If Bob Brooks is the nominee of the Democratic Party in PA-7, Republicans will swamp him with negative ads defining him as a deadbeat who took money from his mother-in-law and expresses racist beliefs on social media. In any normal time, I’d say that’s disqualifying, but there are a lot of people who would vote for O.J. Simpson if he ran on their party’s ticket right now. Even so, Crooksy is really the only candidate with a strong general election negative to run against, and Republicans are open that they feel most confident they can beat him. They’ll use his personal baggage, his endorsement from Bernie Sanders and other radical left wingers, and even negatives from his career that they have waiting to use. Democrats can’t afford that. Ryan Crosswell is completely unacceptable, but probably can win a general election, if you’re willing to vote for a Republican. There are three Democrats actually from the Lehigh Valley who are Democrats running in this race. We never needed the DCCC to mess this race up with this guy, but sure enough, it happened.
There’s absolutely no evidence that Crooksy brings anything to the table as a candidate, but that’s not what this is about. He raised $300k last quarter? So did like everyone across the river in NJ-7. Any candidate that gets nominated will raise plenty in the general election, and have PACs you’ve never heard of spending on their behalf. All that any of these folks endorsing him cares about is, he is the President of the IAFF’s Pennsylvania organization and the IAFF is really damn good at politics. When the IAFF backs a candidate for President, that candidate usually wins the Democratic nomination, at a minimum. The Governor wants the IAFF to support him in future campaigns, such as for Governor in 2026 and for President in 2028, and let’s be honest, one is more critical right now than the other. It’s very clear this is why this endorsement is happening, and anyone saying otherwise is a liar. Let’s be honest here, otherwise there’s no other reason to step into a competitive primary. Months ago, everyone claimed they would stay out. Plenty of people have appealed to the Governor directly and his insiders, pleading with them to not endorse this guy. None of that mattered, because this isn’t about this race. It’s about 2028.
I know this is an inconvenient truth to publish, but it’s a truth nonetheless. If I was worried about backlash for saying it, I wouldn’t have started in on Crooksy. I knew this from the start and made the decision on my own to write it. I’ve brought the receipts since day one. Frankly, I haven’t wrote the worst stuff, and probably won’t. Unions and elected officials are being pressured from the good ole’ boys club in Harrisburg to fall in line, to crush a primary here. I’m not invested enough in anyone’s success to play that game.
It’s a cruel, sick, just world. The only Republican left on the Northampton County Council is Tom Giovanni. After running a cynical campaign of memes and attacks on people not running, he didn’t get to put the County GOP Chair in charge of the courthouse after all. He gets to go back to Council and sit quietly by himself as Tara Zrinski serves as the next County Executive. She worked hard, and she earned it.
The rest of the council may not make Giovanni look so bad though. The new chamber will have 8 Democrats in the 9 seats. It still might not be functional. You see, the 8 Democrats don’t necessarily get along, and might not really vote together. How it looks to break out-
Ken Kraft, Kelly Keegan, Jeff Warren- These three Democrats generally voted together on Council during the current term.
Jason Boulette- He seems pretty normal, has an impressive private sector resume, and doesn’t feel like a bomb thrower.
David Holland- I know he used to work at Gracedale, under the private management company. He ran as a Democrat. Most of the ticket didn’t dislike him. I’m cautiously optimistic.
Lori Vargo Heffner- The current President of Council won a third term. She got the most votes, after finishing third in the primary. She had a block of three Democrats that were not as friendly to the outgoing Executive, and many times voted with the three Republicans. Two of those Republicans and the two other Democrats are gone, and Lori is now on her own. This does not mean you should assume she will lose votes though. She counts to five better than a lot of these folks, regardless of who she brings on to get there. Her history with the incoming Executive is fairly sour too.
Terry Fadem- She basically didn’t engage with the other candidates in this past election and some members think she’s more like Lori than them. Time will tell.
Nadeem Qayyum- Look, I’m not getting into the rabbit hole here, but this is madness. Qayyum apparently told people he’s going to come out as a socialist after he got elected, so he must speak more English than other folks think. I don’t really know him, but if he spends most of the next four years bringing up resolutions for “Medicare for All,” for the county to condemn “genocide in Gaza,” and seeking confrontations with ICE, Democrats are going to lose seats soon.
There’s four ways this can go, as I see it-
The first trio work with two of the three (Boulette, Holland, Fadem) or more, and govern.
Lori Vargo Heffner builds an alliance with Giovanni and Fadem, and picks off Holland or Boulette sometimes, and maybe somehow finds ground with Qayyum?
Boulette, Holland, and Fadem stick together and basically choose which way the council goes.
Democrats just vote 8-1 on everything.
I don’t think counting to 5 will be easy on this council. Trying to do a re-assessment or tax increase will not be easy. Increasing spending will not be easy. Future political campaigns will also become a factor in how council works. I really don’t envy whoever these folks elect President, this will be a tough job.
Last week I met Crooksy in the flesh. I have before, but I know I was not as interested in it then. His campaign manager walked up with him at an event, outside of the actual event, and said to him “this is Rich Wilkins, the guy who writes mean things about you.” You know what, that’s sort of accurate (I write accurate things about him), and it’s actually pretty funny. I said “how do you do,” and moved along. It was cold, but cordial. That’s really all it needed to be. I have said the guy would be inappropriate as a nominee, let alone a Congressman. I stand by that.
Later on in the event, a labor “personality” from a union that backs Crooksy decided to let me know they were unhappy with my coverage of their endorsement. After questioning why I didn’t ask them first if I was right (someone involved told me, why would I?) quite aggressively, I asked a pretty straight forward question- was what I wrote wrong? Their answer- “it didn’t go down the way you wrote it.” I don’t know, if I was going to confront someone like that, I’d probably be able to just say “yes, you were wrong” when asked that. Hey though, I guess sometimes the truth is a problem for some.
Look, I have the least skin in the game of anyone in this whole shenanigan- I don’t work for anyone involved in the race. I’m not going to work for anyone in the race. While I have a preference in the race, there are several candidates I could accept if they won. It has been said to friends of mine that I’m “harming my ability to work” by being so vocal about Crooksy. Huh? I haven’t worked for an actual candidate since before my health scare, almost two years, and I’m not really trying to. I charged my last candidate gas money basically for a couple months of work, because I grew up looking up to them and just wanted to help them through. These people want to blacklist me from a job I don’t want or have? Allegedly I won’t be able to work anymore judicial races, at least at the state level. You wouldn’t believe how badly that has me torn up, I might not be able to go on here (I shouldn’t have to tell you to read that with sarcasm, but yeah.). I didn’t have people attempting to blacklist me from work I don’t do on my 2025 bingo card, but I think this is supposed to scare me or something. Listen, I was almost dead once, you’re going to have to do better than that to scare me now. At least threaten to kneecap my good leg or something, I might blink. I’ve never really socialized with my co-workers much, the ones I am friends with know we’re friends. The rest? Honestly, maybe we’re acquaintances. I find myself more and more at odds with the world a lot of these people are trying to build. My attachment level is pretty low at this point.
These folks are hellbent to make sure people don’t have choices in this primary and don’t hear information about the people they want to thrust onto the voters. They had emissaries up here trying to clear the field and rally support. It didn’t work. They think if voters hear about the candidates, they won’t pick their guy. They’re probably right. What I don’t think they want to realize is, the 9-1-1 calls are coming from inside of their own house. Most of what I write is coming from people they tell it to. You think I found this stuff on my own? I dug up social media posts? I mean, this stuff is fair game, but it was given to me. It came from multiple sources. There’s more of it not yet written. The stuff I knew about the guy is stuff that quite frankly I can’t write, it lacks sources willing to talk about it. At least right now. Look, the total readership of this blog isn’t going to move this primary. I mostly put it out hoping the right reader will see it. I have no grand illusions here. If you want to spend all day mad about it, go right on ahead.
I don’t think I’ll be asking the good ole’ boys and girls out on the Susquehanna for a green light on anything. I mean, God bless, but they just don’t really matter to me. If they did, I’d be writing about them. God knows normal people would cringe if they read that kind of stuff.
Come January there will be two new County Executives in the Lehigh Valley. Eight years ago now, I had just managed the election of one, and was chairing the transition of the other. People can say whatever they’d like, but both were successful. One leaves office as everyone’s favorite uncle, a two-term Executive that lead the county through a period of massive change and advancement, and will some day be remembered for vast improvements to Cedarbrook and guiding his county through a global pandemic and societal unrest, while preserving open space and a county nursing home. The other lead for eight years of the same conditions while not raising taxes a dime, preserving a record amount of open space, and keeping Gracedale county home, all while not cutting services. Both are being succeeded by a candidate from their own party.
People liked what they had.
That is now the past tense though. I think both are leaving popular, but most of the public doesn’t like the idea of just “running it back.” Why would they? Times change, society changes, communities need new things. It’s just life. And so we are getting their new transition teams. First, on Northampton County Executive-elect Tara Zrinski’s:
The committee, which will appoint key advisors and set policy priorities for the nascent Zrinski administration, will be chaired by Glenn Reibman, who was county executive from 1998 to 2006.
Zrinski also appointed two other senior leaders to help oversee the process.
Mark Aurand, an attorney who currently assists Zrinski as deputy controller, will serve as transition chairman.
Megan Beste, previously a staffer for former U.S. Rep. Susan Wild who now works for Bethlehem consulting firm Taggart Associates, will be the committee’s senior advisor.
The job of managing communications for the committee falls to Kelly Prentice, an Easton resident who works as a writer and marketing strategist.
Four additional members round out the group: Nazareth School Board member Brandon Faust, Northampton Community College environmental studies professor Anita Erdős Forrester, former Colonial Intermediate Unit supervisor and county election commissioner Margie DeRenzis, and controller’s office solicitor Steve Goudsouzian.
The Executive-Elect is also setting out several issues of priority for her team to address:
They are: health and human services, housing and homelessness, economic development, infrastructure, public safety and criminal justice, equity and environmental issues.
In all, the resulting advisory body could grow to include more than 90 people drafted from the worlds of organized labor, finance, law, social services, small business, nonprofits and public advocacy.
I would say this is pretty ambitious. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Some of these are more within the county’s legal range than others, however there are some things the county can do even in areas that are traditionally outside of their realm that can be helpful. I’m particularly interested in the infrastructure, environmental issues, housing, and health and human services areas, so I’m looking forward to see what they say.
The transition team will be chaired by Jim Irwin, President of the Lehigh Valley Labor Council and Business Agent for the Operating Engineers Local 542 and Samantha Pearson, Director of Development at the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission.
I don’t know Samantha, but I was kind of hard on the LVPC. Knowing Josh, if he picks her, she’ll be solid. As for Jim, he’s an A+ guy. I’m a fan. Josh is organizing his transition into policy areas too.
The transition team consists of the following committees that will begin meeting in December.
Human Services Subcommittee:
Chair: Marci Lesko, President and CEO of the United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley
Kate Cohen: Vice President, Institutional Advancement River Crossing YMCA
Marc Rittle, Executive Director, New Bethany
Brad Osborne, Former Lehigh County Commissioner & Chair of Board
Eric Ruth, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Kellyn Foundation
Housing Subcommittee:
Jonathan Strauss, Co-Founder and Partner Cortex Residential
Abby Goldfarb, Executive Director, Lehigh Conference of Churches
Robert DiLorenzo, Director of Planning and Construction, City Center Group
Phil Malitsch, Director of Land Development Tuskes Homes
Asher Schiavone, Director of Government Affairs, Greater Lehigh Valley Realtors
Economic Development and Regional Growth Subcommittee:
Jason Salus, Montgomery County Treasurer
Dave Nasatir, Chair of Firm, Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippell LLP
Alex Michaels, President and CEO Discover Lehigh Valley
Frank Facchiano is COO and Executive Vice President, Member Relations, Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce
Kristin Cahayla-Hoffman, Vice President of Business Development and Attraction, Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation
Paul Anthony, Business Manager/Financial Secretary International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers 375 and President of the Lehigh Valley Building Trades
Labor/Personnel Subcommittee:
Joe Scoboria, Business Representative, AFSCME 13
Andy Hilt, Business Agent, SEIU 668 for Lehigh County
Danielle Joseph, Executive Vice President, Business & Diversity Councils, Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce
Chris Naylor, Legislative and Political Director, UFCW 1776
Public Safety Subcommittee:
Allentown Police Chief Charles Roca
Jeani Garcia, Director of Operations, Promise Neighborhoods
Katarah A Jordan, CEO of Boys and Girls Club of Allentown
Jeremy Warmkessel, President of IAFF Local 302
Tinku Khanwalkar, Member of Pennsylvania Prison Society, Member of Allentown Environmental Advisory Council focused on environmental sustainability, justice and equity
Local Resilience and Response to Trump Administration:
Mary Erdman, Immediate Past President, Lehigh County League of Women Voters
Adam Hosey, Policy and Political Director, Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania Advocates
Nicole Folino, Community Services Manager, Second Harvest Food Bank
I’m intrigued by a lot here. Human services, because that’s what counties do. His economic development team is dynamite. I’m again interested in what the county wants to do to get involved in housing, and obviously what they come up with to respond to the Trump Administration.
Both Executives are being a bit ambitious here, but that’s not a bad thing for someone who just got elected. If you start from the “we can’t do anything” stance, you’ll be asleep in a few months. Josh went heavy on labor, while Tara’s team has a lot more of the core team around her as both Controller and a candidate. They’re solid groups with lots of people I like. I wish them both well.
Doesn’t this look like a nice spot for a warehouse to you? Sorry, it’s in Warren County.
Let’s just be clear here- the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission is not going to get it’s $461,375 INCREASE in it’s budget from Northampton County. Even if Council approves the increase in cash at their next meeting, that’s going to get a veto from the Executive. Three of the five Democrats are never going to vote to override that. Councilman Brown said he doesn’t support a tax increase, and I doubt Councilman Goffredo does either. What conservative wants to increase taxes to pay for a regional government body’s staff? Good luck getting to six votes for the tax increase to fund this. It will die at the veto, 5-4.
As it should. Councilman Ken Kraft said it better than me:
“Why do we want to give Lehigh Valley Planning Commission all this money?” demanded Council member Ken Kraft. “You heard them when they were here. They have a huge budget surplus.”
Council member John Brown supported an increase and said it was part of the agreement we have with our sister county. But in the eyes of Kraft and many others going back to former Council President Wayne Grube, we are treated more like the ugly red-headed step-sister.
Kraft went on a tear. “I didn’t tell them to move into a new building. I didn’t tell them to incur all this new debt that they did and I don’t think our taxpayers should pay for that. And 90% of it was in salaries alone. … I think they need to figure out how to pay their bills without handouts. I’m a strong No. …. I can’t believe we’re doing this.” … “It’s ludicrous to give this kind of money to them when they said most of it is for salaries. Remember, they are the people who brought you the warehouses all over the county. They told every one of these little municipalities back in Walt Dealtry’s days, if you remember, to change their zoning and planning to allow what happened. And then in the future, we’re like ‘Oh my God, there’s warehouses and cars and everything everywhere.’ Who gave us that? The LVPC. … They have a lot of reserves. We should have their reserves.”
So there’s a lot here, but the main point is “NO.” I often times think the “we get treated like the little brother” argument is a bit trumped up. Is there some truth to it? Sure, but not as much as people think. Let’s dig into the real meat of this though. LVPC does not dispute that they have cash reserves. They did say most of this money would go to salaries. In what world should we fund salaries for an organization that has cash reserves? How far can their reserves stretch? How much of their reserves were county tax dollars? Current taxpayers don’t need to fund future rainy day funds or current bloated regional bodies. It’s not fair in this economy.
Then there is the whole discussion of warehouses and over development. My Father happens to be a township planner, and well, zoning is actually important. Township planning commissioners have very limited abilities to fight back against over development when zoning was already approved for more development and their Township Supervisors don’t have the stomach to fight against deep pocketed developers in court. Essentially most Planning Commissions in municipalities end up simply making sure developers dot their I’d and cross their T’s when they want to make a giant sum or money on a former farm land. If you’re lucky you can get the developer to put in an interchange (route 33 and Tatamy) or maybe give you a little league field (Forks used to love this). If someone buys a piece of land to develop it and has all their legal ducks in a row, they can. Is LVPC responsible for all of the townships being in this position? That’s probably a bit much to claim. Did most of the Lehigh Valley kind of, sort of all zone themselves into this mess in the first place? Yeah, basically. Is there a body that was kind of, sort of supposed to help them avoid that? Yeah, maybe there is.
So I’m a little split on the arguments Kraft made, but he’s generally right- they have money, their reasons for needing more money aren’t really our problem, and maybe, just maybe, this level of government hasn’t worked out all that well for what the residents of the Lehigh Valley would like. I’ll go another step though. Back in the dark ages of the Biden Administration, when infrastructure money became available, there was a shot at connecting up to regional rail from Northampton County to New York City. PennDOT wanted to put a “quiet veto” on that, and basically sought to do so by simultaneously raising the idea of connecting Allentown to SEPTA. The elected County Executive in Northampton County came out and publicly supported AMTRAK to NYC. It’s been alleged by OTHER elected officials that the folks at the LVPC asked them to not seek rail to New York City, because PennDOT would then yank their alleged interest in connecting Allentown to SEPTA (The “other” electeds are from Lehigh County). Neither has happened, nor probably will they, which was really what PennDOT wanted. You see, those bureaucrats stay no matter who is the Governor, and they oppose building anything but highways- even though they build some of the shittiest highways in the country. Even taking everyone at best intentions, they called for killing calls to connect Northampton County and it’s citizens to passenger lines to New York in favor of a never realized passenger line from Lehigh County to Philadelphia. So, in the best of intentioned scenarios you see Kraft’s “little brother” argument with LVPC, and well, he’s right. Worst case? PennDot didn’t want to do shit for anyone in the Lehigh Valley, which is why we have two lane highways all over instead of three way highways, and why we sit in the parking lot called US-22 from 3pm to 6pm every day. PennDOT fat cats keep padding the pension and you get nothing. LVPC either is not picking this up, or has too cushy of a relationship with PennDOT. Either way, if LVPC doesn’t support the objectives of the elected government in Northampton County, why give it extra money beyond what it needs to function?
I told you before about a bunch of Allentown elected officials endorsing Crooksy for Congress. All had stayed neutral for months, and even suggested to folks that they planned to stay neutral, or possibly endorse other candidates. Obviously in the end, only one state elected official in the city is still neutral, Senator Nick Miller. So what happened?
Republican Ryan Crosswell and Democrat Carol Obando-Derstine are both from Lehigh County. Mark Pinsley is literally the Lehigh County Treasurer. Crosswell even claims he lives in Allentown, even if he’s out with the night owls in DC. I know what they’re going to say, and that’s half the fun of writing this. Crosswell is a Republican carpetbagger that worked at a union busting firm. Well, that’s true. Pinsley is a far left progressive in their eyes, which is maybe true, but he’s also winning with their voters, so they may want to be careful how bad they diss him. So what about Carol Obando-Derstine? She’s endorsed by former Congresswoman Susan Wild, who they all loyally backed basically from the start in 2018, albeit maybe less vocally than they’re being for Crooksy. She worked for Bob Casey, who they all loyally supported as well, as they should. So what is it about Carol that they don’t like? Is it that she worked for PP&L, and now PP&L is asking the PUC to approve a rate hike? PP&L is currently asking for a 7% rate increase, so I can get them being reluctant to be too friendly to PP&L. The thing is, they didn’t care about that when Obando-Derstine actually worked at PP&L and rate increases were enacted, they liked her there. I doubt that’s the reason. While Crooksy has failed to really gain support from local organized labor on the whole, he has the Allentown Fire Fighters basically running his political operation, and they are objectively good at it. Are they demanding endorsements for Crooksy from anyone who will seek their future support? Or is it the state Democratic Party, run by the Governor’s foot soldiers, who are demanding support for Crooksy? Could it literally be the Governor himself demanded they endorse Crooksy? We’ve known from day one that the good ole’ boys in the Democratic Party have wanted to shove Obando-Derstine out of the race as the only woman running, because they think she’s dangerous to their plot to astroturf Crooksy in. Could it be that people were told they are not allowed to endorse her? They have already put a nasty rumor out in the street that Carol will be dropping out and endorsing Crosswell because of her poor fundraising. Are they trying to make sure no one backs her now?
If we’re being honest, there are only three people with a chance to win this primary, unless the Harrisburg insiders can muscle all resources and support to their flunky, Crooksy. Crosswell might be able to win because he’s raising a lot of money and his cover story for why he’s doing this is heart-warming to primary voters who don’t know better. Obando-Derstine can win this primary too, if her supporters put up an IE for her and she doesn’t get knee capped as “unelectable” for either her PP&L time or for the “sin” of being an immigrant woman in the era of Trump. And then there’s Lamont McClure, who can win because he’s actually won some elections around here and the voters like him a lot more than the party good ole’ boys do. Crooksy can only win this race if he can get McClure, and probably Obando-Derstine, out of this race too. Otherwise he starts out too unknown to win any part of this district by a large enough margin to win. They know they can’t get Crosswell out of this race, because his Republican out-of-town donors don’t care what the Governor thinks, or any other Democrat for that matter. They know they can’t get Pinsley out of the race either, because the guy habitually loves to run for something. They know they can’t get Crooksy nominated, to ultimately lose the general election, unless they get the actual Democrats from the actual Lehigh Valley to drop out. If they can pull that off, then a bigot, socialist, that stiffs his mother-in-law can maybe, just maybe win. If we race to the bottom, we’ll find something lower.
Bob “Crooksy” Brooks should be a salesman. Apparently Josh Shapiro has been convinced that Crooksy is good for his personal political ambitions, and he’s going to endorse him. Of course, they’ve been saying that since July, but still. The good ole’ boys from Harrisburg have been up here telling people to endorse him, because the Governor will be “soon.” Only a couple did, and for all the wrong reasons. Most people don’t want to support a racist, a religious gun-nut fundamentalist, and guy who stole from his mother-in-law and didn’t pay her back for 14 years, even losing on appeal. You would think in a Democratic primary the racism alone, let alone the embrace of political violence, would do it. Ryan Mackenzie has nothing to fear if he gets to run against this crook. No normal person is going to trust a guy who broke a contract with his mother-in-law for 14 years, it shows you exactly who he is. People aren’t going to vote for a guy who lies, steals, and pulls underhanded moves to take over his union. Bob “Crooksy” Brooks is just another Tulsi Gabbard or John Fetterman.
Crooksy is either a real good salesman, delusional, or just hilarious. Now he’s claiming he’s going to get endorsed by Gavin Newsom, according to sources. Look, I’d say he’s full of shit, but he did get Deadbeat Bernie Sanders to endorse him, which is both political malpractice and hilarious. You know what they say about crooks of a feather? But Newsom? Really? Coming across the country to endorse a guy who stiffed his mother-in-law? Gavin Newsom wants to embrace the latest marginal intellect white savior complex candidate endorsed by the bolsheviks? That helps him how? He wants to tell Black voters he is for the guy who hates Kaepernick for kneeling?
There is definitely an element within the Democratic operative world that thinks we need to run communists and bigoted white guys. They think a guy with a Nazi tattoo is what we need to win in Maine. They’re not right though, and Newsom is smart enough to know that. So why would this be? The #2 guy at the IAFF is their head guy in California, and I’m just taking a shot in the dark here, but he may be the link. Perhaps it’s a very low brain wave version of political chess, where one Governor thinks he can get a major endorsement for his quixotic 2028 Presidential campaign, and the other Governor then is convinced he absolutely needs to get in on this too, so nobody gets the credit. I mean, I’m spit balling here. It’s definitely not worth the trouble though.
Look, this is borderline hilarious. Given what a narcissist this guy is, he probably opened an email from Newsom and thinks he’s getting his endorsement now. As one out of the Valley lawmaker puts it, “we all like Bob, but none of us think he can do it.” He’s way nicer than I. If I didn’t know the place he tended bar, I wouldn’t believe he was smart enough to tend bar. Bartenders I know are the smartest people out there, they know when to get cut off a bad situation. This guy is trying to drink from a fire hose while a raging inferno blazes in front of him. The problem is, the powerful and brilliant minds that gave us the 2024 Democratic Party in Harrisburg and Washington are trying to astroturf this guy a victory. This is like handing a mentally ill person a loaded AR-15.
I’m seriously putting the over/under at 2.5 State Legislators standing behind Julian Guridy when he announces his campaign for PA-22 tomorrow. I’m sure all the regulars will be there. But here’s the thing- Julian seems to have his own resume to sell though. He’s been an aide to State Senator Nick Miller and has a great reputation for that. He’s been building up for this. He seems like a very strong candidate and I think he’ll make a good representative for center city Allentown.
While the party will pick who runs in the special election to replace County Executive-Elect Siegel, there will be a primary in May, and it looks like it might be crowded. CeCe Gerlach, a city councilwoman who runs with the support of the Working Families Party, will be a formidable candidate in that race. CeCe has detractors, but I doubt anyone will say with a straight face that anyone will out work her as a campaigner. Allentown activist Jessica Ortiz also has a Facebook page for a campaign for this seat, but I haven’t seen a formal announcement yet. Ortiz has people who will show up to back her. Neither of these ladies will lay down and play dead for Guridy in this race.
There are already some hate merchants out there leading whisper campaigns here, and unfortunately this race could get ugly. I hope not though. I doubt we’ve heard anywhere near the end of this one.
I’m an OG Bernie hater. When his online weirdos put me on their hate list in 2017, it was a badge of honor. I knew then that he was a grifter. His campaign, his super pac (Our Revolution), and his institute (Sanders Institute) all employed his family. Some of his organizations bought his books (great for royalties). He made a profit off of running for office. So he kept running for President in a political party that he slams repeatedly and isn’t a member of. It’s a great existence, for him. He disowns all the stuff that is inconvenient for him, vaguely claims the populist stance, and makes a lot of money off of it. It’s easy to see the guy isn’t real.
I also never trust the people he elevates as our “future.” He has given us some real doozies. Bernie gave us Tulsi Gabbard (who literally had an internal campaign “hate” list that they put me on too). Tulsi Gabbard told us Assad in Syria was “not an enemy,” essentially blaming the U.S. for Russia invading Ukraine, and that Hillary Clinton is drugged and refusing to back her over her foreign policy and cheating Bernie out of the nomination. Today, Tulsi Gabbard is Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, claiming that Russia did not seek to help Trump in 2016 (they did), contradicting a GOP lead Senate report saying they did. Gabbard’s revisionist history is the backbone of the government’s case that former Obama era intelligence leaders lied to Congress and tried to frame Trump. In short, Tulsi Gabbard is a psychopath. Bernie Sanders told us she’s not. Of course, she got her rise by being a trusted friend to Bernie.
Happy Saturday, friends… and enemies too! You see, I have a very, very good idea of my audience on this blog, and well, that impacts what I write here. I’d love to write my thoughts on the Sixers, or next year’s Foo Fighters tour, or the Phillies off-season. I write about how Bernie Sanders sucks and what’s wrong with Ryan Crosswell and Bob Brooks, and you read it though. Yesterday, I talked about how the Allentown crew put self preservation over what’s right, and you read it. You know who you are. A couple thousand hits in the immediate hours after can be confusing, but I still know who most of these readers are. Readers in Arlington, in Washington, in Philadelphia, in Rockville, in Ashburn, in Brooklyn, in White Plains, in Allentown, in Bangor (ok, this one slightly confuses me), in Easton, in McKeesport, in Bethlehem, in Princeton, in Camp Hill, in Braddock, in Phillipsburg, in Hazleton, in Harrisburg… shit, I’m going to be honest, some of you read this so much that I actually am like 99% I know who each of you are. I know who my daily reader from Nazareth is. I also know why you read this, because I pretty much know who you are. And look, that’s great. I write this so someone reads it. I don’t write it to read myself.
Most of you reading this enjoy it. Some of you (hey opposition researchers!) send me into to post here. When I’m reasonably sure it’s true, I post it. Some of you wonder why, and even are critical of me doing it, as if Rich Wilkins not posting something a.) makes it untrue, b.) means it won’t get out. It is a uniquely poor trait of Pennsylvania politicos, more so than any of the other states I’ve been in, that we think we can keep secrets. We can’t. I’m not on any of the campaigns right now, I’m not paying for this stuff, it’s so easy to find that any idiot could do it. Which gets to my other point here- most of you enjoy reading this blog, but yesterday the smoke coming from Allentown looked like a mushroom cloud. One subject was sending the post around complaining, one actually complained to me personally (one talked to me and we actually joked about it, but I’ll leave that for another time), and one is probably already reading this and fuming. I could hear the words that I’m sure came out of one of their mouths- “Rich is a nobody anyway and no one cares what he says.”- while literally talking about what I wrote. Hey, I like irony. The truth is, there’s lots more to come on Crooksy and others. I already have some of it. I’ll print it when I want to. Assuming I want to. And you should be glad I do. If I’ve found all this on a zero dollar budget, don’t you think Ryan Mackenzie has this and more (he does)? At least by me writing it, you know about it now, not when it’s hitting you in the face.
Look, I’m not your boss. I’m not your dad. I’m not your Governor. I give you information, if you don’t care about that, it’s fine. If you’re fine with racism, fine. If you’re fine with extremism, fine. If you’re fine with political violence, that’s not fine, but you can be. If you’re fine with being untrustworthy, fine. Look, if you think Kaepernick was an ass for kneeling during the national anthem, that’s your choice. Bob Brooks agrees with you. Just own that though. Don’t claim he’s changed, because now he’s telling you he did because it’s good politics. Don’t claim it was “just a messy divorce,” when he didn’t pay his mother-in-law back one penny for over 14 years before she sued him. She had him sign a contract after four years of not being paid, and he still didn’t pay her. Just own it. If you’re fine with this because the guy’s union gave you a few bucks for your re-election, I actually totally get it. Just be real with yourself. He doesn’t dispute that he got sued and lost, hell he appealed it and lost. He doesn’t claim he didn’t post racist and extremist memes, he just says that was then. Hell, Ryan Crosswell at least tries to claim he wasn’t “really” a Republican, even though he re-registered in multiple states, and that he only worked on non-competes, not union busting as a private lawyer. Crooksy pretty much admits everything. Or just says it doesn’t matter.
Blogs aren’t the real world. This blog will not move voters next year. Maybe a few of you won’t vote for one candidate or another over something I show, but my audience is in the thousands, and as I stated above, you live in lots of different districts. Basically 90% of you are here reading for politics. A few of you are here reading about the other topics, and you’re my favorites. Most of what I write on this blog is for my audience’s interest though, a bunch of politicos. Sometimes it really reaches a broader audience, of politicos who never met me before. That’s great. This blog can only serve as a guide to how to win an election, it’s not going to get it done on it’s own. That takes money and mass communication with voters. That is not happening here on this page.
Apocalypse Vibes 