Come this Tuesday, I will cast one vote for county commissioner, it will go to Dan Hartzell. While in previous years my votes went to the current Republican
Result Team, previously called their
Reform team, they lost my support over Cedarbrook and the budget. As I posted earlier this week, although they claim support for Cedarbrook, they declined to approve a proven formula in the nursing home industry for a rehab unit. While their first handout card indicated support for the nursing home, two recent mailings from them make no mention of the facility. I find the most recent card (shown above) quite offensive, it's a hit piece against Hartzell. While hammering Hartzell for accepting a $3,000 contribution from Pawlowski last spring, they don't mention the cost or source of their own two mailings this week. Frankly, the four Republicans responsible for this card, Holt, Osborne, Mazziotti and Nothstein should be ashamed. While Nothstein's campaign mentions his gold metal, it apparently didn't involve sportsmanship. Holt campaigned on her efforts toward a fair redistricting map, how about fair campaigning? While I never expected to be voting for a Democrat next week, I'm even more surprised about the next paragraph.
I want to commend Geoff Brace for his lone vote against the commissioner's amended county budget. Brace refused to endorse a token tax decrease, while the county has a deficit spending budget. Muller today issued a partial veto, along with this statement:
“The Happy Meal tax cut, which amounts to $12.80 per household on average, was a move designed to confuse voters into believing that campaign promises of the past have been met,” said Muller. “It is not prudent fiscal management but I am opting to leave the Commissioners running for election with their political spin and only veto what I consider to be the five most ill-advised amendments.
While the ethics of Pawlowski are certainly fair game for a discussion of City Council and school board candidates, whose decisions interact with the city, those questions are not relevant to the election of county commissioners. The hit piece mailer shown above, only reflects poorly upon those who sent it.
Hats off to the Good Captain and to Jeff B.
ReplyDeleteA rare display of integrity.
Dan Hartzell is just another liberal journalist who was among the last to be released by the Morning Call. If not for that he would still be taking talking points from PennDOT, and when the editors occasionally let him out of that silo, he's be writing about how evil the county taxpayers are for not wanting to be continuously raped by the Democratic Party.
ReplyDeleteThank you MM. Dan Hartzell in his pre-Road Warrior days was one of the best reporters in the Lehigh Valley and was hardly an ideological liberal. He was honest and objective in his work. I was appalled at the mailing that you referred to. To me it showed that Dan was the only opponent who that faction feared. We need people with common sense and adequate knowledge of real world problems and solutions in government. I am the kind of ticket splitter that both sides crave and Dan Hartzell has my vote.
ReplyDeleteThese partisan dickheads are such silly fools.
ReplyDelete"While the ethics of Pawlowski are certainly fair game for a discussion of City Council and school board candidates, whose decisions interact with the city, those questions are not relevant to the election of county commissioners."
ReplyDeleteAre you kidding me?
It's not like Pawlowski might need some rubber stampers at the county level to approve little things like extensions to the LCA charter, tax breaks for Pawlowski campaign contributors, or to put Pawlowski hacks onto county boards. Or to redirect county tax dollars to cover for over-spending at Allentown City Hall.
After all, we all know Pawlowski only makes contributions to further good government and there are NEVER any strings attached.
Accepting the Pawlowski money is and should be an issue - perhaps the issue - of the campaign. Anyone with a brain knew what Pawlowski and Fleck were about, and it shouldn't have taken an FBI raid to figure it out. Had the FBI raid not have occurred, I'm sure we would have been treated to mailers for the democrat commissioner candidates adorned with Ed's smiling face and touting his endorsement. So it's fair game to point that out now.
As to Brace, the news accounts point out that by voting against the budget that was improved by the commissioners, he was actually voting for the Executive's original budget. That budget contained even more spending and no tax cut. Not very smart.
Did Hartzell accept the money or not? Is this flyer a lie? Thank you Mr. Molovinsky.
ReplyDeleteBy now you've heard of the police vs. students video posted online. What is the answer?
@6:59, hartzell gets my vote because in my opinion the Results Team has proven themselves insincere about cedarbrook. you write "That budget contained even more spending and no tax cut.", but forget to mention that there was no tax increase in muller's budget. as for pawlowski, i don't think that he'll be here that much longer.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, the democrat candidates (who used Fleck in the primary campaign) are now using the two former Fleck employees (who I'm sure had no idea Fleck was doing anything wrong) as their new campaign consultants.
ReplyDeleteTo top it off, Muller and members of his administration have poured thousands of dollars into the campaign coffers of the democrat commissioner candidates. Those are the people who are supposed to be the check-and-balance on the Executive. We all saw how well things worked out in Allentown once Pawlowski bought his council.
As to Pawlowski leaving, we can all only hope that's the case. But if his leaving would make it irrelevant for the county races, why shouldn't it also be irrelevant for the city council races as well?
We all know it's still relevant, because the only the names will be changing, not the goal. Without proper oversight and independence between branches of government, the next Pawlowski will step up and do the same thing. Muller, also a Fleck client who earlier this year was touting the "miracle" of Allentown's revival brought about by Ed Pawlowski, will still be in office. He's part of the problem, not the solution.
We already know Fleck's replacements are up and running, and the Democrat commissioner candidates are using them. We don't need them making Lehigh County into another version of Allentown.
anonymous@7:42, between the two comments, no one can say that i didn't leave your slate's point of view unsaid. however, as one who isn't a party ideologue, and has followed the issues, i'm disappointed with the results in lehigh county. there's more to running the county than these "happy meal" cuts, like the services historically provided by the county. you had your say, so don't reply here; instead send a fourth or fifth mailer, they only cost about $7k a pop.
ReplyDeleteI suppose 'sincere' politicians concerned with Cedar Brook are those who will resist the temptation to find more efficient ways to spend the taxpayers money?
ReplyDeleteGive we seem to be in a near permanent miserable economy and with Social Security in jeopardy the local county homes might be flooded with new 'residents' in the coming years. We better find a responsible way to fund and manage them. Can government unions possibly be the way? If so, it would be the first time.