Politics & Government

CEPTA Candidates Event Covered a Lot of Local Politics

Candidates for five different May 17 primary races were on hand for Emmaus pre-election event.

There was a whole lot of local politics packed into last night’s “Meet the Candidates” night, hosted by the Concerned East Penn Taxpayers Association (CEPTA) at Emmaus Fire Company #1, South Sixth and Broad streets.

The event featured candidate panels from several local and county elections including Emmaus Borough Council, the Lehigh County Commissioners, the East Penn School Board, Lehigh County Judge and Upper Milford Township Board of Supervisors. All of the races will be voted on in the upcoming primary election on May 17. 

According to the format laid out by CEPTA, each candidate had two minutes to address the nearly 100 people in the attendance with an opening statement. Following the opening marks, there was to be time for audience questions and then a closing statement by each candidate. 

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Three candidates for Emmaus Borough Council took center stage first – incumbent Nathan Brown, and opponents John Donches and Giovanni Landi.

Landi, who described himself as a “fiscal conservative,” said he would run the borough like he runs his household finances.

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“It’s not just my own money,” he said. “It’s your money too. It’s not right to take from the many for the benefit of the few.”

All three borough council candidates wove the common themes of increased fiscal responsibility and more government transparency into their remarks – concepts heard again and again from candidates throughout the evening -- touching on borough hot-button issues like the Broad Street reconstruction project and the much-talked-about proposed baseball stadium in Emmaus Community Park in the process.

“I want to make sure the spending we do is done prudently,” Landi said. “I’d like to see a little more transparency. I want to make sure the borough resources stay for the community and not for private interest.”

When the trio finished their individual opening remarks, there were no audience questions, and CEPTA moderator Otto Slozer quickly moved them on to closing statements.

A team of republican candidates for Lehigh County Commissioner – Scott Ott, Vic Mazziotti, Lisa Scheller and David C. Najarian was up next, with a theme of disappointment in the status quo and a desire to serve and make things better driving their coordinated effort.

“I wouldn’t want to become county commissioner without this team,” said Najarian, the attorney on the team. “This job is not always fun. If you are going to do what needs to be done, it’s not fun. We are doing this as community service. We don’t need to do this. Every single one of us is successful in our own right.” 

Najarian, a supervisor in Lynn Township, said he has first-hand experience with how “not fun” it can be in the public sector. 

Following the commissioner candidates came 10 candidates running for the East Penn School Board – clearly the headliners of the evening. The group was forced to forego closing statements for an extended question and answer period based on a show of hands audience vote. 

The school board candidates on the panel were, in alphabetical order: Scott Aquila, Kenneth Bacher, Charles H. Ballard, Lynn Donches, Jennifer Gilbert, Brian Higgins, Phillip Garrett Rhoades, Samuel Rhodes, Julian Stolz,  and Waldemar R. Vinovskis.

Acquila, Donches, Rhoades and Stolz by a show of hands answer in response to a question from the audience promised that if elected they would not raise taxes. 

Incumbent candidate and current School Board President Ballard said: “I am not going to claim that I am going to cut taxes because that would be a lie and I am not going to lie.” 

Higgins and Gilbert both said that they did not feel it wise to make campaign promises since you cannot anticipate every aspect of the job of school board member before taking office. Higgins said: “I am not a big believer in campaign promises. I think they are ridiculous.” 

Even with the extended time for Q&A, moderator Slozer’s transition to the next candidate panel – Renee Smith and Doug Reichley for Lehigh County Judge – was met with audience groans. And, about 75 percent of the audience left for the night when the school board candidates finished their time in the hot seat. 

The final candidate for the evening, Carl R. Stevenson, who is running for Upper Milford Township Board of Supervisors, delivered his key campaign message in a matter of minutes to the few remaining constituents in the room. 

“Government is out of control and needs to be reigned in,” he said. “I want to cut expenses and give people their freedom and their property rights. That’s what I’m about."


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