BETHLEHEM, Pa. – With just weeks to go before the 2025 municipal election, Lehigh County executive candidates Josh Siegel and Roger MacLean met in a debate hosted at Lehigh Valley Public Media’s headquarters on Wednesday night.
Over the course of the one-hour debate broadcast on PBS39, plus a 15-minute round of additional questions streamed online, MacLean laid out a vision emphasizing stability light on specific policy proposals, while Siegel proposed ambitious plans for county government.
Siegel, the 31-year-old Democratic nominee and current member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, argued that Lehigh County needs an executive with a compelling vision for the county.
“If you have no vision, if you have no plan, if you're leading a rudderless ship, it doesn't matter how many years of experience you have if you're not moving the county forward towards the goal of more affordable housing, better public safety, safer neighborhoods,” said Siegel.
He called for a new county sales tax to raise revenue and fund a property tax cut, a program providing attorneys to low-income renters facing eviction, a mobile ballot curing machine, paid family leave for county employees, and a countywide police force serving areas outside of Allentown and Bethlehem.
MacLean, a 73-year-old former Allentown police chief and the Republican nominee for executive, sought to portray his opponent as an anti-police radical and contrast himself as a steady, experienced hand.
“The county needs somebody that can run the operation with a steady hand, look at all sides of the issues, and then make decisions, informed decisions, with the help of the staff, the department heads,” MacLean said. “I don't just talk to one side. I want to get information and input from both sides, and from there, we could make some policy decisions.”
During the campaign, MacLean has provided few specific policy proposals or areas where he expects to find overspending. Instead, the cornerstone of his approach to leadership would be a top-to-bottom review of county government looking for ways to find efficiencies and cut spending.
In response to a question from debate co-moderator Tom Shortell, MacLean said he expects to get up to speed on county operations “on day one.”
Siegel countered that the county is constantly looking for efficiencies, leaving little low-hanging fruit, and cutting spending would likely mean laying off workers or downsizing programs.
Differences, and common ground
During the debate, as throughout the campaign so far, MacLean focused on positioning himself as an alternative to Siegel, a former Allentown councilman who is in his second term in the state House.
Maclean emphasized his own experience leading the Allentown Police Department while attacking Siegel as an anti-police radical, pointing to his participation in Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.
Siegel responded that the protests he joined in 2020 were pro-justice, not anti-police, and argued he had “never defunded anything.”
For all their differences, the two candidates share a handful of common positions.
Both pledged Wednesday they would not sell the county-owned Cedarbrook nursing home, would leave in place current policies governing the county’s collaboration with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and would support a new county or bi-county health bureau.
Siegel suggested a countywide police force is a “financial necessity,” and said he would bring hesitant municipalities around to the idea through “the power of leadership.” MacLean, however, said he would only support a regional police department local governments could opt into or out of.
The debate is available to stream on YouTube and LehighValleyNews.com.
Election Day is Nov. 4; would-be voters must register by Monday, Oct. 20. The final day to request a mail ballot is Tuesday, Oct. 28.
