Nov 8, 2017

Post Election Revelations


Although I have previously recommended candidates,  my efforts towards yesterday's election were much beyond my normal.  I felt that whatever influence I may wield,  this was the time to use it.  The idea of electing a fourth term mayor who would immediately be completely preoccupied with a corruption trial was something which I had to fight against.  In the course of such combat I have been uncomfortably harsh against some other candidates and officials.

I've always had a good rapport with Ray O'Connell and considered him worthy of the mayorship.  However, as a write-in, I felt that he would siphon votes from Hyman,  who I considered the  preferred  alternative to Pawlowski on the ballot.

Probably the city official I have been most critical of is park director Lindsay Taylor.  This is because the park system is the part of the city I know and care the most about.  Although I believe that the department needs new priorities,  I do not believe that it needs a new director.  The city could benefit from Taylor's experience and growing familiarity with the large park system.

I have been critical of The Morning Call and their coverage of the election.  Although Emily Opilo co-authored many of those stories, I find her an excellent reporter,  whose efforts have benefited  Allentown.

Here in the local blogosphere,  earlier in the year I speculated that a commenter, Monkey Momma, might be Bernie O'Hare.  Recently,  Monkey Momma introduced herself to me.  Although I immediately disclosed the encounter to O'Hare,  it's also necessary to disclose it to my general audience.

Last night a woman told me that she voted straight Democratic as a protest against Donald Trump.  It appears that she was not alone with her inappropriate use of the ballot on the local level.  The anti-Trump sentiment could well have been a factor in many county races.  In the close Allentown mayoral race,  Hyman would have easily prevailed, had he been alone on the ballot with Pawlowski.  Ray O'Connell may well end up mayor as Allentown's Trial Of The Century starts in early 2018.

22 comments:

  1. The result was not rocket science - I agree pretty much entirely with your assessment of what happened the election for his fourth term, which hopefully is not the longest term he will serve...

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  2. Ray was warned not to do it by many people. We saw what would happen. He did it anyway and now we can blame him for ignoring good advice and selfishly subjecting a city of over one hundred thousand people to another term of a clearly corrupt and incompetent mayor. That is no small matter. Today, Ray and his supporters are the responsible party for that fiasco.

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  3. After putting Pawlowski back into office, Ray O'Connell does not deserve to be selected by City Council to replace Pawlowski as mayor after the conviction.

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  4. Doubt he was ever really a candidate for that. I think they always had other plans.

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  5. Right on target MM and Scott A. The O'Connell/Hendricks siphon plan worked perfectly. They managed, through this crazy scheme, to ensure the victory of their secretive preferred candidate, Boss Hogg Ed Pawlowski, back into office. I wouldn't call a 288 vote difference a mandate, but the 2,199 votes that were siphoned, a severe difference! Congratulations and kudos to them for their secretive desire to keep bad and corrupt governance. So let all the citizens of Allentown enjoy their homicide rate, shootings, thugs, drugs and gangs continue; they deserve it through this great ploy. After all, our erstwhile inexperienced police department filled with incompetent command staff will hand out basketballs and mini footballs with their new Body-cams recording such a fabulous anti-crime plan. Congratulations Ray and Daryl, your plan worked!

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  6. It's always hard to resist thinking a third party candidate caused a terrible election result. I believe all Ray did was prevent Ed from getting close to 7000 votes last night. If you want to blame anyone for Ed's victory blame the other 6,000 Republicans or the 13,000 Independents that chose to stay home.

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  7. With all due respect Steven, that is simply not why Ed prevailed.It is harder for any opponent to beat any incumbent in a three way race. Ed maxed out his support at under 40% last night. That means 60% of the voters wanted a different choice/direction for the city. This matches polling we did last year. That poll told us Ed's base was down to the low to mid thirties of registered voters in the City of Allentown. Ed managed through shear will/fear, to get that number up to 39%. It is my guess he registered new voters in the downtown and got them to the polls. Ed killed there.That said, if he faced only a single opponent, any single opponent, Ed would have lost to that single candidate.
    Again, and perhaps hopefully for the last time, this was all carefully explained to Ray and his people. They didn't care. It really is that simple.
    Even with all this, if Nat had not challenged Luiz and Chris, had gone after Ray during the campaign, had any kind of GOTV operation he still might have pulled it off. Nat running a less than stellar campaign does not excuse Ray entering the race knowing he was merely a spoiler that would provide Ed the opportunity to win. Give Ed credit, he seized the moment and had plenty of time to do it. Apparently he did it 24-7 and on our dime.

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  8. I also give O'Connell plenty of credit from preventing Mr. Hyman from getting elected.This allows Mr.O'Connell to become Mayor and appoint Mr.'Drop Pension' Hendricks to become police chief.Well planned !

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  9. The bottom line was that Nat Hyman simply was not a good candidate, period. Despite the shenanigans from the Democrats, he simply wasn't inspiring enough for his supporters in the West end to offset the underclass and ethnic vote that is Pawlowski's base. He relied too much on people not liking Pawlowski and wasn't aggressive enough in his campaigning.

    My God he never mentioned the biggest campaign issue of all, the SCORES of Indictments against Pawlowski, it was like they didn't even exist!!

    If I were running, and my opponent was hauled into court to face federal felony charges, I'd be running an anti-corruption campaign against him 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Not just saying I will meet with everyone and talk about crime in the city. That's about all I got out of Hyman's campaign. That and he could build a better Cedar Beach. No wonder he lost his front porch campaign to his country club friends.

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  10. Jamie Kelton: I was surprised that Nat Hyman did not send out a mass mailing on the day before the election that said, "Ed Pawlowski is charged with 54 federal felonies and will stand trial in January." Seems like an obvious card to play.

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  11. Blame The Morning Call--Blame O'Connell--Blame supporters of O'Connell--Blame ignorant Allentown voters--Blame Democrats--Blame the minority vote. When does it stop being everybody else's fault?

    At what point does the responsibility lie on Republicans being unable to elect a candidate? Just seems like a bunch of excuses being made for losing. Isn't this what Hilary was accused of by conservatives?

    BTW: I did vote for Hershman and a few Republican judges.

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  12. I thought it was also strange that Hyman didn't campaign on Ed's legal issues. It would be something to whip the crowd up with about Ed being a worse crook than Al Capone.

    Maybe Hyman didn't want to bring it up because Ed had something on him perhaps ?

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  13. LVCI, Elect one! we were lucky to field one. Do you have any idea of the ratio of Democrats to Republicans? We are easily outnumbered two to one. Add to that Allentown has a high percentage of Democratic straight party voters. They would elect a hat if it was on the D ballot, exhibit A, they just voted for a corrupt mayor facing trial in January for 54 federal counts of corruption.
    Please don't lecture Republicans on why they don't do this, or why they don't do that. Take a look at the visceral hatred of Republicans that is frankly rampant in this city. That hatred is fueled by city, state and national Democratic leaders who routinely slur and smear routinely every member of the party of Lincoln as evil, racist, selfish, xenophobes. .
    Keep in mind as well, the lesson of Tom Burke is still fresh in the minds of any Allentown Republican that would consider throwing his/her hat into the ring here in the city. He was by all accounts the most knowledgeable, effective, scrupulous,and fair minded council person in recent memory. Although he was a registered Republican he was also by all accounts completely non partisan as a council person.

    When it came time for his re-election the Democrat voters of this city threw him out, he came in dead last, getting fewer votes than Everette the Clown. They did this simply because he had an R next to his name on the ballot. That ingratitude still stings and makes recruitment of highly qualified people almost impossible.

    Don't blame us for what's wrong with the city. We have been removed from the equation By the Democratic voters. So you Democrats better fix up your party here, clean out the stable that is city hall, stop re-electing rubber stamps, incompetents, and political opportunists.Judging by what happened last night I don't see that happening. The truth is many Democrat voters in Allentown are as corrupt in their thinking as Ed is in his actions.They again, proved that last night.

    Fix that, then come preach to us about helping out.

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  14. the informed voters knew all about pawlowski's legal issues. they voted either for hyman or o'connell. (and 6% for the independents) the minority voters downtown and elsewhere also knew, but don't care so much about such things.

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  15. I told everyone this would happen.

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  17. Not much to say here. Everything happens for a reason. I will say it all could have been avoided if certain Individuals just listened to me. The perfect storm would have been myself vs whoever was on the other side. It just didn't work out. Time to move on. All the finger pointing will not change the out come. Let us learn from this and in the future let us rally behind the home grown candidate who actually served with honor, integrity and love for his city. Let us rally behind positivity and someone who has fresh ideas, someone who is with the people for the right reasons, someone who listens because he/she knows what it feels like to come from humble beginnings. Let us learn that that candidate was right in front of us but because of party affiliation or whatever other reason it stopped folks from rallying. Life goes on and let's plan for the future! #TogetherWeAreStronger

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  18. Luiz, Not much positivity to rally around in the Queen City, that said, if you have a plan run with it.

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  19. It seems that the white working class in Allentown, or what's left of it, is isolated enough from the real problems and couldn't care less about the political goings-on. The West Enders are past the years when their kids are in the horrible schools and much of the rest are sending their kids to Catholic and other Christian and private schools. Think not? Look at the ethnic makeup of Allen and Dieruff. How lucky are they to have the buffer formed by the hospital, Fairgrounds, Phoebe Home, Muhlenberg College, a couple of cemeteries, and Lake Muhlenberg? Trust me, they'll bust through that buffer like the Chinese over the Yalu River.

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  20. A better bet is that the Mayor will serve out the new four year term. The trial doesn't start until January.....figure at least three months for that. If convicted, sentencing not until another 3 months. Then appeals to the Circuit Court of Appeals.....probably six months later until that is heard....another two months until decision. Now we are into the second year. If a conviction is upheld, then appeal to the Supreme Court. Probably a motion then, likely granted, for that appeal to be stayed until a decision in the Senator Mendendez case (if he is convicted) is rendered, since that decision will likely provide further guidance for the Circuit Court on very similar issues raised in the Mayor's case. Should the Mendendez decision void any number of the charges, then almost certainly similar charges in the Mayor's case will be voided. We are talking then of three years most likely beyond the first year for any final decision in the Mayor's case.

    The go-betweens in the former Virginia Governor McDonell case feel like suckers now, having plead guilty and served some time, only to see the Governor's conviction voided by the (Republican right wing)on the Supreme Court. Former Illinois Governor Bagdonvich in jail, will probably be released next year as his case moves into Supreme Court review, for the same reasons as McDonell's conviction was voided. The Mayor's informants who plead guilty and flipped may well feel like suckers as they receive punishment and the Mayor reigns for another four years.

    And unlike the Trump deplorables, they have no hope of any expectation they will be pardoned.

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  21. Trent's timeline might be correct, unless the Dems to the right thing and force a resignation just like they always do when a Republican is even 'accused', let alone convicted. Just ask Tom Delay, Thad Stevens, et al.

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  22. "Trump delorables"

    Jawohl! Die Leute, die an Konservatismus glauben, sind "die Untermenschen" jetzt.

    So when and where are we supposed to report for "resettlement"?

    ROLF OELER

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