Lehigh Valley Politics and Election News

Justin Simmons, the former Republican state representative, was among three people who filed nomination papers last week to seek the party's nomination in the May 20 primary election.

Democratic VIPs including U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, DNC Chair Ken Martin and former U.S. Rep. Susan Wild attended the town hall at Cathedral Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem on Thursday night. The evening came with a rebuke to attendees from the church pastor.

At a virtual town hall Thursday, U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, R-Lehigh Valley, said he did not support cuts to Medicare or Social Security, called for peace in Ukraine, and gently pushed back on how the Trump administration handled cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Organizers with the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, Democratic National Congressional Committee and several other groups invited U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie to a town hall event Thursday over proposed Medicaid cuts. Instead, the first-term Republican will hold his own telephone town hall.

Philip Ginder, 74, who served on the Whitehall Township Board of Commissioners for 24 years, was appointed on Wednesday to fill the vacancy created when Commissioner Robert Piligian resigned in February.

Candidates for Northampton County Council, Allentown City Council, Allentown mayor and Parkland School Board are being challenged in court for allegedly failing to meet legal requirements to appear on the May ballot.

A Lehigh County judge ruled in favor of LoriAnn Fehnel, a Republican candidate for Whitehall Township Commissioner, who challenged that candidate Betsey H. Charles's nominating petition is invalid and should be set aside.

City officials voted in favor of raising the next council president’s salary from $7,600 to $11,400 a year and council members’ annual pay from $7,100 to $10,650. However, City Council decided against salary increases for the next mayor and controller.

This week on Political Pulse, host Tom Shortell speaks with Celeste Dee, owner of Lehigh Valley-based Advantage Political Strategies. The two talk about judicial campaigns.

The vacancy on the Whitehall Township Board of Commissioners will be filled at a meeting on Wednesday night. The board interviewed three candidates on Monday night.

The top Republican in Pennsylvania’s Senate said Monday that hearings will begin this week as he committed to carrying out a “full forensic investigation” of the state’s 2020 presidential election.

The latest Franklin & Marshall College poll shows Pennsylvanians, including those who say they’re politically conservative, still hold an overwhelmingly negative view of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee is hearing from former Justice Department leaders who knew about an effort by former President Donald Trump to use the DOJ to overturn Georgia's 2020 election results.

A Pennsylvania state lawmaker and ardent supporter of former President Donald Trump is launching a “forensic investigation” of the state’s 2020 presidential election, demanding cooperation from counties and mimicking a widely criticized partisan effort in Arizona.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a massive infrastructure bill last week, supported by Democrats. Now paving its way to the Senate, a Republican speaks out about the legislation.

The Northampton County District Attorney says a state trooper was justified in a fatal shooting in May following his investigation.

Gov. Tom Wolf is halting a package of election law changes pushed by the Republican-led state legislature, a move that has been widely anticipated.

Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin announced charges June 29 against Allentown City Councilwoman Ce-Ce Gerlach for endangering the welfare of a child and failing to report suspected child abuse, both misdemeanors.

Gov. Tom Wolf spoke out on June 17 against a Republican-backed election reform bill, calling it an ‘unconstitutional’ attack on voter rights.

The 2021 primary election drew a historic number of voters in Lehigh and Northampton counties despite it being an off-year, municipal election.

Mayor Bob Donchez is wrapping up his second term and term limits prevent him from running again. The sole Republican candidate is former Lehigh County Administrator John Kachmar.

PBS39 and WLVR’s Allentown mayoral debate May 6 was focused on Latino affairs and revealed the candidates' strong opinions about policing in Pennsylvania’s third-largest city.