Mayor Candidates Talk 'Dirty Politics' and 'Integrity'

Bethlehem’s two mayoral candidates took verbal swings at one another during a debate Tuesday night as each claimed the other was the first to take a cheap shot in what has become a heated Democratic primary contest between two members of City Council.

In the debate hosted by the League of Women Voters of Northampton County at PBS39 headquarters, J. William Reynolds came out swinging first, charging during his opening statement that “dirty politics has dominated” Bob Donchez’s mayoral campaign.

By the end of the evening, Donchez alleged that Reynolds had attacked his integrity first.

Much of the cheap shots argument centered on Donchez campaign mailers, some of which, Reynolds said, were attempts to “smear” him.

“We’re in a spirited campaign for mayor,” Donchez said.

“Campaigning does not give you the right to lie or smear candidates,” Reynolds chastised.

Reynolds seemed particularly angry about Donchez’s use of a picture of Reynolds at the age of 19 in at least one of his mailers.

From the very beginning of his campaign, Donchez has tried to portray Reynolds as too young and inexperienced for the job, while touting his own 17 years in city government. Donchez is 62; Reynolds is 31.

Each man was given an opportunity to ask the other one a question. Reynolds asked Donchez:

“Why do you feel the need to attempt to smear me by sending out pictures of me when I was 19 years old? If you’re above everything, if you’re the kind of guy people want to believe in because you bring people together, why do you need to use those kind of campaign tactics?”

“Everything in that mail piece is documented,” Donchez responded.

“You were council’s representative on the library board, a voting member on the library board and you missed 50 percent of the library board meetings. That’s documented. The citizens of Bethlehem need to know your record. So compare and contrast. That’s very fair.”

“You’ve thrown some shots at me too. But you attacked my integrity first with that mail piece by accusing me of a campaign violation when you knew well there was no campaign violation.”

There, Donchez was speaking about a newspaper story about an early campaign mailer in which the veteran councilman touted endorsements from District Attorney John Morganelli and Bethlehem police—which actually was an endorsement from the city police union.

A Morning Call story raised a question about whether this “police endorsement” was a violation of campaign rules.

Reading from the story, Donchez said Reynolds was quoted as saying: “If it is a violation of campaign election standards, that’s something the people of Bethlehem should know about.”

Reynolds said he didn’t even know about the mailer until the newspaper brought it to his attention. “I told her I wasn’t sure if it was a violation,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds said no one in the city believes that he fired the first cheap shot of the campaign or that it was relevant to Donchez’s decision to “smear” him.

“That mail piece that you had created with a picture of me when I was 19 years old—19 years old, that’s how old I was in that picture—that was done weeks in advance,” Reynolds said.