State Senator Lisa Boscola

Sultana Launches Quixotic Primary Against Lisa Boscola

/ Rich Wilkins / Leave a comment

Earlier I told you that former Easton City Councilwoman Taiba Sultana was blaming State Senator Lisa Boscola for ICE. I said then she was going to run against Boscola in this year’s primary. Bernie O’Hare reports that she is now officially in. I’m setting her final percentage over/under at 22.5% if anyone wants to place a friendly wager. I’ll even give you +100.

The 18th District is simply not a leftist district. Yes, it’s a solidly Democratic seat, but I doubt many of us would vote for Karl Marx here. Lisa Boscola generally votes how this district’s people actually are- more conservative than Philadelphia and more liberal than Pennsyltucky. I am sure that some voters would like Senator Boscola to move left, but it isn’t really wise for the seat. If Taiba were going to run as a potential Senator in the mold of some of the Philadelphia delegation, she might even receive enough support *in the primary* to be scary, but come up short. She’s going to try and run to the left of that though. She’s also going to promise things that simply aren’t going to pass the Pennsylvania Senate, which also does have Senators like Doug Mastriano from Pennsyltucky too. This is a campaign to do nothing in Harrisburg, and it’s a campaign to represent close to no one.

Taiba is a nice person in person, though I found her campaign against Rep. Freeman in 2024 to really bother me. Insinuating that Bob Freeman is responsible for genocide anywhere is literally insane. There was also the whole petition forgery controversy in 2024 where someone signed Sultana’s petition as Senator Boscola from a totally fake address and obviously it wasn’t Senator Boscola, which was just weird. Obviously there was the arrest too, which I give her more slack for than most (People make mistakes, and while her’s was bad, there’s plenty of reasons to not support her that don’t involve judging her as a parent), but she seemed to be completely oblivious to the optics of the situation and launched an impossible State House campaign while it was ongoing. Of course there was also her continual attempts to pass a resolution from Easton City Council on Gaza, which really is not something Easton City Council is supposed to be doing. I can’t think of one argument to elect this woman in 2026. We’re going to get a steady diet of far-left rhetoric, identity politics of the cheapest grade, and personal attacks here. It’s pointless.

Lisa Boscola isn’t going to lose this race. Most voters aren’t going to take it overly seriously. Had Jon Irons run, he may have put forward a credible opposition to her, even though he would have lost too. Sultana has too many problems to answer for, and she will be forced to answer for them if she tries to make this nasty. In the end, this kind of politics just has to be stopped.

Apparently Senator Boscola is Responsible for ICE Now.

/ Rich Wilkins / 2 Comments

State Senator Lisa Boscola is a moderate Democrat. That makes some folks mad, but she’s ultimately with the Democratic caucus on nearly every vote. We notice when she’s not because it’s rare, and because the Senate Dems are a super highly regional caucus at this point, nearly all of their members are in or near Philadelphia and Allegheny Counties, the most liberal spots in the state. The reality is that a State Senator from the Lehigh Valley really can’t always vote like a Philadelphia Democrat, they’ll lose re-election. Your options are someone like Senator Boscola, or a Republican. Choose wisely.

Fresh off of losing last year’s primary for re-election to Easton City Council, Taiba Sultana is apparently cool with losing us the seat. She attacked Boscola on a Facebook live for supporting enforcement of immigration. Yes folks, Lisa Boscola created the atmosphere for ICE today. You heard it here first.

Look, I think the current version of ICE is simply unworkable. I was for Lamont McClure’s executive order to keep them out of Northampton County’s courthouse without a warrant, and I’m for Tara Zrinski strengthening that. I also don’t think we need Easton or Bethlehem deciding they are going to put a big neon light on themselves and declare themselves a “sanctuary” city for people who are here illegally, and I don’t think a society is simply wrong for enforcing their borders and immigration laws. Are we wrong to employ an armed gestapo to terrorize people over immigration? Yes. There is a happy in-between of course, we had it for eight years under Barack Obama. He deported far more people than Trump or Biden without being cruel and inhumane doing it. We were safer because of it.

I don’t think this criticism of Boscola is random of course. Taiba ran against Bob Freeman for the state house unsuccessfully in 2024, losing by more than 50% of the vote. She’s going to try and run against Boscola. This is an even harder, worse district for her to try and win in than the House one, and it’s not going to go well for her. If she decides to run her race saying Senator Boscola is opposed to illegal immigration, she just might end up losing worse in this race than she did in 2024.

Will Irons Primary Boscola?

/ Rich Wilkins / 1 Comment

I do hate picking up the phone, but every once in a while I do it, and hear some interesting rumors. The latest one has nothing to do with PA-7 (thank god), but instead has everything to do with the 18th State Senate District. The district is all of Northampton County besides the Northwest corner, and the portion of Bethlehem City in Lehigh County. Since 1998, that district has belonged to Senator Lisa Boscola, and she generally wins by a lot. For most of the last six decades (58 years), the seat has either been held by Jeanette Reibman or Boscola. It has been competitive like once in my lifetime, when Joe Uliana won the seat by like 2 votes over Bob Freeman, entirely because of the 1994 Republican wave. Otherwise it’s basically been the two Democratic women beating the bejesus out of whoever runs against them.

Senator Boscola isn’t a big favorite of progressive activists, but she has been highly effective at securing resources for the communities in her district. Her moderate tendencies make her very hard to beat in a general election that is centered in heavily moderate Northampton County. Reportedly though she has finally ruffled enough feathers to draw fire from her left. Lehigh County Commissioner at-large Jon Irons is reportedly considering primarying Boscola in 2026. Irons has been a favorite of the progressive community, and reportedly there are people encouraging him. Irons was born in Ecuador, raised in suburban Chicago, and moved here when his wife took a job at Lehigh, about a decade ago. From his website, he tells us “what he cares about and loves:”

Outside of work, I have been a committed volunteer with a number of social justice organizations. I have collected signatures in support of inclusionary zoning in Allentown, hosted city council debates, and volunteered for a number of political campaigns including Greg Edwards for Congress in 2018. Most recently, I have served as a member-leader with Lehigh Valley Stands Up where we have supported candidates for local office, organized ballot initiatives in Lehigh County and Allentown, and built a restorative, relational organizing community of working class resident’s committed to change through building political power.

I am also an avid photographer, bird watcher, and musician. I enjoy hiking in the many parks and trails throughout the county. I bike the D&L trail north and south, and I walk my dog, Dingo, every day in our West Bethlehem neighborhood. The Lehigh Valley has so much to offer, and I’ve enjoyed building and working for my community in every way I can to make a caring, empathetic, connected, and sustainable world.

Anyone is welcome to run for any office they want. From my vantage point though, the map is not in his favor here. For one, he is way, way behind in name recognition in this district, because he has only represented the West Bethlehem voters. The other thing I see here is that he represents a considerably more progressive county than Northampton, and some of his past positions would be a very hard sell to that electorate. In particular, I think his positions on immigration and crime would probably be under water in the primary, let alone a general election in Northampton County. On the flip side, if the primary electorate is feeling positive about Carol Obando-Derstine in the Congressional primary, they have very similar stories as immigrants, highly educated people, and progressives. The biggest problem here? Money. The general public likes Senator Boscola. Not only would Irons, or anyone else, need to introduce themselves and build up some name recognition with voters who don’t know them, they also would have to change the public’s mind about Boscola. In the past I’ve told people who bring this up that they would need $600k if Boscola doesn’t decide to spend against them, just to compete. I’ve got news though- Senator Boscola would absolutely spend to get her message out. That probably means it would take north of a million bucks to have a chance. I don’t see that money coming in the Lehigh Valley.