Susan Wild on ballot for new 7th Congressional district

This election cycle was proclaimed to be the ``year of the woman,” and in the newly formed 7th Congressional District, this turned out to be the case in the six-way Democratic primary as former Allentown City Solicitor Susan Wild, the only woman in the race, won the nomination.

Wild beat back Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli and Allentown pastor and community activist Greg Edwards, along with three also-ran candidates, Roger Ruggles, Rick Daugherty and David Clark.

Morganelli had the name recognition, while U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders came to the Lehigh Valley to campaign for Edwards and his progressive agenda, but, in the end, it was Wild who built the best and broadest coalition.

With all of the precincts reporting, Wild had 15,001 votes; Morganelli, 13,565; Edwards, 11,510; Ruggles, 2,443; Daughtery, 1,718, and Clark, 766.

On the Republican side, Lehigh County Commissioner Marty Nothstein won a neck-and-neck battle over former Lehigh County Commissioner Dean Browning. With all of the precincts reporting, Nothstein had 16,004 votes to Browning’s 15,696, a difference of just 308.

Nothstein was a world-class cyclist and won a gold medal in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, in the sprint event. In his victory speech, he said politicians need to put citizens ahead of ``cheap political whims.”

In her victory speech, Wild called for party unity going into the general election and said the competitive primary will make the Democrats stronger as they try to take the district which was controlled by Republicans. A woman has never won this district’s seat.

The reapportioned district now includes all of Lehigh and Northampton counties and the southern part of Monroe County.

The former incumbent, Charlie Dent, resigned on May 12, necessitating a special election, which Gov. Tom Wolf has called to run concurrently with the Nov. 6 general election.

The two parties will name their nominees for the special election; most observers believe they will be the winners of Tuesday’s primaries.

STATE REPRESENTATIVES

All three incumbents who were opposed in Lehigh Valley state representative races easily won re-nomination Tuesday night.

Zach Mako, the first-term Republican from Lehigh Township routed a fellow township resident, Cindy Miller, with 73 percent of the vote to claim the Republican nomination in the 183rd District. Mako will go up against unopposed Democrat Jason Ruff of Slatington in the Nov. 6 general election. With all voting districts counted, Mako had 2,881 to Miller’s 1,060.

The 183rd district is made up of Slatington borough and Washington and parts of South Whitehall and Whitehall townships in Lehigh County and North Catasauqua, Northampton and Walnutport boroughs and Lehigh and part of Moore townships in Northampton County.

This year’s contest was a replay of the 2016 Republican primary when Mako won the nomination over Miller in a much closer race, 3,653-3,481. Mako went on to defeat rather handily then-Whitehall Township Commissioner Phillips (CQ) Armstrong, who last year was elected Lehigh County Executive.

In the 131st District, which includes parts of Lehigh, Berks and Montgomery counties, Republican incumbent Justin Simmons of Upper Saucon Township easily trounced Bev Plosa-Bower of Upper Hanover Township (Montgomery County), by about 1,600 votes with nearly 80 percent of the precincts reporting. He now faces unopposed Democrat Andy Lee of Upper Saucon Township in the general election.

When he first ran in 2010, Simmons pledged that he would not seek more than three two-year terms in office. He reneged on that promise in 2016 after saying that his constituents urged him to run for re-election. The broken pledge brought challenges in both the 2016 and this year’s Republican primaries, but Simmons had no trouble dispatching both opponents.

In 2016, he won the primary with 78 percent of the vote, then went on to win the general election by beating Democrat Joanne Jackson with 63 percent.

In the 134th District, which includes part of Lehigh County, incumbent Republican Ryan Mackenzie of Lower Macungie Township easily outdistanced Lower Macungie Township Supervisor Ronald Beitler by a nearly 3 to 1 margin with about three-quarters of the precincts reporting. Mackenzie will now face unopposed Democrat Tom Applebach, also of Lower Macungie Township, in November. Mackenzie is seeking a fifth two-year term.

Last September, both Mackenzie and Simmons announced they would seek the congressional seat held by Dent. After the 15th District was reconfigured into the 7th District, both legislators dropped out.