Lehigh County Reorganization:

This month has been a rollercoaster ride!  The Lehigh County Democratic Committee did not hold its reorganization meeting prior to the State Committee Meeting.  There were several reasons for this but mostly due to the county not certifying our Precinct Committee Person officials until June 8th.  There have been many conversations over the past few weeks regarding who will run for which position with which slate of candidates. There are a couple of candidates that I am aware of currently running for Lehigh County Chair; Former Whitehall Mayor, Ed Hozza and Allentown School Board Director, Cheryl Johnson Watts.  Kathy Harrington is planning to run for 1st vice chair with Ed Hozza.  I have not heard about any final ballots and I do believe these conversations will continue through next week.  I strongly suggest you wait to hear what the final ballots are before deciding on which candidates to vote for.

The county reorganization meeting will be held, Monday June 25th 2018 5:30pm at the Main Gate in Allentown. The reorganization will start promptly at 7 pm, but you must be credentialed in before 7 pm.  There is an election commission which consists of: Ryan Smith, Political Director of the Pennsylvania State Party, Phoebe Harris Allentown School Board Director, and Mick Dee, chief of Staff to Rep. Jeanne McNeill

Elected precinct committee people are the only people eligible to vote.  But the event is open to the public for anyone to view.

Absentee ballots are allowed and must be notarized by the committee person.  It must be handed into the Lehigh County Democratic Election Committee no later than 7 pm on June 25th, when the election starts.  At this time an absentee ballot has not been handed out but I have been told that an absentee ballot will be attached to an official announcement of the meeting via email and or mail. Once EPDC obtains one we will send one out as well in our emails and possibly by mail.

East Penn School Board Meeting:

We sent out an email with details about the school board meet but I think it is important enough to talk about it twice. East Penn School Board Director, Carol Allen sent out a notice to organizations a Lehigh Valley Tea Party group asking members to  make statements during the public comment section of the school board meeting on videos the Emmaus High School Student’s LGBTQ Group showed to peers about LGBTQ acceptance. There were well over 10 comments from Tea Party Members from all over the commonwealth condemning the superintendent for not alerting parents and accused the administration of a liberal attack. Carol Allen’s name and phone number were listed at the bottom of the flier.  During the meeting our very own, Aidan Levinson was verbally accosted by one of the members when he left the room to give himself a break from the rhetoric. This member came up to him and said, “Too much for you, faggot!”. Director Ziad Munson wrote about the incident on his blog, munson4eastpenn.org, there was also a Morning Call article.

I don’t imagine I have to sat this is disgusting and must break rules of conduct within the district parameters on bullying, bigotry and hate speech.  I encourage you to attend the next school board meeting to make comments condemning this display of disrespect, hate and violent interaction with minor that was encouraged by school board director, Carol Allen.  I believe we should call for her resignation and demand an apology for inviting this abuse into the district. May I also make you aware that, Carol Allen is up for re-election next year and we must ensure her loss for the respect and well being of all of our children. #NoBigotsOnTheBoard

Lehigh County Commissioners Meeting:

As all of you know Marty Nothstein is the president of our county commissioners board.  He has been accused of being completely unethical in his role as President of the County Commissioners while he is a candidate for Congress.  A few meetings ago he went off protocol by reading one of his campaign donors letters to the county commissioners recorded meeting and then asking for this donor to be appointed to be a liaison to the Veledrome, his place of employment.   Joyce can explain further.

County Commissioner Amy Zanelli has asked for his resignation as the President of the County Commissioners.  I believe it is important to keep reminding the commissioners and Mr.Nothstein himself that these acts are not being forgotten and that we keep up the heat on him to resign.  I encourage you to write letters to Lehigh County Commissions and ask your letter to be read into the record. Address is below. Writing letters to the editor of the, Morning Call would be wonderful.  Attending the meetings would be incredible. Lehigh County Government Center Address:  17 S 7th Street, Allentown, PA 18101

PA Democratic State Committee:

This weekend Jeremy, Joyce, Aidan, myself and all of the other members of State Committee members convened in Harrisburg to elect our new officers for the PA Democratic State Committee.  The winners were as followed: Nancy Mills of Allegheny County – Chair, Senator Sharif Street of Philadelphia- Vice Chair, Alex Reber- Treasurer. Alex Reber is the first LGBTQ and first Young Dem to serve as an officer.  Janet Diaz of Lancaster was appointed by Nancy Mills to be the Correspondence Secretary, she is the first Latina to serve as an officer. Kathryn Huggins was appointed as the recording Secretary.

Congratulations to all the newly elected and newly appointed officers.

We also voted in Matt Munsey of Northampton County to be the representative for the 18th Senatorial District and Murat Guzel to represent the 16th Senatorial District to the Executive Board of the Pennsylvania Democratic State Committee. They will be approving any candidates recommended by the County Chairs to be nominated for special elections and be briefed on any issues brought to the executive board.

There were originally 4 candidates for chair of the state party:  Jacques Wamblaugh, Chuck Pascal and Sheri Morgan all of which had major messages to the State Committee Members warning about allowing elected officials to place a heavy thumb on the scale for candidates for the officers of the State Committee.  Nancy Mills came under fire because Governor Tom Wolf weighed in heavily for her to be elected.

The bulk of state committee was mostly orientation for new members and reorganization of caucuses. There is a motion on the table for Lehigh and Northampton County to caucus together in the South East Regional Caucus.  Currently Northampton is in the North East Caucus and we are in the South East. This seems to make much sense to me due to the fact we are very similar and do so much work together regarding the coalition and candidates.