Ed Zucal is rolling out his long expected bid for mayor on November 19th at the Allentown Fair Grounds. For the last year there has been no shortage of thorns in Matt Tuerk's side, with councilman Zucal being perhaps the most pointed behind the dais.
In the audience in front of the dais, Tuerk's list of critics is much longer, but with less political potential. Zucal is a retired policeman and veteran of what many believe was Allentown's better days. That is what the All American City logo shown above alludes to.
It is my assumption that Zucal's challenge will come in the Democratic primary. The conventional wisdom is that Allentown is a one party town, with the primary essentially being the election.
Zucal would be a great mayor. Simple put, he doesn't lie, he holds people accountable, and makes logical based decisions not politically motivated ones like others on council. Tuerk has shown he doesn't care about the people. He has tried to sabotage elections in town. His cabinet is a complete failure with Patel , Kistler, and Roca. Someone needs to clean house, and that is something Zucal will do.
ReplyDeleteI think a 2 party town is better and isn't it illegal to have just one party?
ReplyDeleteI’m very interested in what Zucal would do different than the current occupant of the Mayor’s Office.
ReplyDeleteWhile Zucal has sometimes been critical of Tuerk, which I believe is good, he’s also gone along with several of the things that I’m critical of Tuerk for.
For instance, I believe he voted to go along with Tuerk to put the confusing ballot language on the ballot. While I’m not 100% certain on that, I certainly don’t remember him speaking out about it and rallying taxpayers to vote against it.
While he might be an improvement, I don’t think it’s enough for Allentown to simply elect someone who is Tuerk-lite. Allentown needs someone much better than that to solve its problems.
Nat Hyman, where are you?
Just to clarify council sent it to the public to vote on the deed transfer tax.
DeleteThere is no comparison between the two. I believe People actually will want to work for Zucal. Zucal won't have 5 woman working as assistants in his office either.
Just to clarify, the ballot question was misleadingly worded. I’d venture that many Allentown residents voted for it thinking that they were eliminating the tax totally.
DeleteI was exceedingly disappointed that nobody on council stood up for the taxpayers, allowing that sham to go forward. Any one of them that tells you that it was a fair question or that they sent it to the voters to decide is not being honest. If they were, they would have fought to have the wording similar to the way it was when similar questions were voted down in previous years.
They are likely enablers that were willing to let the question go forward knowing that when the subsequent vote to raise the deed transfer tax takes place, they can hide behind a ‘No’ vote while knowing there are enough ‘Yes’ votes to still pass it.
If the tax ends up being raised, all of those currently on council own it. You can’t say you’re going to protect the taxpayers while simultaneously weakening the greatest taxpayer protection that the city has - the Home Rule Charter.
I believe that Tuerk will be hard to beat in the primary. If Zucal wants to be assured of being on the ballot come November, perhaps running as an R would be a better strategy?
ReplyDeleteYou could be right, but Tuerk is not liked by city employees. His H.R. is awful. He constantly tries to get raises for his management but no one else. Can't stay for council meetings when he knows he well get criticized. Lest not forget how Allentown got put on the map as of recently. Pee Wee??? Cmon
DeleteIf I might chime in about Tuerk being "hard to beat" in the primary, I wouldn't jump to that conclusion.
DeleteI think we should remember that in 2021 in the democrat primary, the vote was split four ways:
Gerlach 1,817 (23.3%)
O'Connell 1,942 (24.9%)
Tuerk 2,064 (26.5%)
Guridy 1,927 (24.8%)
Tuerk hardly had a mandate among democrat voters in 2021, and I'm not sure that he would have one in 2025 either. In addition to Zucal, there are likely (at least) 2-3 others who I expect to run in 2025, each with their own strengths and flaws. With each additional candidate who enters the race, the calculus will change as to who it helps, and who it hurts.
While you could argue that as the sitting mayor, Tuerk has the advantage and should win, Ray O'Connell might take issue with that statement. And if we learned anything from this year's election, it might be that Hispanic voters don't like being pandered to, which is a persistent criticism of Tuerk.
I also don't know that Tuerk has done much in office to assuage the 2021 concerns about his competency, and I think that his recent embarrassing antics were more about giving democrat voters something to focus on other than his record.
As you noted in your original post, the democrat primary is essentially THE election in a one-party town. 2021 turnout was low, and I believe 2025 will be similar.
Like 2021, the 2025 democrat primary come down to how many candidates will divide the vote, and who can get their relatively small base to come out and vote.
Someone running on the Republican side would have to have either enormous name recognition or an enormous amount of campaign funds to be able to get their message out and overcome the registration deficit. Maybe that candidate shows up, but I'm not holding my breath. And if they do, why not run on the democrat side and settle it early and decisively?
Very, very few city employees live in Allentown. Even department heads mostly live outside of the city now thanks to one of the current mayor’s earliest actions. It doesn’t really matter if employees like him. They won’t move the needle.
DeleteI feel anyone would be better than Tuerk but Zucal just isn’t the right choice for Allentown either. He is part of the old dirty fabric of Allentown and we need someone revolutionary and different, a person who can clean out the corrupt cabinet and keep the city employees on task and accountable. I would love to see a Tim Ramos but that is a long-shot if he remains Republican. Tuerk needs to go without any question, but Zucal is not a good choice.
ReplyDeleteAs an independent I won't be voting in the Democratic primary, but Zucal would get my vote if I were eligible. That said, this blog prefers to avoid promoting candidates.
DeleteYou just did
DeleteThere is a difference between mentioning a preference and an on going promotion.
DeleteMichael the neXt level of hell going up will never allow this to happen. You yourself have written about the deed transfer taX and look what happened with that, went through just like other things this mob wants!
ReplyDeleteAs mayor of third largest city in PA, a skill set far beyond what Zucal displays at council meetings is necessary. He is a one act show. After you quibble about every penny you sqeeze twice, you need to acknowledge it takes spending the penny to create value added. Mota doesn't get it either.
ReplyDeleteAnyone but the hipsters mayor.
ReplyDeleteAs an unknown first time candidate, Tuerk won a pretty contested primary, worked really hard and could be tough to beat as an incumbant. I'd love to see Mota join up in the race as she might split up some of his support. I'll support Zucal, as I've been disappointed by Tuerk's peformance and his partisan antics during the Trump rally were shameless. My # 1 issue is public safety and I'd like the optics of a retired police officer being elected Mayor.
ReplyDeleteThank you all for your comments. I want to learn more about the candidates. Sources are limit since the local newspaper is useless.
ReplyDeleteThe Morning Call reports that Councilwoman Mota has also thrown her hat in the ring. Although I have issues with the paper, I think they do a reasonable job with limited staff. I find them useful.
DeleteCheck out Zucal's deportment during council meetings and see if you think he has the social skills to interact with the governor, the senators, the vice president and other federal officials looking to move Allentown forward. And then take a look at Mota' s whimpering and indecisiveness. Unless some one way better steps forward, Tuerk at least is educated and knowledgeable. Too bad he allowed his passion to get in the way of being more sensible with the presidential campaigning but many others did the same.
Deleteanon@9:19: Allentown would be better served with someone who has the skills to direct a police chief to enforce quality of life laws like double parking, and direct a park director to cut the grass.
DeleteWait Allentown has a police chief? You mean the guy that speaks like a robot, and his command staff is all corrupt?
ReplyDeleteRight....and we are still waiting in the West End for the details of the person shot who was picked up in the 2300 block of West Liberty Street. No one here knows anything about what really happened that night.
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