ALLENTOWN, Pa. — The race for Allentown mayor is back in business.
The contest eased into the backdrop after Mayor Matt Tuerk easily won the May 20 Democratic primary in his bid for a second term.
As the incumbent got back on the campaign trail after “catching a breath,” questions persisted about his opponent’s plans.
Ed Zucal lost the Democratic primary by more than 60 percentage points but earned almost 500 write-in votes from Allentown Republicans to carry the contest into November.
The two-term councilman in May declared his campaign was “still alive” as he thanked Republican voters and awaited talks with party leaders about how he’d run his campaign under the GOP banner as a registered Democrat.
'Not impossible'
Zucal made few public statements about his campaign until July 18, when he addressed LehighValleyNews.com’s article on the status of the mayoral race in a Facebook post.
“The reporter said I didn't respond back,” Zucal said. “My advisors and I have a different strategy this time around. So my lack of response was by design.”
Speaking July 23 to that reporter for the first time in weeks, Zucal said he “absolutely” still is running.
He said he’s been “getting a good response” from voters as he speaks to them at their doors and while he’s out in the city, though he said his Republican affiliation is “a little confusing, probably,” for some voters.
“It’s an uphill battle, but it’s not impossible."Ed Zucal on his electoral chances
He acknowledged he faces an “uphill battle” to overcome Tuerk’s almost-4,000-vote primary margin of victory in a heavily Democratic city.
“That initial loss was pretty rough,” Zucal said. “It was a big gap.”
“It’s an uphill battle, but it’s not impossible,” he said.
Same platform, 'different strategy'
The councilman said he has no plans to change the main planks of his platform: maintaining fiscal responsibility, reducing crime and implementing community policing, addressing quality-of-life issues and restoring trust and transparency in city government.
But he said he plans to adopt “a different strategy” for the general election.
He said he’ll refrain from mudslinging campaign tactics, such as the mailers he sent to voters in the final weeks of the primary.
One mailer criticized Tuerk as “woke” and included a quote from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt that called the mayor a “Trump-deranged Democrat.”
"I'm not going to have another debate, simply because my platform has not changed."Ed Zucal
After the mailers, Tuerk hit out at Zucal for “running a campaign rooted in MAGA-style politics, tactics and deception.”
Those mailers “backfire[d],” Zucal said. He said his primary campaign “made some mistakes” that “we’re going to fix for next time.”
No debate rematch
Zucal wants to focus his campaign on direct engagement with voters rather than trying to reach them through media and other avenues.
But voters will not get another chance to see the two candidates seeking to lead Allentown through the end of the decade together on stage this fall.
Zucal ruled out a debate rematch as he looks to keep Tuerk from winning a second term in November. He declined an invitation from LehighValleyNews.com — the news outlet organized debates before the primary and is planning debates for the fall — to debate Tuerk again.
"I'm not going to have another debate, simply because my platform has not changed," he said.
Tuerk and Zucal debated a month before the 2025 Democratic primary, in which the incumbent beat his challenger 81%-19%.
