Somehow, someway Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski just keeps going.
In case you forgot, this is the Mayor whose City Hall was raided by the FBI and discovered his closest advisor and friend was wearing a wire during meetings.
Most officials probably would’ve taken all this as a sign to step aside. That’s how the Allentown City Council felt anyway when they gave him a vote of no confidence. In fact, back in September 2015 we asked our readers if Pawlowski would make it to the end of his current term and 80% didn’t think he’d even get that far.
Nonetheless, the Pawlowski launched with an announcement video and a new website. As Emily Opilo of the Morning Call pointed out, this was very likely done so the Mayor could avoid any of the questions from the press he otherwise might’ve gotten at a public event.
“We’ve seen billions of dollars of new investments and thousands of new jobs come into our city, and we did it all without raising your property taxes for the last 12 years,” Pawlowski states. “As such, it is my intention today to announce that I am running again for mayor.”
Opilo points out that Pawlowski already has five opponents in the May 16th Democratic primary.
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12 Responses
Still more qualified than any GOP candidate.
Poor Mayor Pawlowski. He’s tone deaf. I don’t see how he survives this one. Local Dems should really put the squeeze on him and not let him run. While he is innocent until proven guilty, the optics are horrible and the people of Allentown deserve much better than this.
Ooops! You can only run for President when under investigation by the FBI!
I will support the challenger for this race and not the incumbent to fbi charges on him.
Chris-
I think Ed was on his own short list and the party didn’t care who ran against Admiral Shipwreck. Some in SDCC might have been interested in Ed, but the DC crowd doesn’t really know if any PA candidates are good/bad. They just look at fundraising potential, and not any policies (beyond cooperating with the party).
Jerry always liked a bare bench for his teen admirers. Are any of the worthless GOP Congressmen interested in running?
DD– Fair enough, but the fact that the friggin mayor of Allentown was on ANY shortlist of Senatorial candidates still kind of boggles the mind, and shows how bare the bench is for PA Democrats. There is no one obviously from the state’s congressional delegation to choose from, and the state legislature is similarly barren. Although I assume in 2022 Shapiro will have his eye set on either the Senate or the Governor’s mansion, depending on how his AG term goes.
Chris and Guy-
Pawlowski wasn’t on any 2016 Senate list after the July 2015 raid. In Feb 2015 he hosted a party at state committee, and was probably fundraising/exploring the possibility, but he would have been just cannon fodder to tweak Sestak.
But, Ed’s poor performance in his 2013 Mayor’s race demonstrated his lack of appeal. He was on both the Dem and Rep ballots, and an underfunded independent candidate got around 40% against him. That killed his nascent 2014 Gov campaign and doomed his political future outside of Allentown.
He’s trying to hold onto his last bargaining chip for a plea deal. The people of Allentown would do well to deprive him of that.
Solid. Well done, Dems as always. (and Im a Democrat)
Yep, him an Shapiro
Wasnt Pawlowski on the short list of 2016 senate candidates for the state Democratic Party before selecting McGinty?