Lehigh Valley Politics and Election News

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.

Whitehall Township treasurer/tax collector Tina Koren is asking the Lehigh County Court to reject Commissioner Thomas Slonaker's nominating petition for her job.

Whitehall Township commissioner Republican candidate LoriAnn Fehnel filed a challenge March 14 against fellow Republican candidate Betsey H. Charles, 3212 Chestnut St., based on deficiencies on the latter’s petition.

Gerald C. Yob has been mayor of Freemansburg for 44 years. He served on borough council 12 years before that. Yob turns 96 in August, and plans on running for a 12th term as mayor.

The Lehigh County Board of Elections has found credible evidence that an Allentown judge of elections committed fraud and tampered with ballots during the primary on June 2nd.

Pennsylvania polls for the presidential primary closed Tuesday night, June 2. Counties were hit by a surge of mail-in votes this year. As WLVR’s Tyler Pratt reports, Northampton County ballots have been tallied, but Lehigh County is still counting.

The Associated Press has named Lisa Scheller the winner in the Republican primary race for the Lehigh Valley’s 7th congressional district. The GOP nominee will face incumbent Democrat Susan Wild for the seat in November.

Lehigh County sent out nearly 48-thousand mail-in ballots for this year’s primary election–more than election officials have ever tried to count on Election Day.

In yesterday’s primary, four wards in Allentown were consolidated into one voting location at Fearless Fire Company. And as WLVR’s Tracy Yatsko reports, complications around that meant the site opened late for in-person voting.

President Donald Trump announced his plans for a stop in the Lehigh Valley on Twitter yesterday. He’ll visit a medical supply warehouse in Upper Macungie Township on Thursday.

President Donald Trump will visit a medical supply distributor in Allentown Thursday. He’s expected to take a tour and tout his efforts to respond to the COVID-19 crisis.

Pennsylvania’s primary election is four weeks from Tuesday, May 5, but many questions remain about how to conduct a “fair and free election” during a pandemic.

A coalition of advocacy groups filed a lawsuit late Monday over Pennsylvania’s mailed ballot return deadlines, seeking an extra week for voters to send them back.

Today, voters in 10 states will cast their ballot for the presidential primary. Vice President Joe Biden currently has more delegates than Senator Bernie Sanders in the race for the Democratic nomination.

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has been busy after a tape emerged of him telling wealthy donors that nearly half of Americans see themselves as victims dependent on the federal government. Now he's trying to make those remarks part of a broader argument: What is the proper role of government and who should pay for it?

Fundraising reports filed Thursday night by the presidential campaigns look a lot like recent public opinion polls. They show President Obama with a slight advantage in monthly fundraising last month — while Republican Mitt Romney has the edge by some other measures.