The Democratic Party

What in the Delusional Hell?

/ Rich Wilkins / Leave a comment

Look, I’ve found some of what Kamala Harris has had to say so far in her book to be hilariously funny. When I read the excerpt about why she didn’t pick Pete Buttigieg as her running mate, I definitely found her logic to be sad and maybe even cynical, but also probably correct from a purely strategical manner. Her “criticisms” of Biden for staying in as long as he did basically miss reality for me, but I think from her perspective are almost a necessary rationalization of why things went how they did.

Then there’s the screenshots above about her book, which are basically a good enough reason for me to not read it. Look, I voted for Kamala Harris, and I would again. She’s got tons of good qualities. The fact is though, if they weren’t prepared for her to lose by election night, she and her team are the most delusional people I’ve ever seen. Yes, I knew we were going to win for Biden/Harris in 2020, because Joe Biden was not only consistently ahead in state and national polls, but was usually over 50% in most polls, regardless of his margin. At no point was Kamala Harris ever really there. She was behind in the polling averages in almost all of the swing states, well within the margin of error, but behind. Her numbers in the polls looked eerily similar to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Election Results, and they basically finished exactly there. Many Democratic donors, activists, and even operatives have spent years getting excited at every “gotcha” moment for Donald Trump, every bad debate performance or speech, and every new scandal that arises around the guy, and every time they get excited and proclaim “this is the time” people finally turn on him. They never do. The only campaign that ever put forward a viable alternative that a broad enough cross section of the country might vote for instead of Trump, was Biden’s 2020 campaign. Hillary and Kamala both sort of relied on the country finally decided Trump was too stupid, evil, corrupt, or wrong to vote for. That was never, ever going to happen.

There’s a really ugly truth that maybe Vice-President Harris didn’t want to write about, or maybe it was cut from the book, or whatever- Kamala Harris was never going to win the 2024 Election. The country had soured on the Democratic Party as a whole. Inflation had put them in a bad mood. They had soured on Biden, in part because of inflation, in part because he was old, and very largely because they felt he had governed less moderately than they hoped he would when they elected him. Harris was his Vice-President, in a party where really no one had made a move to stand against Biden’s Presidency, making her the most vulnerable to his negatives of a party full of people who were vulnerable to his negatives. Then there is the simple fact that Harris herself was viewed even more negatively than Biden through virtually his entire Presidency until Democrats ran away from him (like cowards) after his debate performance. And yes, since I named every other reason, let’s just state the obvious demographic reasons. Hillary Clinton was possibly the most qualified, most universally known nominee the party ever put forward in 2016, and Barack Obama was still very popular, not to mention she was the first female nominee in the history of the country. Just read everything after that last comma and get the point, because none of the stuff before it mattered. Hillary Clinton lost, as about the best woman nominee anyone could have come up with at that time. The country is very, very resistant to electing a woman. That’s a bad thing, but it’s a thing that isn’t changing on it’s own. Kamala Harris was not only the next woman to run for President, she was also a Black woman. This country’s history of racism is well chronicled. It’s a large reason why one of our first forty-seven Presidents wasn’t white. Harris, with an avalanche of things already against her, was asking the country to elect a Black woman. I don’t know if it was impossible for her to win in a neutral environment, but the odds were pretty high against her. Stack all of the other negative things I mentioned here on top of that, and Kamala Harris was basically trying to swim up Niagra Falls in this race. She never had a chance.

The 2024 Election was decided when party elders like Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama decided to be influenced by the politically blind, such as George Clooney and other wealthy donors, and basically pushed Joe Biden out of the race. No one but Biden had a prayer in hell of beating Donald Trump. Biden knew that, that was why he had continued running for President well after his 80th birthday. Biden also knew that if he didn’t run, the only way to avoid a complete Civil War level meltdown within the Democratic Party was to coronate Kamala Harris and hope for the best. He had much better instincts than any of the other “elders” in the Democratic Party. All of this is what bothers me about what Harris is saying here. She’s criticizing Biden for being the adult in the room. She also wants us to believe she really had no idea she was going to lose. The day Biden dropped out, I knew she was going to lose. I know she was smart enough to know that too. I am willing to bet a donut to anyone that if you could get a candid answer out of anyone senior on the analytics team, they would tell you their numbers showed they were losing. As cynical as I am about analytics, even I would be stunned if they were so bad that they actually believed anything else.

“Crooksy” Adds More Endorsements From People Who Can’t Find Allentown on a Map

/ Rich Wilkins / 2 Comments

The less you know about Bob “Crooksy” Brooks, the more you like him. If you don’t know that he stiffed his ex-mother-in-law for $55k, you might think he’s working class. If you don’t know that he shares propaganda from groups that advocate political violence, you think maybe he’s a Democrat. If you don’t read what “Crooksy” says about Kaepernick, you think maybe he’s not a bigot. The more you know though, the less you like him.

“Crooksy” is running the Fetterman handbook for how to campaign though. He’s collecting endorsements, just none of them are from here. Democrat hating lunatic Bernie Sanders enthusiastically supports “Crooksy.” I doubt any local unions will support him after he had better things to do than come see them though. The truth is, the guy is awful and shouldn’t have run, and everyone around here knows it. If you don’t live in the Lehigh Valley though, there’s not too much harm in endorsing a guy that Ryan Mackenzie would crush. This is why state legislators from other parts of Pennsylvania love Crooksy. He’s probably not taking money from their constituents.

“Crooksy” is racking up the endorsements from leftists from other parts of the country though. In addition to the geriatric socialist from Vermont, he got the guy who got to be Bernie’s warm up act when he came to the Valley back in the Spring. I guess he figures no one in Pittsburgh will ever know. In case that’s not enough, he got the endorsement of California “Bernie Bro” Ro Khanna, who he wants you to know is a Pennsylvania native. He lives in Silicon Valley now, because you know, Bobby is a real working class icon here. Crooksy has lots of support from California and Vermont politicians. He has none from any working folks here.

Bob “Crooksy” Brooks looks great if you get to stay ten thousand feet away from him. If the Democratic Party is stupid enough to nominate this clown, Ryan Mackenzie won’t let any voters in the Lehigh Valley stay ten thousand feet away though. The racism, the violent political rhetoric, the stealing from his mother-in-law- Mackenzie will put it on our televisions, on our computer screens, and in our mailboxes. To be honest, we kind of deserve it if we’re dumb enough to allow it. None of the people who know Crooksy all that well want anything to do with him.

Would Bob “Crooksy” Brooks Kill the ACA?

/ Rich Wilkins / Leave a comment

The Democratic Party should absolutely shut down the federal government, it’s not doing anything of value right now. If you need a specific reason to shut it down, the GOP is trying to strip away subsidies for people to buy the Affordable Care Act. This should simply be a red line. There is no good reason to strip health care away from more people. Of course our useless DEMOCRATIC U.S. Senator John Fetterman says he will fund the government anyway. In 2028, we need to be done with this bum. We can get a better trust fund baby Democrat, if not an actual good Democrat. Kick him to the curb.

Given that Bob “Crooksy” Brooks is running for Congress and would take the same votes, and has the same handlers telling him what to say and do, verbatim, we have to ask- would Bob “Crooksy” Brooks tell his constituents to go to hell too? Would he treat his constituents like his ex-mother-in-law? Will Brooks vote with the people he agrees with on social issues? Given this man’s record, we have to ask.

Every candidate in the PA-7 Democratic Primary should be answering though. I’ve seen posts from McClure and Obando-Derstine so far. I hope the rest let us know if they’re with us or against us.

What Does Bob “Crooksy” Brooks Think About Political Violence? Well, Let’s Look at His Past…

/ Rich Wilkins / 18 Comments

By now if you read this site, you are probably of Bob “Crooksy” Brooks running for Congress. I am too. The idea this guy thinks he can win, or that he’s a Democrat, is completely insane. This is basically Steve Lynch with John Fetterman’s handlers. The guy stiffed his ex-mother-in-law out of $55k. He appealed it, and lost. Then, instead of paying up, he walked away. Maybe that was just being lazy, not crooked though. Of course he was endorsed by Democrat-hating lunatic Bernie Sanders. Of course he was, just like his hero, John Fetterman. Much like Crooksy’s hero Fetterman, he also has some way out of line views on race too. I really hoped this guy wouldn’t drag his friends through a campaign that will end in defeat, a matter of when, not if. He’s insisted though.

As I wrote about this guy, multiple sources sent me things to know about Crooksy and his past. Above, you see a social media post that I chronicled at length. In reposting that meme, Crooksy makes clear that he believes in prayer in schools, and guns in any lunatic’s hand that can grip them. It’s bad enough that Crooksy is a right-wing militant, he doesn’t belong in a Democratic Primary, but the meme was put out by the 3% militia men. He’s basically sending out January 6th’ers stuff on his social media.

On August 19th, a woman that I will identify as Karen sent me over a full memo of additional materials and context on Brooks. Karen does not appear on any other campaign’s payroll, which doesn’t mean she isn’t, but I certainly don’t know her. As she shed more light on who Crooksy is, it’s become clear he’s totally unacceptable.

When Crooksy posted the meme above is significant. Just days after an armed nutbag went into an El Paso, TX Walmart and killed people, there was Crooksy posting pro-gun material. One could say that it isn’t proof of support for the killer, but the fact that it’s material from radicalized right-wing fanatics who do. support killing Latinos and lots of other people, and that didn’t dawn on him at the time as a bad thing is significant. Crooksy posted this in 2019, years before a Congressional run, and frankly before he was even a major labor figure, so while now John Fetterman’s handlers have their hands on him to tell him not to say anything this crazy, this 2019 post by Crooksy is a better representation of who he is. When he didn’t think everyone was looking, he was in favor of right-wing radical propaganda and beliefs. Now that he wants to be your Congressman, you are getting a cleaned up version. Reality is though, he’s a right-wing gun nut.

A bunch of people in Washington and Harrisburg want to sell you a vision of some working class hero that will go “fight for you” in DC. It’s astroturf. God knows who he’ll take from and what he’ll actually believe if you give him a chance to go there. Crooksy is just Fetterman 2.0.

Was I Too Mean? Or is Bob “Crooksy” Brooks Basically a Racist Nut?

/ Rich Wilkins / 39 Comments
Ok, I’m going to admit two things. The first is, I actually held back the worst stuff about Bob “Crooksy” Brooks, a Congressional candidate in PA-7, to this point. For a while, I felt like maybe it was overkill. You see, I told you that he stiffed his ex-mother-in-law for $55,000, then lost a lawsuit and appeal. Then since he lost and owed over $130k, he just abandoned the property in his divorce settlement and left it to his ex. You see, when I first published it, I really hoped the guy would just not run. He not only announced, but also announced his endorsement from Deadbeat Bernie Sanders and every other person not from PA-7 besides Governor Shapiro. Of course, this guy had promised Governor Shapiro (and even got a newspaper to print), but what’s the truth to him? Once I knew he was getting in, I decided to tell you a bit more about “Crooksy,” mainly that he’s a militant religious and gun nut that aligns with the 3%’ers. Then, the “working class hero” that stole from his mother-in-law decided to not even attend Labor Day Celebrations with other unions, despite being a statewide union President. He’s just lazy, frankly. Others alluded to that before. Yes, the guy is a deadbeat that stiffed his mother-in-law, it’s not even my opinion. Two courts in Pennsylvania found it. Yes, he’s a right-wing nut. Frankly though, I sat on some stuff. Criticisms from an Allentown Fire Fighter in the political spectrum made me think twice. Sure, this guy is a bum. However, I can’t tell you the last time the Fire Fighters Union and I disagreed on a major campaign. Frankly, I was conflicted.

Well, now I’m not. The other night I ran into a longtime, lifelong friend at the Phillies-Mets game, I’m talking someone who came to see me in the hospital after they chopped off my leg. He’s a fire fighter for a city in the Lehigh Valley, not an overly political guy, and he asked me a question that cut like a thousand knives- are you anti-fire fighter? I had spent three hours waiting in line at a fire fighter’s viewing the night before, I spent my early, formative years in politics organizing with fire fighters in Iowa for Presidential campaigns. Not only was it such a cut at me, to say that through a personal friend? Blaspheme. I guess I was only a friend to this particular union leadership when they didn’t support a deadbeat. Fine.

So here’s where I admit the second part- I held back all the stuff where Bob Brooks really shows you who he is. Bob “Crooksy” Brooks not only stiffed his mother-in-law, his internet history is a horrendous dumpster fire of far-right wing radical rhetoric. Not only did he post about wanting school prayer and guns on demand, “Crooksy” posted the above straight up racist bullshit. Post the 13 stars? That’s one thing. To do so and then make a point to attack Colin Kaepernick directly during the “Black Lives Matter” and kneeling controversies? Bob Brooks is showing you here who he is. He was not yet a candidate for Congress when he put this out. In fact, he hadn’t even staged his coup to be the State President of the Fire Fighters yet. Bob Brooks holds views on race that are way out of line with most civilized people, not just liberals. Most of my Republican friends wouldn’t even post this.

There’s a lot more coming about this “douchebag,” as he called Kaepernick (I don’t even really like Kaepernick, the guy openly says he didn’t vote in 2016, but this is outrageous.). Since his friend in Allentown claims I did this at the behest of a certain candidate, I will go ahead now and confirm that this came from another campaign’s opposition research people, not those of Lamont McClure (he is not paying this individual supplying it, nor is anyone on his behalf.). Later on I will post whole memos on him. Bob Brooks is in way over his head here. There’s a reason even some of his friends called him “Crooksy.” I wonder if they knew just exactly who he was? Do we think Lt. Governor Austin Davis knew he “Crooksy” was?

Bob “Crooksy” Brooks- the Poor Man’s Broken Version of John Fetterman

/ Rich Wilkins / 12 Comments

I remember the 2022 primary very well. A bunch of leftists in Philly and Pittsburgh running around Pennsylvania telling us that John Fetterman was exactly what we needed. He was going to be a fighter, for us. We needed an “authentic, blue collar fighter.” Pennsylvanians were dying for this guy that “doesn’t look like a politician.” The fact that all of the insiders were endorsing Conor Lamb and not siding with Fetterman was only more proof that he was who we needed now. Many of us raised questions. Even some of his opponents raised questions about what kind of guy he was. The progressive network in the big cities knew best though. I hated that he was our nominee, but eventually I voted for him, mostly because I think Dr. Oz is a jackass. There are days I really wish I had left that line blank.

I don’t mind that Fetterman is moderate, or that he supports Israel. I do too, to some extent. I mind that he was a fraud. He sold himself as some leftist/progressive champion, a blue collar guy from Braddock. He was no champion of the left, and he’s realistically just a trust fund kid that picked a tough blue collar town to launch his career in. It was a complete bait and switch. He wasn’t lying to me, I knew he wasn’t good. I still don’t like that he hoodwinked other people.

Well, meet Bob Brooks, now a candidate for PA-7’s Democratic nomination to Congress. Bob Brooks wants you to know that the Democratic Party forgot how to talk to working class people before he came along. Sound familiar? Yes, watch the Fetterman commercial above. It’s the same damn message, verbatim. That’s not shocking. Brooksy is literally using the same team that created the Fetterman myth. They want you to believe that he’ll come along and be different. Brooks, like Fetterman, will be a working class hero who fights for the little guy. Brooks, like Fetterman, is endorsed by Bernie Sanders. He even has the tacit Harrisburg insider support that Fetterman had when he was sitting Lt. Governor. If you just took Brooksy out of his own ads and had John Fetterman do them, there would be no skipping a beat. They both even tell you about how the steel mills left their towns (Brooks had no steel mills in his actual neighborhood). Similarly, neither actually ever did anything about it for those steelworkers, unlike opponents of their’s. Hell, Fetterman chased a black guy down the street with a shot gun because he thought he was shooting a gun- Brooksy probably agreed, he’s right with the 3%’ers on arming everyone. John Fetterman and Bob Brooks are basically the same guy, minus well…

You might be saying to yourself, “okay Rich, but Fetterman won his race.” Yes, he did, and at least for two years that was helpful on some basic level. The main difference is that John Fetterman didn’t stiff his former mother-in-law for $55k. Crooksy? Yeah, he did. Yeah, he never paid it back either. Look, it only took a few internet clicks to find. If I could do that, what will the NRCC and their allies do to defend a seat they paid tens of millions of dollars for? By the time it’s Labor Day in 2026, they will have portrayed him as the symbol of elder abuse and fraud in America. Hell, they’ll probably say he took the $55k to Wind Creek and gambled it all away while he was supposed to be on the clock working. Is it fair? Probably not. They’ll embellish the actual shitty thing he did and make it a new inquisition. Sure, Fetterman was a mess by the Fall of 2022, but he was running against a quack who made a fool of himself every time he spoke. Mackenzie just won’t speak. Problem solved for them. The Republican media machine will beat this guy over the head so badly with his transgressions that he’ll have to pick up and move after the race. That’s how politics are.

This is the choice that Democrats have to face on Brooks. Under the best case scenario, you get a carbon copy of the John Fetterman who mislead you on who he was and disappointed you as a Senator. These guys say the exact same things at the behest of the exact same people, even down to the talking points about “corporate pac money” and “stock trading” that neither of them is going to do shit about in Congress. And that’s the best case scenario. The worst case scenario? You’re nominating a “deadbeat” that the Republican Party will beat to death with the negatives that could be found without a Lexus Nexus account. You tell me what’s worse?

The Disappearing Democratic Party

/ Rich Wilkins / Leave a comment

Would you rather compete in more districts or less? More states or less? The answer is obvious. Anyone in their right mind knows the answer. You would rather compete in more places because it gives you a better chance to win majorities.

Which party is doing a better job of that? The answer is emphatically not the Democratic Party. Let’s start out by stating the obvious- there are simply less blue states than red states, and less red states in which a good Democratic candidate can compete. The map for Democrats to win elections, whether it be for President or state legislators, is tighter and tighter every time. Since President Obama’s re-election ended, more and more of the nation’s land looks red. Plenty of people respond to that with “so what, land can’t vote.” Unfortunately in a federal system, geography is actually important.

Let’s start with the Presidential map. President Obama won 27 states, a district in Nebraska, and Washington, D.C., all at least once in his two runs. Hillary Clinton won 20 states and Washington in 2016. Joe Biden did a bit better, carrying 25 states, Washington, D.C., and Nebraska’s second district in 2020. Kamala Harris only won 19 states, Washington, D.C., and Nebraska’s second in 2024. The states of Iowa, Ohio, and Florida have become red bastions. The states of Indiana and Missouri have gone from super competitive in 2008 to dead red. No Democrat has been able to pull North Carolina back in since 2008. Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin all went from narrow Democrat states from 1988 to 2012, to completely swing states that Trump has won twice. Even with the positive trends in Arizona and Georgia, the map is becoming increasingly difficult for a Democratic candidate to win. States like Texas that Democrats believed would come their way because of demographics are certainly not coming to the Democratic column soon. With current trend lines, Democrats basically will have traded Iowa, Ohio, Florida, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina from lean Dem states to somewhere between swing to red, in exchange for Virginia, Colorado, and New Mexico as blue states, and Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona as swing states, and we lost all three last year.

The Senate outlook is even more bleak. Increasingly, there aren’t Democrats winning red states or Republicans winning blue states. If you told a 20 something year old that Democrats not that long ago held both Senate seats in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana, they’d think you’re on crack. If you told them that Tom Harkin used to not only win Iowa, but be well liked, they’d laugh. If you told them we recently held seats in Missouri and Indiana, they’d not believe you. Florida? Ohio? No. With maybe 19 states leaning to the Democratic side, there’s just not enough in play. There are 25 states that Trump won three times, another five he won twice, and one more he won this time, so Republicans have at least 31 states to battle in. Tack on Maine, New Hampshire, and Minnesota as states he was competitive in, and you have a GOP battle field right now of about 68 Senate seats they can realistically win. At best, the Democrats look like they could pull off 25 states, so they can maybe put 50 states on the board. If Ohio, Florida, and Iowa don’t look any better in 2026, they may literally need to run the table every election to control the Senate moving forward.

Governor races are slightly better- every once in a while you see someone win in a state they shouldn’t, from both sides. Even so, the re-districting battle that is playing out right now is probably not going to help that. In fact, with the outsized role cultural and public health fights in the states are starting to play in our politics, it could become harder and harder to get elected as a Governor in a state where the other party is the dominant political party.

And of course, this gets me to legislative races. Yes, the House of Representatives has been fairly competitive in recent years. Here’s the ugly reality though- The GOP has controlled the House for 17 of the first 25 years. Here in Pennsylvania, they controlled the Senate for all 25 years, and the House entirely for 18 of the last 25 years, and with a Republican Speaker for 20 of the last 25 years. This was during a period when the Voting Right’s Act protected minority representation more than it does now, and during a period where we held the White House for 12 of the 25 years. Uninhibited by the Voting Rights Act or an Executive Branch that will enforce it, the GOP is likely to win a race-to-the-bottom re-districting fight, nationally. Democrats have not faired all that well even under friendlier conditions.

What’s worse to consider is exactly how the Republicans have taken control. After President Obama’s victories, a lot of the “smart kids” inside the Beltway and in leadership positions within the party said “demographics are destiny,” and were going to kill the Republican Party as they lost the “emerging electorate.” They couldn’t have been more wrong. Trump ran a huge chunk of his 2024 campaign railing against transgender people. His supporters basically called Vice-President Kamala Harris a “DEI hire,” and impugned her intelligence. They at times accused her of sleeping her way to the top. Against both Hillary and Kamala, Trump backers raised doubts about women in leadership roles. Trump has spent his Presidency destroying DEI programs in the public and private sector, invading diverse cities with law enforcement and troops, and deporting anyone he can. Even with all that, he has made gains among minority voters. He has locked down anywhere rural in America. He has boxed Democrats into a smaller and smaller playing field.

I blame a ton of this all on the operative class in the Democratic Party, who used fancy algorithms to defend being uncompetitive at all with voters and places they didn’t really like. I also blame this to some extent on a donor class and activist that is way out of touch with what actual voters want the Democratic Party to do. So much of Barack Obama’s campaigns was not about his identity and ideology, and more so about saving jobs for blue collar folks in Michigan and Wisconsin, and it worked. This isn’t an either/or though. You can’t watch Roe v. Wade be overturned and say “we’ll ignore that, women won’t care.” Of course you have to respond to actual harm done in culture wars. Conceding all areas that aren’t culturally progressive though is a losing message. Taking positions that most people hate, like defending “intifada” or slamming Sydney Sweeney for saying she’s hot, just makes us look like weirdos. There’s really no constituency for it. Fighting about niche cultural issues has little appeal, even to people who voted for President Obama. What we should have learned from Hillary Clinton’s loss was that the combination of people who hate us on cultural issues and the people who just don’t give a shit about some of them, makes up a majority. We spent most of the last decade making our message “Donald Trump is unacceptably bad,” and a majority of people either disagreed or shrugged their shoulders.

We’re not going to live in the enlightened utopia that Democrats wish for. Running inauthentic “blue collar” messengers like John Fetterman isn’t going to appease anyone either. No, they don’t want the angry cultural leftist, but no, they also don’t want a bunch of Ivy League educated, trust funded socialists either. They can tell the difference between a blue collar guy and a deadbeat like Bernie Sanders too. They want a better deal from their government, and maybe none of that “globalize the intifada” garbage. Makes sense. None of that will change though until we change our “Democratic political industry” complex altogether. We’re just going to keep putting forward candidates who don’t relate at all.

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.

Bob “Crooksy” Brooks Becomes First Political Candidate to Ever Talk About the Working Class and Jobs

/ Rich Wilkins / 9 Comments

Bob “Crooksy” Brooks is the kind of working class hero who stiffs his mother-in-law for $55,000, so you know he’s an authority on helping out the little guy. Like his hero, Deadbeat Bernie Sanders, Crooksy thinks the Democratic Party sucks. They apparently don’t want to talk to working class people, Crooksy says:

His campaign is playing up his volunteerism as a youth baseball coach and his tattoo: a bulldog in a fire helmet.

“The party of labor, I believe, is the Democrat Party, but I don’t think the Democrat Party talks about or to the working class people anymore, and I think we need to get back to that,” Brooks said in an interview. “The Republicans, they talked about us, they talk to us, but then they go down to DC and they vote against us.”

What in the blue hell is this clown talking about? If you want to say that Kamala Harris message of working class values didn’t get through, fine, but Crooksy is living out some sort of white-guy-from Nazareth fan-fiction where she didn’t try to. The CWA International Union didn’t agree, at least according to this entire page. If that doesn’t convince you, here’s what PBS said about the economic plans of Kamala Harris. And if you need a bit more, HERE’S LITERAL COVERAGE OF WHAT SHE SAID CAMPAIGNING IN PITTSBURGH LAST YEAR. Maybe Crooksy Brooks’ tattoo of a bulldog on himself is more the message though, right? Is that the point he’s trying to sell here.

Here’s what you need to know- Bob Brooks is a fraud, he’s a poor man’s version of John Fetterman. “Oh look at me, I have tattoos, Bernie Sanders loves me, and I say the word middle class and how the Democratic Party sucks, three times in every paragraph that comes out of my mouth!” Of course I was against John Fetterman in 2022, but you know, that’s history. Brooks has the same media team trying to create a picture of him that is very similar to the one Fetterman began with. They’re flat out lying to you. This guy is a blue collar hero like milk from last month is still good for you. Kind of like he’s “endorsed by Josh Shapiro,” but Shapiro has said that nowhere.

Bob Brooks Endorsed By…. zzzzzzzzzz…. Oh, a Bunch of People Not From Here and His Own Union

/ Rich Wilkins / 6 Comments

Bob Brooks told folks he had the support of the Governor. I guess he meant the Lt. Governor. He also claimed Hakeem Jeffries himself wanted him to run. Maybe he meant Deadbeat Bernie Sanders. Then there was his claim that labor was going to run over to support his campaign. I guess he only meant SEIU and his own Fire Fighters union.

I suppose Bobby found some friends though, as you can see in his graphic above- a bunch of State Legislators who don’t live in the 7th Congressional District. You have Representatives and Senators from as close as Mt. Pocono and Scranton, or Philadelphia and lower Bucks County to the South, and as far as from Harrisburg and west of Pittsburgh, and hell, even Erie. What you don’t see is either Democratic State Senator from the Lehigh Valley. You don’t see any of Allentown’s Democratic State Representatives, either of Bethlehem’s, or the one in Easton. You don’t see the Lehigh County Executive, the former Democratic Congresswoman, or any local Lehigh Valley politician. No one here, who actually has to deal with nominating Bob Brooks actually wants to nominate Bob Brooks. He has a laundry list of Democratic politicians from the rest of the state, all of whom are making the political calculation that it’s good politics to support a statewide union President in some other district. I get it. It’s very misleading though. It’s probably helping him raise money, his campaign is claiming to have raised $100k in the first 24 hours, but I’m sure that’s largely from outside of the Lehigh Valley too, like an other candidate.

Maybe the problem for Brooks is too many people in PA-7 know too much. The stakes in the Lehigh Valley are too high to back a candidate who probably won’t be able to defend himself when the Republicans come for him. He calls himself a “family man” on his website, but the conduct doesn’t match the words.

This whole campaign is a John Fetterman styled bait and switch. Run as one thing, be another. Build all kinds of support from people not here, be vague with everything, then be something totally different. Not coincidentally some of the same folks are involved. I have a feeling the disappointment will come earlier this time. There’s a reason they call this man Crooksy.