Lehigh Valley Politics and Election News

Gavin Holihan took the oath of office Tuesday morning as Lehigh County's new district attorney. He said he'll divert resources away from penny-ante issues to focus on battling violent crime.

The 20-year-old is a youth director with Promise Neighborhoods of Lehigh Valley. She graduated from William Allen High School in 2021 and won election to the school board in the November general election.

The Pennsylvania Department of State is starting a new office to help train county election workers, Pa. Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt said. It also plans to update its guidance for logic and accuracy testing that could have caught issues with the Northampton County voting machines.

In a letter to Gov. Josh Shapiro, state Rep. Milou Mackenzie asked the Department of State to provide Northampton County with instructions on how to avoid more Election Day mistakes with their voting machines.

Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure on Friday named a human resources department manager as his acting director of administration. She joined the county in May 2022.

Take a look at stories that ran throughout the week of which we are most proud, had a profound impact on readers or that you might want to look at again.

Mark Pinsley announced Friday, Dec. 1, that he will run for auditor general in 2024. The position oversees financial and performance audits of Pennsylvania state government.

County Executive Lamont McClure reiterated Thursday he will not step down after the county experienced widespread problems with its voting machines on Election Day. Despite the problems, the county's Election Commission certified the results last week.

Republican Kat Copeland is hoping her experience as a federal and local prosecutor will help her become Pennsylvania's next attorney general.

County Executive Lamont McClure on Friday accepted the resignation of Charles Dertinger, his director of administration and a longtime political ally. As director of administration, Dertinger oversaw the county elections division, which came under scrutiny in the wake of widespread voting machine problems in the Nov. 7 election.

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.

In the coming weeks, candidates will bombard your mailboxes with ads. It may seem old-fashioned, but the consultants who devise direct-mail campaigns have become sophisticated about knowing whom to reach and what to say.

President Obama says he hasn't given up on overhauling immigration law despite opposition from Republicans in Congress. Obama faced some tough questions during a forum on Univision including what would be different if he won four more years in the White House.

The former Massachusetts governor has been unofficially running for president for the better part of five years, and in that time, he has been asked about immigration over and over. Now some of Mitt Romney's rivals are arguing that his answers to the question have been inconsistent.

When it comes to abortion, the former governor of Massachusetts appears to have changed his position, from being in favor of abortion rights to being opposed. But now some are asking if Romney ever supported abortion rights at all? Backers of abortion rights don't think so.