The Lehigh Valley

Crooksy’s Really Problematic, Antisemitic Endorser

/ Rich Wilkins / 2 Comments

Way back on September 12th, 2025, Congressman Ro Khanna of California endorsed Bob “Crooksy” Brooks for Congress. Crooksy was very proud of himself. He said of Khanna’s endorsement, “My friend (and PA native) Ro Khanna has been a champion for working class people. Grateful to have him on board.” Ro said a bunch of nice things about Crooksy too. None of this is shocking, Ro endorsed Bernie Sanders for President and Bernard endorsed Crooksy on day one. It’s all one little corrupt crew of bros.

I wonder if Crooksy was still proud yesterday. Ro went on a bender of antisemitism and just outright lunacy. He defended left-wing freaks. He defended outright right-wing fascists. It was rather remarkable and stands right up there next to Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 point NBA basketball game as one of the most amazing feats of human achievement in history. Let’s take a look at Ro’s big day.

Defending Pat Buchanan

Ok, this is amazing by any standard.

Pat Buchanan is a fucking lunatic, pardon my French. First off, he argues World War II. wasn’t necessary and that Winston Churchill caused the war by pledging to defend Poland. He also says the Treaty of Versailles after World War I was too harsh. He thinks that Hitler was actually a pragmatist, at least in 1933. He literally wrote a book outlining all of this stuff. Buchanan once said that the Congress of the United States was under Israeli occupation. Buchanan once had to remove a forum for Shoah deniers from his website. He once wrote a piece for “The American Free Press,” a publication ran by a Holocaust denier. He called AIDS a “retribution” against “homosexuals.” He questioned “Did Hitler Want War?” in an article. The guy said a lot of crazy shit. Look, some bad statements and acts don’t disqualify every last idea you speak for the rest of your life. Was Buchanan occasionally right about singular issues? Sure. The guy also defended Hitler, wanted to basically stop non-white immigration, and trafficked in homophobia. Given all of that, no normal person should feel the need to defend him on a specific instance. Hell, Donald Trump once opposed this guy and called him a “Hitler Lover.” Ro isn’t normal though.

Ro Copies Gretchen Whitmer’s Statement on Michigan Synagogue Attack

This is just embarrassingly bad work.

This is terrible staff work. If it mattered to him though, he would have required actual work.

Ro Expresses Pride in his Antisemitic Friends

When you’re a United States Congressman, sometimes you just let some things go. Not everyone gets a response. A younger staffer at Third Way is probably not someone you should choose to go after.

Now, there’s the whole issue of whether he should have engaged anyway, but this post comes out around the time today of the synagogue attack in Michigan. Necessary? Definitely not. Let’s go deeper though. He defended three specific people. Let’s look at them.

Hasan Piker is an asshole, again, pardon the French. I’m not sure why he got famous, but some people listen to him. Not shocking, people vote for Donald Trump. Not that long ago though, saying you supported Hamas, a terrorist organization that kills Palestinians and hasn’t held an election in Gaza in like 20 years was a deal breaker. Saying the same for Hezbollah, a terrorist organization that occupies Lebanese sovereign territory, was also a dealbreaker. And the Houthis? They’re newer to the public debate, but they’re literally shooting at foreign ships coming into their region. No thanks. As for Graham Platner, how about we just don’t add to that. The guy had a Nazi tattoo for decades, goes on Nazi podcasts, and retweets Nazis. Look, whatever good ideas he may have, he’s a Nazi, and I was always taught that’s bad. As for Mamdani, I’ve made it clear how I feel. He’s probably the least offensive of these three, and he’s still awful. I’m not embracing the Intifada, even if I think Israel’s war in Gaza is awful at this point.

To be clear here, we’re not going to claim that all of Ro Khanna’s nonsense is Crooksy’s responsibility- besides, he doesn’t pay up on his responsibilities. The bigger point here is that a lot of the same people end up showing up in all of this antisemitic bigotry. Ro Khanna, Ruben Gallego, and Bernie Sanders are all endorsers of Graham Platner and his Nazi tattoo in Maine, and they’re all endorsers of Obama-hating Bob “Crooksy” Brooks here in PA-7. Hey, at least Crooksy only takes his mother-in-law’s money, that’s a helluva lot better than getting a Nazi tattoo, right? Once Martin Heinrich joins they can get the whole band together. These folks want to effectively U-Turn the Democratic Party from where it’s been post-Barack Obama and take it to some sort of pre-LBJ version where we “prioritize” the “working class again,” which is really just code word with them for white guys (Kamala won every other “working class” demographic in 2024). They’re readily willing to toss aside Jewish voters, who are probably the second most consistently Democratic voting group in the electorate, to appease voters they can’t appease anyway. I don’t know why anyone would want to follow the strategy of a guy who lost two primaries for President by millions and millions of votes and has passed like three bills in thirty years in the Congress, but here we are. On the dumbest timeline. With the dumbest endorsers, endorsing a guy who pulled his shirt over his face when he was asked about funding Israel at a Lehigh Valley 4 All meeting (the video has since been made private by the group). We’re going to pretend there is some sort of morality here, some sort of strategic vision here, quite frankly some sort of brain waves here. Meanwhile this snake oil salesman is being endorsed by a Congressman defending Pat Buchanan. Great times.

The Fields are Set in the Lehigh Valley

/ Rich Wilkins / 1 Comment

Well, petitions are over. We know who is on the ballot now here in the Lehigh Valley. Let’s take a look at what our options are on the ballot.

Governor and Lt. Governor

So, there’s no surprises at all. No gadfly candidates who made the ballot, no freak shows, no party dissidents. Governor Josh Shapiro is the only Democrat for Governor. State Treasurer Stacy Garrity is the only Republican. Lt. Governor Austin Davis is the only Democrat in that race too. Republicans Jason Richey (Allegheny) and John Ventre (Westmoreland) are the only Republicans. I’m voting for Shapiro and Davis. Simply put, Garrity and whichever of these folks wins are simply too dangerous to essential public needs, such as health care, public education, infrastructure, and the environment. I have my disagreements with the Governor’s judgment on several issues, but this isn’t the time to deal with those.

Congress- PA-7

Only four of the gaggle of announced candidates made it to the starting line. Bob “Crooksy” Brooks is a total fraud. Carol Obando-Derstine seems like a solid person and Democrat, I’d have nothing bad to say if she got nominated in this race, and I’d vote for her in November. Ryan Crosswell is a Republican and a union buster. I’m voting for Lamont McClure. I will keep this as simple as can be. In eight years as County Executive he expanded farmland preservation, kept Gracedale County owned, didn’t cut services to the public, and didn’t raise taxes. In the aftermath of the “Big Beautiful Bullshit Bill,” we’re going to need members in Congress who understand the way cuts to Medicaid, the ACA, infrastructure spending, and all the other government programs that were cut are actually hitting us locally. Additionally, he’s been an advocate against new warehouse proliferation and for passenger rail from Amtrak. I think we have two pretty good candidates, I am just going to vote for him.

State Senate- 14th

Only two folks filed. Democratic incumbent Nick Miller and Republican Omy Juriel Maldonado. Nick has done a good job in his first term. While not making waves, he’s made his way into Democratic leadership and is delivering for the people of Valley. I don’t have a vote in this district, but I’m for Nick Miller.

16th

So only three of the four Democrats made it to the starting line. Richlandtown Mayor Wayne Codner, Pennridge School Board Member Bradley D. Merkl-Gump, and Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley. The Bucks Dems tried to herd everyone into backing Merkl-Gump, whom I’m guessing will be the best fundraiser in this race. Pinsley has the name recognition here from losing in 2022 by 9%. Codner is relatively unknown, but his profile as a veteran, a Black man, and the Mayor of a very red town is pretty impressive. I think if we’re truly trying to win this seat and nominate an authentic candidate, Codner is the strongest to me. But I think we should let them all campaign a bit and see.

18th

Senator Lisa Boscola has a challenger from both sides. My guess is that will mean she did something right to Lehigh Valley voters. Apparently losing for the State House by over 50% to Bob Freeman has not soured Taiba Sultana on the idea of this quixotic primary on the Democratic side. I don’t know who tells her this is a good idea, but she’s going to lose her home precinct in Easton in this race. If Taiba wanted to run a primary where she could get 20% and be competitive while ranting about ICE and genocide, she should have run for Congress. This is a sideshow. Republican Scott Janney is their sacrificial lamb this time, and he’ll do way better than Taiba. But he’ll lose by at least 15%. I’m for Lisa Boscola. Again, she’s delivering the things our local governments are asking for. You may wish she was more of a leftist, but be honest with yourself, then she’d lose. That’s not who lives in Northampton County.

State House- 137th

Since I live in this seat, I’ll start here. County Councilman Jeff Warren is challenging Joe Emrick. I’m voting for Jeff Warren. Simply put, Joe Emrick is not there for our schools, our seniors, our infrastructure, or our environment. He’s a no vote on legalizing recreational cannabis, thereby denying our students and seniors the tax dollars that are going across the river into Phillipsburg, NJ, from our customers. He’s an ex-teacher who really doesn’t want to solve property taxes or fund the schools, so the worst of all worlds. Simply put, he’s a road block.

131st

Milou who? Ryan’s Mommy is back, running to be the self-proclaimed most Conservative state elected in the Lehigh Valley. Meriam Sabih is running against her. Look, by default I’m for Meriam Sabih. With that said, I thought her last campaign was very energetic, practical, and impressive. She ran as a serious person with thought out policies, and that makes her better than Milou Mackenzie.

135th

Steve Samuelson is being challenged by Republican Joseph Poplawski. I know nothing about this guy, other than he will lose in the general. I’m with Steve Samuelson.

136th

Bob Freeman is being challenged by… oh, it doesn’t matter what his name is. Bob is the best legislator in our region, and at least to me, in the state. In 40 years the guy has never, not once, embarrassed us in his service. I’m with Bob Freeman.

138th

Up in the northern tier of Northampton County, Jared Bitting is challenging Ann Flood for this seat. This is really tough terrain for a Democrat, but I’m for Jared Bitting.

183rd

Zack Mako is being opposed by Deirdre Kamber. I don’t know her at all. Friends of mine say very nice things about her. I’m for her I think, but let’s see her campaign.

132nd

Mike Schlossberg is being opposed by Republican Caren Lowrey. I know nothing about her. Mike might make some poor endorsements, but Mike is a very, very good state representative. For every reason I stated that we need to re-elect the Governor, Senator Miller, and Senator Boscola, and every reason I stated we need to remove Joe Emrick, we need Mike re-elected to the House. As Whip, he is one of those ultimately responsible for moving progress forward.

134th

Pete Schweyer is being opposed by Miriam Alicia Maldonado. Again, I know nothing about her. Basically everything I wrote about Mike basically applies here too.

187th

After a two year break, Gary Day is back roaming the halls of the State Capitol aimlessly. Bless his heart. He’s being challenged by two Democrats, Rachel Guynn-Cuevas and Geoffrey Whitcomb. I know nothing about either right now.

22nd

Fresh off of her win, Ana Tiburcio is being challenged from all sides. Ce-Ce Gerlach is challenging her on the Democratic side. Bob Smith must not have lost bad enough in the special election, because him and his 200 and some votes (I think?) are back. I’m for Ce-Ce Gerlach. Look, I watched that debate. I may think Ce-Ce is further to the left than I like, but she knows the issues and she’s going to vote on the right side because those are her values, not because other legislators tell her what to think on the issue. Allentown can do better, and it should.

NOTE- I somehow left Jeanne McNeill out of here. Feel free to laugh at me, I’ve literally done work for her. She’s a great Representative and deserves another term.

Crooksy and the Election Deniers

/ Rich Wilkins / Leave a comment

Bob “Crooksy” Brooks is running to be the Democratic nominee for Congress in PA-7. He even filmed a commercial with Pete Buttigieg this week in a cigar bar to give you the sense he’s a middle class guy (It’s a great cigar bar, I recommend it). One has to wonder though, does Crooksy even like Buttigieg? We know he doesn’t like President Obama. Brooks personally announced the Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association was not endorsing Kamala Harris. I wonder why? Crooksy really doesn’t seem to like other Democrats, unless they’re endorsing him.

Maybe Crooksy is running in the wrong primary. He loves religious radicals and gun nuts. He really doesn’t think Democrats know how to talk to working class people. Most importantly though, Crooksy loves election denying Republicans. He made sure to personally repost social media posts from his union praising Republican State Senators Mike Regan and Camera Bartolotta. Regan was named in a report for spreading election denial conspiracies. Bartolotta signed a letter to Senator Mitch McConnell and Congressman Kevin McCarthy asking them to delay certification of the 2020 Election. Bartolotta currently sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee in Harrisburg, as well as the Rules & Executive Nominations Committee. She is an election denier when it’s convenient for her. Crooksy is fine with this.

Look, I know most of these GOP legislators are just doing this to keep their jobs. Adherence to “Dear Leader” is a requirement in that party, and both of these folks probably pushed this shit to stay on the right side of the local MAGA Juntas, or local GOP committees (didn’t work for Bartolotta). The problem here is the hypocrisy of Crooksy. He personally made it a point to not endorse Vice-President Kamala Harris as leader of his union, which is certainly his choice, but he’s giving cover from that same post to people who were giving cover to people in the nut house, denying the 2020 election. Now he wants to run and claim he’s some leftist that will take back the working man. Crooksy is just the new John Fetterman, right down to the hoodie. What a shame that Buttigieg is covering for this fraud.

As Pete Stumps for Bob “Crooksy” Brooks, I Wonder if Crooksy Even Likes Buttigieg, or Anyone in the Biden Administration?

/ Rich Wilkins / 2 Comments

Pete Buttigieg did a tour through Eastern Pennsylvania today. He stopped in Philadelphia today with Malcolm Kenyatta, he hung out with Frank Pintabone and Larry Holmes Jr. in Easton, and of course he did an event here with Crooksy. If you’re wondering why Pete Buttigieg endorsed a guy he didn’t know before he got a call from him, Pete’s Iowa State Director was a Fetterman senior staffer with Crooksy’s TV consultants- you know, establishment Democratic politics at play. An endorsement as worthless as the promissory note Crooksy signed to pay back his ex-mother-in-law, according to the judges who rejected his appeal over a decade later.

Since Bob “Crooksy” Brooks brought Secretary Buttigieg to town to stump for him though, I guess it’s worth asking, what does Crooksy actually think of “Mayor Pete?” Look, you might say that’s ridiculous, but I never would have thought a statewide union President would think President Obama “sucked” when his own international union supported him. Then again, Crooksy does have some opinions on outspoken Black men. You see though, Pete Buttigieg was the Secretary of Transportation in the Biden Administration, and we don’t know what Crooksy thought of Biden (yet). We do know, at least if you do a simple google search, that the Pennsylvania Association of Professional Fire Fighters declined to endorse Vice-President Kamala Harris in 2024, with Brooks himself deferring to the IAFF for an endorsement, who also didn’t endorse Harris (simply google “did the Pennsylvania professional fire fighters association endorse Kamala Harris?”). Boy, I wonder what Crooksy didn’t like about her? Oh right, she didn’t know how to speak to the middle class like he does.

Anyway though, enough with “Crooksy Brooksy’s” feelings about Black people and the Biden Administration, and on to some real substance here. I don’t think Pete Buttigieg really knew the guy he was endorsing all that well, and I am not so sure that Crooksy actually likes Secretary Buttigieg. Or at least, if Crooksy does like him, I think he keeps it quiet so he doesn’t upset his “rain maker” in Harrisburg, the Governor. You see, Secretary Buttigieg was the main point person out selling the Biden era Infrastructure Bill that passed Congress. One of the things Secretary Buttigieg really sold hard to the public? Rural Broadband. In fact, Secretary Buttigieg really sold the case for broadband in the bill:

“A connection to the internet is about as important as a connection to the interstate is,” he said. “You need both, you need to be able to connect both digitally and physically in order to do everything; from getting up to date market information on when to sell, to being able to have your kids do their homework or take advantage of telemedicine opportunities.”

The deal would put $65 billion towards expanding the country’s broadband network. Buttigieg said 100 percent of Americans should have fast, reliable, and affordable internet.

“That’s not easy, especially that last couple percent, after you get to 98 percent or so, for folks who are in really spread-out areas,” Buttigieg said. “But it’s important to the President that no one’s left behind and that no one has to wonder whether this bill is going to be for them.”

You know, I couldn’t agree more with all of that. Broadband for all! You see though, there’s some debate about how that went. You see, Governor Shapiro called the program a failure, going so far as to say absolutely no one in Pennsylvania benefitted from it. For real, he said zero people got it. If that’s the case, that is one of the biggest government boondoggles in history. Either Biden’s Administration, and by extension Buttigieg, were a bunch of inept morons, or Shapiro’s Administration was totally inept in applying for the money, or both. Now, I’ve got my opinions on Buttigieg helping Shapiro be successful, but I think it’s fair to say both sides have their opinions on what happened, and they don’t mix.

It may seem a bit inconvenient for Crooksy’s backers that Shapiro says Buttigieg and the team on the infrastructure law were incompetent, especially when they are bringing Buttigieg to the district, but I doubt that bothers Crooksy in the slightest bit. He knows that the Governor butters his rolls in this race, and frankly Buttigieg was just doing a fly in for promotion ahead of 2028. I mean, Crooksy didn’t like Barack Obama, he clearly didn’t like Kamala Harris, by proximity the guy probably thinks Joe Biden wasn’t so bright too, and Pete Buttigieg is just some guy who was junior to all of them anyway. He’s probably glad he came in and gave him a shout out, but he needs the Governor to buy him this office. So don’t be fooled by any of this. It was little more than a publicity stunt, and not a believable one at that.

Crooksy and Republican Crosswell’s Impending Nuclear War

/ Rich Wilkins / Leave a comment

Well, we’re like three months or so from Pennsylvania Primary Day. Republican Ryan Crosswell and Bob “Crooksy” Brooks have the most money in the PA-7 race. Crosswell is fraudulent. Crooksy is the biggest fraud in the field. Now we know that Crosswell was the source of most of the negatives on Crooksy too. Both men are virtual unknowns. Both know that only one of them has a shot to take off in this race. The only question is who bites who first? If you ever wanted to watch a scorpion fight, you’re in luck with this race.

Here’s the thing, a lot of people are going to opine for everyone to stay positive. That’s not an option here. Crooksy can’t afford to not hit Crosswell. Crosswell has more money than he does, and if he gets to tell his made up story of standing up to Trump first and people buy into it, Crooksy will have no oxygen to rise in this race. Crosswell can’t afford to not hit Crooksy either. If Crooksy has the Governor lie to people and tell them that he’s a good Democrat and good person, Crosswell won’t be able to pry those votes back from him, no matter what he says. Both need to hit the other, and both need to do so before minds are made up. Both start out with no base of votes, and need to find people gullible enough to buy into their fictional stories about their lives. If one beats the other to the punch, the ball game may be over. If they both go positive? Well whoever feels like they’re behind will need to absolutely tear the other to the ground to have any chance to win.

Both of these guys have never run for office before. Both are entirely creations of a DC consultant class that is trying to drive the Democratic Party off of a cliff right now. Their high priced spin masters will probably tell them that going negative is too dangerous, and blah blah blah. That will only hold for a little while. There is no way both of these two can build themselves up from nothing. Eventually one of them has to start firing the very obvious opposition research that is out there on both. These are two very objectionable people and it would be malpractice to run a campaign where you don’t inform the public of how fraudulent the other is. If they don’t do it to each other, who will? No one else can come in with that kind of heft and define these guys for who they are.

The Tree Fell in the Forest and Absolutely No One Heard It- Tiburcio Elected to Represent Allentown in Harrisburg

/ Rich Wilkins / 1 Comment

First, the good news- Ana Tiburcio won in the 22nd House District last night. Democrats keep their 102-101 majority. The Mayor, County Executive, and entire state legislative delegation all don’t wear egg for supporting the candidate. Not only did she win, but she won big. She got 67.28% of the vote. In other words, Bob Smith got a lower percentage than he did in 2022’s race. It was a blowout. Allentown’s Latino majority population now has a Latina State Representative, which is how it should normally be.

Now, the bad news- absolutely not a ****ing soul voted in that God forsaken election. I’m not kidding. 6.9% turned out to vote in this thing. Had Smith got the 3,662 votes he got in 2022, or if he had even got half the votes he got in that election, he would have defeated Tiburcio by a fairly comfortable margin and flipped the state house. 2,249 people out of 32,737 registered voters voted in this election. An election to empower someone to vote on your schools, roads, police, firemen, zoning laws, and literally basically every part of your every day life wasn’t intriguing enough for people.

Such is life on “Planet Allentown,” I guess. I’m not sure a vote total this low makes me think Representative-elect Tiburcio can beat Ce-Ce Gerlach, but now she’ll have at least a few weeks to get a check from every lobbyist in Harrisburg. Also, rumor has it that something “disqualifying” is going to be put out into the public about Gerlach, and my guess is we’ll get that in the next month or two. Gerlach has a base of support though, and I’m not sure the powers that be can dissuade her support, or for that matter beat it. This race will be very interesting to watch.

Perhaps a slightly different read here though- yes, Allentown has a recent history of poor turnout in elections, but are numbers this low emblematic of something greater in the air? 6.9% turnout suggests that people are not nearly as enthusiastic to vote as many people think. Now, the 2025 elections produced astronomical turnout, and perhaps that tells us more. Or perhaps it doesn’t. It’s brutally difficult to watch the news right now, and watching it doesn’t excite anyone. I guess we’ll find out where people’s heads are at in May.

Bob “Crooksy” Brooks and Being Completely Full of Shit

/ Rich Wilkins / 2 Comments

Bob “Crooksy” Brooks is a bad guy. In a different time, political people of all stripes would agree. Stiffing an elder out of over $50k is the kind of thing that made everyone condemn you at one time. The thing is, Bob is a bad guy under 2026’s partisan lense too though. He hated Barack Obama. He hated Colin Kaepernick too. Newsflash here- the guy doesn’t really like Black guys with political opinions, or at least he didn’t before he was running for Congress. He was a gun nut and school prayer proponent before too. In no measurable way was this man a good guy, according to Democratic values. He really wasn’t by non-political, neutral values either. Republicans are going to point out his personal finances and voters are going to cringe. He’s the one candidate who can lose to Mackenzie for sure. People will see right through the “working class hero” and see a bum.

The thing is, it’s way worse than I even previously wrote. While I was “away” at St. Luke’s, we learned where all his shady money went- shady causes. Much like he now runs as a “progressive champion,” it seems everything Crooksy believes in has a price tag:

Of U.S. immigration law enforcement, Brooks writes in his campaign platform: “In America, we don’t send masked men to kidnap people off the street and throw them into unmarked cars. It’s bullshit and un-American.” Brooks’ wife owns up to $1,000 worth of stock in government contractor Palantir, a company co-founded by Republican megadonor Peter Thiel that provides technology to Immigration and Customs Enforcement to find and deport undocumented immigrants.

Regarding Americans staying healthy, Brooks writes: “No more lining the pockets of insurance and drug company bosses. Healthcare should work for people.” Brooks or his wife owns stock in several pharmaceutical and health insurance companies, including drugmaker AbbVie (up to $1,000), pharmaceuticals and medical products distributor Cardinal Health (up to $15,000), insurance company Elevance Health (up to $15,000) and insurance company Humana (up to $1,000), according to his financial disclosure.

In a statement to NOTUS, Brooks’ campaign manager Jenna Kaufman said Brooks has never personally traded stocks — the couple uses a professional investment management firm to steer their stock holdings, according to Brooks’ financial disclosure.

“Once in Congress, neither he nor his wife will own individual stocks,” said Kaufman, who did not answer questions about the couple’s personal investment philosophy or indicate whether Brooks and his wife would divest of their individual stock holdings in the meantime.

Among other stocks owned by Brooks or his wife: shares of Chevron, Meta, Nvidia and Tesla. Brooks and his wife together also own between $2,000 and $30,000 worth of stock in Amazon.com, which has faced accusations of illegal union busting and formal complaints alleging as much.

Brooks’ exact net worth is unclear, as congressional candidates are only required by law to list the values of their assets and liabilities in broad ranges, such as “$1,001 to $15,000” or “$50,001 to $100,000.”

Taken together, Brooks and his wife could be worth as little as about $148,000 and as much as $3.89 million, according to a NOTUS analysis of more than 220 individual assets and liabilities Brooks disclosed on Jan. 28.

Crooksy is going to make excuses about why he’s running as if he’s Bernie Sanders, but investing as if he’s Elon Musk. The Governor is going to defend him, because it’s good for him in 2028. Allentown’s electeds will defend him too, because they don’t want to get on the wrong side of the fire fighters. It’s all self interest, and it’s everything wrong with the Democratic Party. One of the main reasons we can’t get the votes of people we claim to want to help is that they know we’re full of shit. This dude is invested in Palantir and Chevron, but wants you to know he’s a working class champion who will stop Trump- do you think any normal, functioning human being believes this? Like, outside of hardened partisans, do we really think anyone buys this guy’s lies? Be serious with yourself, he is running as a lie. The truth is that this guy was a relatively mediocre, normal, white male citizen with semi-racist views and money issues, people puffed him up by telling him he could be a very important person in Congress, and now we’re all being fed a line of pony loaf and being told it’s good for us. This was a bad idea from the start, hence why I wrote the original piece about him and left his name out, because I hoped he wouldn’t do this to us. He’s a narcissist though, and he can’t help himself.

You can’t pee on someone’s leg and tell them it’s raining. Voters who aren’t rabid partisans are not going to see this man as a “working class hero.” Perhaps 2026 will be such a partisan wave that it won’t matter, but I doubt that. Sooner or later, voters are going to view this guy as the entitled “fat cat” that he is, and it’s going to be a problem. It’s going to be a problem because it’s true. It’s all true. You can’t lie to people forever.

Crosswell’s Poll and the Source of My Negatives on Crooksy

/ Rich Wilkins / 1 Comment
It’s always happy hour in Crosswell’s adopted hometown of DC.

Yesterday a web poll came out that was very obviously from Ryan Crosswell or someone supporting him. They tested a lot of statements, good and bad, about Crosswell. They tested mostly positive messages about Lamont McClure and Carol Obando-Derstine. They tested a bunch of negatives and a little positive on Bob “Crooksy” Brooks. It was by no means a complete poll, but it was much better than the slop Crooksy released.

By no means is this a real poll and the numbers you will eventually get will be whatever point in the poll tested most positive for Crosswell. However the message testing was very interesting. It was almost familiar. It was everything you’ve read here about Crooksy. In fact, I can now say with certainty that whoever dropped me the dossier on Crooksy last year was connected to Crosswell somehow. The reason I know that? I hadn’t yet wrote about Crooksy supporting election deniers, but it was in the dossier. It was in the poll yesterday. Even the wording was the same. I have to tip my cap to the Crosswell folks, good job here. Everything they found was accurate and true, and they got it out into the lifeblood of local politics ahead of their actually using it. Grade A work.

In case you’re wondering if I’m mad about it, I’m not. Bob “Crooksy” Brooks is the worst candidate of the real ones. His personal baggage would lose him the general election, nominating him would be a mistake. I don’t like the idea of nominating a union buster and Republican as the Democrat in PA-7, and I don’t trust Crosswell, but I find him less fraudulent and more electable than Crooksy. I think nominating a Republican carpet bagger is reprehensible, but I find it less repulsive than nominating a guy who stole from his mother-in-law and won’t pay her back.

Also, apologies to Carol Obando-Derstine’s team, who while I had never written it, I long suspected was behind sending me the Crooksy info. I’m pretty certain they were not.

Planet Allentown and that Debate the Other Night

/ Rich Wilkins / 1 Comment

I don’t know Ana Tiburcio, but I feel bad for her. Getting up and debating in a televised setting for any office takes a level of confidence that like 99% of people don’t have. Then you add on that a lot of the people criticizing her now were going to say she sounded out of her depth no matter what, and it’s kind of a no win situation. She was debating a perennial candidate in Bob Smith, so he’s comfortable being lost up there, and she’s supposed to win, and nothing she did was going to be good enough, and yeah- it’s hard as hell. I want to give her some grace for that debate performance because I know it isn’t easy.

With that said, we are talking about an election that decides who controls a 102-101 election, and by extension, the well being of millions of Pennsylvanians. Tiburcio is supposed to win, and should, but it’s fair to expect her to do some real basic things in a debate. She had a job to introduce herself and her work to the public in the debate. When your leading achievement that *you* cite on the school board is community engagement, you need to go into some depth for us about that engagement- what you’ve learned, some precise stories you’ve heard, some details. I wasn’t sure from that debate if she had mastered her current job, let alone shown us she’s ready for this one. She also had a job to introduce us to her opponent. When she had a chance to ask him three questions, she decided on the second one to say, “I think I know enough about him already.” That’s wonderful. You as the candidate aren’t the audience. The voters are. They need to know more about him, and you have to assume they don’t know yet. When you combine these problems with the consistent answer of “I’ll ask the legislators,” a reasonable person could be left standing there asking, is the Democratic candidate as prepared to actually do the job as the Republican? Or is she literally being put forward as literally a proxy vote in that district for the other two state reps in Allentown? I’ll leave out the criticisms of the bizarre things (calling Josh Siegel a “five… out of ten” in the seat before her because she couldn’t find his office was weird shit), but I think it would be fair to ask if this is going to be an independent person and legislator in Harrisburg or if everything down to district office staff will be picked in the other two offices.

Which leads us to the subject of Ce-Ce Gerlach in this race. Ce-Ce is a bit to my left, as I think you could guess from the blog. With that said, no competent adult watched that debate and can honestly say Ce-Ce wouldn’t have been a more prepared candidate to do this job in March when the winner is seated. She was passed over because the folks pulling the strings here, the other major electeds in Allentown, don’t want her. I’m not sure why one blessed voter in Allentown should care what they want? When the other option was someone who was working on state issues as an aide to the State Senator, I think that was easy to excuse. He was ready to do the job. That does not seem to be the case now. If this races doesn’t change (i.e.- add candidates) between now and May, I have literally no argument for why a person should not vote for Ce-Ce Gerlach. In fact, I’ll be honest, they should. If that upsets some of the folks who are “leaders” in Allentown, so be it.

Allentown has weird politics. In the past year the Mayor beat a “Make Allentown Great Again” style candidate 80-20%, a noose was planted in City Hall, allegedly by the person who claimed it was put on their desk, and the “conservative” wing of City Council went away for the first time in forever. Don’t get this twisted, Easton and Bethlehem have their quirks too, but Allentown can be on it’s own planet sometimes. While the utter disgusting corruption of the Pawlowski era is gone now, the old idea of a couple of leaders sitting around and dividing out the spoils among the peasants that are loyal to them is still there. We’re seeing the ugly side effects of that manifest themselves in this race now. It isn’t a pretty sight to watch.