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.

Bob “Crooksy” Brooks was briefly in court today. His former mother-in-law is suing him again, since he still hasn’t paid her back any money that two courts found that he owed her. His basic argument against paying up is “tough shit.” From Lehigh Valley News:

Wiley sued the Moore Township couple in February, alleging they are trying to hide assets to avoid paying her more than $162,000 from a previous lawsuit.

In a court filing this month, the Brookses denied the allegations and argued that Wiley has missed her window to bring new litigation.

Sounds familiar. His argument against her when he lost the initial lawsuit for not paying was that she waited too long to sue him. Not that he didn’t sign the promissory note in 2008, not that he tried to pay her back and she declined, not even that he couldn’t afford to pay her back at any point from 2004 until 2018. His argument was that she waited too long to collect. Basically tough shit, you old hag. Bob “Crooksy” Brooks ain’t paying her a dime, too late.

Of course the courts laughed at Crooksy and awarded her not only the initial $55k, but all the interest and other costs and ran that number up over $162,000. So Deadbeat Bob had a master plan- quitclaim the property to his new wife, who has the same name as his old wife, and hope no one notices. And for a while, apparently no one did.

Here’s the facts, as told by Lehigh Valley News, again:

Bob Brooks and Wiley have been entangled in litigation since 2018 over a 2008 promissory note.

Brooks and his first wife, Jennifer Lynn, had agreed to pay her parents $55,000 at 6% annual interest, but paid only about $100 over 10 years.

In 2018, Wiley sued her daughter and Bob Brooks, who had divorced by then, for the overdue payment.

A Northampton County judge ruled in Wiley’s favor in 2020, and an appellate court upheld the ruling in 2022. In the newest suit, Wiley said Brooks has yet to pay her and now owes her $162,586.

Wiley also accused Brooks and his second wife, Jennifer Lynne, of creating a fraudulent deed over a Moore Township property.

After Bob Brooks and his first wife divorced, he took sole ownership possession of their 1-acre property. However, Jennifer Lynn never signed the paperwork that would have removed her name from the deed.

In 2022, Brooks and his second wife Jennifer Lynne transferred the property solely to Jennifer Lynne Brooks.

Wiley contended in the latest lawsuit that Jennifer Lynne Brooks shouldn’t have been able to sign away Jennifer Lynn’s claim on the property.

Confusion over the two women’s names likely allowed the document to slip past county officials, Wiley argued. She is asking the court to throw out the quitclaim deed and award her punitive damages for the Brookses’ alleged misdeeds.

In a response filed this month, attorney Moore called on the court to dismiss the lawsuit. Wiley had a five-year period to file a lien or seek her damages, which he argued ended in September 2025.

In addition, Ryan argued that the Brookses are within their legal rights to put the home in Jennifer Lynne Brooks’ name.

While the paperwork over the property’s ownership has lagged, Bob Brooks was effectively the property’s only owner following the divorce.

Jennifer Lynne Brooks gained a right to the property after she married him, and the quitclaim deed showed the couple transferring the rights from the two of them to solely Jennifer Lynne Brooks.

“We stand by the defenses asserted in our preliminary objections,” Moore said in a statement Wednesday afternoon. “We believe that they are strong and that we will prevail.”

Deadbeat Bob got one over on everyone here. It seems logically possible that if his ex-wife literally gave up her claim to the house in the divorce, Crooksy may have a legal right to give it his new wife entirely. Of course, he initially lost the lawsuit in 2020 and quitclaimed the house over to his new wife in 2022, so for two years he held the property and wasn’t paying his debt, but he was appealing the case at the time. At a minimum though, it appears that Deadbeat Bob quitclaimed the property in 2022, as he was losing the appeal, in an effort to shield the property from the court’s order to pay up. I’m not a lawyer and have no idea if he can actually shield the property this way from a court order. At least not from a legal stand point. I also don’t know exactly when the five year clock for her to sue over this misleading act began or ended.

I do know this though- Bob “Crooksy” Brooks signed a promissory note to pay money back to his family. He basically paid none of it, only paying $100 on $55,000. He got sued. Deadbeat Bob lost. Deadbeat Crooksy then tried to hide his assets in an effort to evade a court ruling that he lost. He may legally get away with that, I’ll let the people making the big bucks figure it out. Deadbeat Bob is absolutely truthfully, if not legally, a deadbeat crook for not paying his court ordered debts to another person.

I also know this- this case will not be over before the primary. Crooksy’s next day in court over this is in June. It probably won’t end then. In fact, this lawsuit probably won’t end before November. I also know that a Republican is the Pennsylvania Attorney General and a Republican appointee is the U.S. Attorney. If Deadbeat Bob gets nominated for Congress in swing PA-7, they will probably open investigations into whether he is committing fraud or mortgage crimes here. And the House Ethics Committee will almost certainly investigate the claim filed against Crooksy if he’s the nominee. This will hang over the race all the way through, and if he somehow became Congressman, probably beyond that.

I know one more thing- Republicans. While Crooksy was agreeing with them on Obama, guns, racism, political violence, and God know’s what else, I was working for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden. Republicans run brutal campaigns, and they’re effective too. They are going to remind voters every single day that he stiffed his mother-in-law, that he is being sued for not paying her, and that he’ll be under investigation, not to mention the stuff he’s apologized for online. Here’s the thing too, a lot of times Republicans embellish things, as they did against Susan Wild in 2024, in unfair attacks. They don’t have to do that to Deadbeat Bob. A court already found that Deadbeat Bob Brooks deserves the name “Crooksy.” All they have to do is repeat that.

Yesterday a Lehigh Valley politician text me quite upset that Bob “Crooksy” Brooks was being endorsed by the Blue Dogs. They said to me incredulously, “So we have a Bernie-endorsed, Medicare For All supporting and Progressive Caucus candidate, who the BLUE DOGS are endorsing?? They’re about as conservative as the Dem caucus gets. This guy is all over the place.”

Yep, we’re getting warmer here.

The entire plan to get Bob “Crooksy” Brooks to run for Congress was the most cynical kind of politics possible on the part of the people who talked him into it and endorsed him. They didn’t vet the guy at all before telling him it’s a great idea, because they knew he would cash in his union leadership position for enough money to pay some consultants a healthy pay day, which would help the careers of the youthful staffers who pushed this scheme. So they ignored that he stiffed his mother-in-law, that he hated Barack Obama, he’s a racist, he’s a gun and religion nut, and he’s oblivious to political violence. They knew that some heavy-hitters in the Democratic Party would ignore all of these flaws too, because endorsing him would be good for their ambitions. They knew that once those heavy-hitters were on board, many in the political class would fall in line with them and defend a guy who holds none of their values, because they’re sheeple. And with money, endorsers, and completely establishment creatures spinning a guy taking money from his mother-in-law, they might be able to get him across the line in the primary, and then they could pray that it’s a wave year and no one will care that we nominated a literally awful human being.

Ok, so now why?

It’s not like Crooksy is a big thinker. It’s not like this tree trunk is Machiavelli. As PoliticsPA more politely put it, the guy can barely put together a coherent sentence on his feet. I hate to compare him to John Fetterman, given Fetterman’s issues, but the shoe fits. The guy just goes out and repeats slogans and buzzwords, like “working class,” “Medicare for All,” and “Blue Collar.” As I said before, it’s a noun, a verb, and Josh Shapiro out of this guy’s mouth. He’s bringing about as much intellectual thought to government and politics as my one legged ass is bringing to a 100 meter dash race.

So let’s be honest about this- a bunch of DC consultants have decided the Democrats have a blue collar white guy problem to fix. Their theory is that as long as Trump is around they really don’t need to appeal to their actual base voters- people of color and college educated, white collar moderates that have been moving their way dating back to Trump’s arrival. Those married women with masters degrees in Upper Macungie and the Black woman who is a leader in her church will never vote for Trump’s GOP, at least in these smart DC types’ minds. So don’t worry about them. Nominate a bald white guy who has no real ideas and has spent most of his life disagreeing with what the Democratic Party has become, and try to win back the mythical white unicorn with a sub-mediocre IQ and a ton of opinions about “how the world has changed.” Maybe as an added bonus if he hits all of the buzzwords that are cool with the terminally online crowd he can appeal to people that find the Democratic Party’s longstanding battles for equality and Civil Rights boring compared to some mythological revolution. It’s so dumb that it can appeal to all of the really dumb people at once, and well, we’ve seen how that works.

This approach is not only insulting to actual Democratic base voters, but it’s actually deeply insulting to voters who haven’t been voting for us too. So basically you’re saying to the former Democratic voter in Whitehall or Northampton that works in a blue collar job that you think this thoughtless drone is what they want to see? Give me a break. Republicans are not going to buy into this guy who was endorsed by Bernie Sanders. Literally all of them fit into two camps at this point- people that are voting Republic because they think Democrats have lost their minds, or people that are voting Republican because they want some sort of cultural inquisition to purge our politics of liberal thought. The guy endorsed by Bernie Sanders appeases neither of those groups and disappoints the people who have been with us for a while now.

Bob “Crooksy” Brooks is a candidate with no political soul. Is he a Blue Dog now because they endorsed him? Is he a populist progressive because Bernie Sanders and SEIU endorsed him? The truth is, he’s neither. He’s just another consultant laboratory creation in DC and Harrisburg that is looking forward to having a good time in DC on someone else’s dime. I mean, I guess in a different time in my life I’d justify running a bucket of slop for Congress by saying he’ll vote for a Democratic Speaker, but given his views on Kaepernick and Obama I doubt he really likes Hakeem Jeffries. Basically if this works, it’s a big “F-U” to the people who have been voting for us, I guess we had to sell you out to get power, and if it doesn’t, we’ll go through this whole stupid process again in two years with a tougher electorate and a new cast of characters to repeat it with. What a stupid idea this was.

Interesting stuff here–

On or about March 17, 2026, an Allentown resident – John Santana – observed that Crosswell’s red box content was set to password-protected, rendering it inaccessible to the general public. Santana also followed up four days later, only to find the red box still private. According to the complaint filed with the FEC, it “created a situation in which any outside group accessing and using this content could only have done so through direct or indirect coordination with the campaign,” in violation of FEC regulations.

The complaint also states that Crosswell “potentially facilitated illegal in-kind contributions to (his) campaign from outside groups operating on non-public materials.”

Campaigns post specific messaging requests, video footage, and voter targeting information (e.g., demographics) on their websites, often using a distinctively marked red box, notes the Campaign Legal Center. Often times, coded language is used, such as “see” for TV ads, “hear” for radio, or “read” for direct mail, to guide the outside group.

Redboxing also commonly involves posting footage and photos of the candidate, as well as strategy tips about the race. A super PAC supporting the candidate then uses the footage and photos along with the campaign-requested messaging in its ads.

I’ll say two things here- red boxes are completely legal. Second, and probably more importantly, there’s no reason on God’s Green Earth to put a password on your red box. Campaigns don’t use their websites to store their content. The only reason to have a red box is to make the information available to your outside supporters via one way communication. I have no idea what Crosswell, or for that matter Carol, had a password on their red box. Maybe they weren’t meant to be public yet for some reason. Or maybe they were giving the password out, as the complaint suggests. I don’t know how you ask the FEC to go find probable cause to investigate that though. I thought you needed probable cause to investigate.

Another thing that just peaked my “spidey sense” a bit here- the individual filing the complaint is an operative. It’s not clear who he’d be working for though. He’s worked for the PA Dems (So maybe Brooks?), Working Families Party (Brooks), Make the Road (Brooks? I haven’t seen who they’re supporting), and interned for former Congresswoman Susan Wild. Regardless of who he did this on the behalf of, he caught something here. Putting a password on a red box is weird.