in Allentown, let alone turning out our suburban, college educated and mostly female base. Carol has never ran before, and while I think she’d appeal more to our base than an ignoramus like Brooks, she’s an unknown there. McClure was elected twice as Northampton County Executive and I believe three times in what was a very competitive county council seat. We pretty much know what Republicans are going to say about him, and the most swing voting county already has passed judgment on that. His critics will point out his poor fundraising in this primary, and look, I don’t love that. Ryan Mackenzie was a poor fundraiser two years ago in his primary too. Once you’re the nominee of either party in this district, you raise a lot of money. Outside spending groups come in to defend you. Leadership PACS from the Hill start funneling money your way. Any of these four will have money in the general election. That shouldn’t even be anyone’s concern.

For these two reasons, I’m voting for McClure. As I said, I’m fine with Carol if she’s the nominee, and I’ll vote for Crosswell, I think he’d be an improvement. Bob Brooks would just be a continuation of the decay of our politics, another step down for the quality of our representation and our politics. I will not defend the indefensible, nor do I think most will by the time the Fall comes around. So I’m voting for McClure. I think if he’s our nominee, we’ll be winning this seat.

We all know that Bob Brooks doesn’t like to pay his debts, he’s not into accountability. Crooksy thinks you can be a racist, or say you hate Barack Obama, or be a gun nut and religious zealot, and even turn a blind eye to political violence, and people should still vote for you in a Democratic Primary. Crooksy thinks his bad behavior is fine, because it’s him. Deadbeat Bob has ethics issues. Big ones. We should ignore those too, though. Just ask Deadbeat Bob. The only reason this imbecile is even a thought in this race is Josh Shapiro, and he threw him under the bus too. Crooksy is the kind of friend you never let behind you.

So a super pac called Lead Left popped up and started running an ad that calls out Crooksy and Ryan Crosswell. They point out that the union that Crooksy leads, the Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association, has backed anti-choice, election denying candidates. This is simply true. Crooksy only believes in Democrats when it’s useful for him. Of course he’s crying foul though, because no one can hold Bob “Crooksy” Brooks accountable, not even our courts.

The reason Crooksy thinks you should ignore the ad? It’s “A MAGA super PAC.” Interesting theory. Lead Left is the name of the super PAC, and they indeed did form recently. Because they formed on April 24th, they have not yet had to do any campaign finance filings. There is literally no way to know if their donors are Democrats or Republicans. Of course, folks are buying into Crooksy’s spin and printing his story. But even the source of the original theory has doubts on it. There are several reasons to believe Bob “Crooksy” Brooks is making up the MAGA spin:

1. No one knows who the donors are. They don’t have to report yet.
2. The bank being used to pay for the spots, Amalgamated Bank, is used by Democratic Groups and unions.
3. They’re mostly banking this theory on the fact that OTG Media Group is new. Are they? There is an OTG Strategies that did millions of dollars in business for Kamala Harris and Democrats everywhere in 2024. Their employees also donate to all Democrats. Is this a spin off of that firm? Did they just rename? No idea. Even if it’s not them, we’d need to know a lot more about this firm.

Admittedly, dark money groups make people uncomfortable. I think we all understand that. Is it possible that Republicans decided to come attack the two guys with the most shady cash of their own to muddy them up early with the Democratic base? Possible. There’s not a shred of proof for it though, and it was probably inappropriate for reporters to print a theory. It would seem more likely though that the pac using a liberal bank and a media firm that probably has some ties to a Democratic firm is being funded by Democrats. There are people who have issues with Bob and the Governor within our party and would like to embarrass them. It seems more likely than anything that there are Democrats who know that Crooksy is a deeply flawed, damaged candidate, and Crosswell is a lifelong Republican (including after January 6th), and don’t want us to nominate a damaged nominee that will lose to Mackenzie (at least in Crooksy’s case). Seems a lot more likely than some wild conspiracy theory that Republicans are spending five hundred thousand dollars because they’re afraid of a deadbeat.

Crooksy is afraid. A very, very highly placed source said that when the DCCC polled this race last, McClure had the lead. Suddenly they produced a poll from the Progressive Caucus showing Crooksy ahead (probably a push poll). Then he got put on Red-to-Blue. And *his* dark money super pac is spending over a million dollars to boost him. All of this, and he’s crying about dark money? Give. Me. A. Break.

Two decade deadbeat Bob “Crooksy” Brooks is mad- big mad. After having the DCCC put their thumb on the scale this week to try and shove him down the Lehigh Valley’s throat, after having Bernie Sanders call in favors to his friends in labor to stop donations and endorsements for his opponents, after having the Governor try and “convince” everyone to back him, Deadbeat Bob is mad that someone is coming in to spend money against him. I guess he not only thought that no one would care that he’s a deadbeat, a gun and religious zealot, indifferent to political violence, hates Barack Obama, and well, is a racist. He figured that everyone would behave like the PA Dems and ignore his ethics problems. I know Bob is dumb, but this is staggeringly narcissistic. Not everyone is SEIU.

Crooksy is first out with a statement (even before Crosswell, who was also hit in the ad), and damn it’s a doozy. I’ll post it below. Deadbeat Bob alleges the PAC that is supporting McClure is a MAGA pac, without any actual evidence (they have no online filings yet). He also calls on McClure to denounce the “MAGA pac” immediately. This is idiotic of course, but what did we expect from Crooksy? First off, McClure has said in the past that he opposes the Citizens United ruling that made all of these pacs a thing, so we know how he feels about it from that. Second, why would MAGA donors prefer a twice elected County Executive from the swing county in the district over a guy who tried to quit claim his property away to avoid paying a court ordered verdict? Of course they’d rather run against Deadbeat Bob. But third, and this is probably most important- once again Bob “Crooksy” Brooks is being a hypocrite, crying about dark money when his campaign is being funded in part by a super pac, Stronger Together PA. Hypocrite Bob thinks everything should be handed to him, but if anyone cries foul, they need to be denounced. Of course, he is the kind of guy that hated Colin Kaepernick because he protested police brutality, so what did we expect from him?

Anyway, Bob’s campaign has worked really hard to put out their hypocritical statement and run a campaign that was honestly dishonest- they wanted you to believe the lie that this man is a good and decent family man, and solid Democrat. I suppose since their whole campaign was a lie and a mistake, I’ll print their latest hypocritical bullshit here for you, the readers, to laugh at. Maybe some Harrisburg cronies will try to intimidate me again after this one too. Bring it on boys and girls, I’ll definitely take a lecture from people who support a deadbeat.

In 2022, I opposed John Fetterman in the primary, even after it was obvious he would win. Even in the general election, it took me until 4pm on Election Day to drop my ballot off at a ballot box, because I really didn’t want to vote for the guy. His history of chasing a Black jogger with a shot gun, supporting Bernie Sanders, and his debate performances really turned me off to the guy. I feel vindicated by how awful he’s been. He was lucky though. Dr. Oz won the GOP nomination despite not living in the state, then decided to talk about incest and say that local governments deserve a role in abortion decisions. Now we’re stuck with this idiot.

Graham Platner in Maine is drawing a lot of comparisons to Fetterman. Obviously, he got a Nazi tattoo, something that should be disqualifying, but leftists love it. He posted hateful rhetoric on Reddit, attacking sexual assault victims, criticizing Black people for not tipping, and using homophobic slurs. His campaign is paying his wife, allowing him to profit personally and still collect his disability. Platner defended urinating on dead fighters and once was a Blackwater mercenary. This guy is a walking red flag, and he’s bad enough to make me appreciate Fetterman. This guy is a scumbag and I hope he loses.

Here in the Lehigh Valley, we have Bob “Crooksy” Brooks. Deadbeat Bob is trying very hard to stiff his ex-mother-in-law out of six figures of money he owes her. He hates Barack Obama. He hates Colin Kaepernick for opposing police brutality. He supports guns and school prayer. He’s at least oblivious to political violence, if not worse. He’s kind of stupid. There’s an ethics investigation into him. Man, I’d hate to hear how this guy talked as a bartender, wouldn’t you? Seems like a wonderful, tolerant, good person.

So what’s the common ground here, besides being awful human beings that shouldn’t be trusted with leadership in a society? Fight Agency, their media consultants. It’s worth noting that they’re also Ruben Gallego’s team, and he’s having some issues right now. They’re good at what they do, but man do they know how to pick ’em. Of course, beyond Fetterman being a scumbag, he’s also been a huge disappointment to most Democrats as Senator. Why should anyone not believe Platner and Deadbeat Bob will be the same? They clearly don’t *believe* in liberal values in any meaningful way, based on their actions. Why wouldn’t they end up just as bad as Fetterman, under the best case scenario? Don’t be fooled here. These guys aren’t good or decent people, let alone solid Democrats. It’s all a fraud, a scam, a lie. Reject it.