ALLENTOWN, Pa. — When State Sen. Lisa Boscola first saw how the 18th District, which she has served for 23 years, changed with redistricting, she was not pleased.
“Disgraceful!” she said in a statement after the maps were finalized. “These Senate maps are nothing more than a schizophrenically, Harrisburg-drawn, back-room assault on the Lehigh Valley.”
The new map replaces parts of her district around Allentown with sections of northeast Northampton County’s Slate Belt. As a result, the district now is more conservative-leaning than when she last ran in 2018.
- State Sen. Lisa Boscola faces competition for her Senate seat for the first time since 2010
- Boscola's challenger is Republican John Merhottein, a U.S. Marine veteran and Bethlehem Township commissioner
- As a result of redistricting, the 18th District is now more conservative-leaning than when Boscola last ran in 2018
It’s also the first time Boscola, a Democrat, has seen a challenger in her district since Matt Connolly ran against her in 2010.
“I knew that was going to happen this year,” she said. “Because of the redistricting.”
A Challenger Emerges
That challenger is Republican John Merhottein, a U.S. Marine veteran and Bethlehem Township commissioner.
Merhottein did not respond to requests for an interview, but according to his campaign website, he is running on efforts to combat inflation, support police and cut regulation.
He frames his candidacy as a referendum on Boscola’s 23 years representing the 18th District. “Vote NO on Boscola,” one page of the website tells voters. He attacks the incumbent on salary increases and the use of taxpayer money on a car and per diems.
He also opposes the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a cap-and-trade program among 10 states in the Northeast to limit how much carbon dioxide and other pollutants power plants can emit. Pennsylvania’s bid to join the program has been paused by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court until lawsuits around the program are resolved.
Boscola has said she supports a bipartisan measure to address climate change and voted against a resolution that would have kept the commonwealth out of the initiative. Merhottein has characterized that as a vote for higher energy bills.
Merhottein told Lafayette University’s student newspaper that he supports restrictions on abortion, with exceptions to save the pregnant person’s life and in cases of rape or incest. He also said he opposes Governor Tom Wolf’s PA Opportunity Program, which would provide up to $2,000 in direct payments to households making less than $80,000 a year.
Both candidates prioritize cutting property taxes. Merhottein argues that Boscola has not been able to make substantive progress on that during her more than two decades in the Pennsylvania Senate, saying a fresh perspective is necessary to make meaningful changes.
Boscola has said she hopes to eliminate property taxes for the commonwealth and replace that money with money from sales and income taxes.
A closer race
“If you’re not worried you’re going to lose, you’re probably not campaigning, right?” Boscola said. “That’s why I campaign as hard as I do.”
In addition to having a challenger, redistricting pulled the 18th Senate District to the right when the Slate Belt was incorporated, according to voter registration statistics.
“The old district that I represented was, I think, 53% Democratic. [The new district] is 49% Democratic,” Boscola said. “When you look at the numbers, you’re like, ‘Oh, if you’re a Republican, we’ve got a shot here.’”
If she wins, it wouldn’t be the first time Boscola represented the Slate Belt. She said from 2000-2010, her district included many of the same parts of northeastern Northampton County that were added last year.
A "rare breed"
Regardless of how the district has changed, Boscola says she is well-positioned as a centrist to continue to compete, citing her record in office.
“The voters are very independent, and I like that about my district.”State Sen. Lisa Boscola
“I’m kind of a rare breed here at the Capitol,” she said. “I vote very independently. I vote for Republican legislation if it’s the right thing to do. Democratic legislation, it doesn’t matter to me.”
“The voters are very independent, and I like that about my district,” she said.
The lawmaker cites her work on what ultimately became Act 77 as an example. The measure, which Boscola sponsored, expanded how people can vote during an election, adding no-excuse mail-in voting among other changes. It passed in the Senate thanks to support from Republicans.
“I kind of see it as a referendum on [the] job that I'm doing, because I've been in office, right?” she said.
In addition to lowering taxes and supporting local emergency services and health care access, Boscola also said she wants to change how new legislative districts are drawn in the state, giving that power to an independent commission rather than the Legislature.
