BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Democrat Joseph Lenzi acknowledges he faces an uphill climb in the heavily Republican 183rd District against four-term incumbent Rep. Zachary Mako.
Yet the 62-year-old truck parts salesman from Northampton is hopeful his working-class-persona and focus on property tax reform and increasing the minimum wage may influence enough voters to pull the upset.
“I’m going to try my best,” Lenzi said during a recent phone interview. “I’ve been canvassing the area with the help of a couple people and some Democratic clubs.
“Hopefully there’s enough coattails at the top of the (Democratic) ticket that will make my race competitive. Maybe we can be neck-and-neck and make it go to a recount."
A State Supreme Court-ordered redrawing of the 183rd Legislative District in 2022 resulted in Republicans gaining a plus-18 advantage.
“Is this pie in the sky?" Lenzi said of his optimism. "Possibly. But there could be a surprise on election night.”
Lenzi ran unopposed on the Democratic ticket in the primary election in April.
"[T]here could be a surprise on election night."Joseph Lenzi, Democratic challenger
Rep. Mako convincingly defeated Zachari Halkias, a Slatington Borough councilman, in the primary.
As he canvasses the district, Lenzi said he has heard a common theme — property tax rebates.
“The rebates now are primarily helping senior citizens and people on fixed incomes or disabled,” he said. “But there are also a lot of people suffering who aren’t making even $40,000 a year.
“So one of my key points in the campaign is to expand the rebates to help the rest of the middle class, like families making under $200,000 a year.”
Lenzi defined the current minimum wage of $7.25 per hour as “poverty level.”
“We need to make it more of a living wage,” he said. “It should be $20 an hour to bring people out of poverty.
“Today, people working full time at minimum wage have to work two jobs to get by. I’m not talking about high school kids working; these are families who need to rely on government food stamps to get by.”
Lenzi said many people he met during his door-to-door canvassing didn’t know who their representative is.
“They don’t know the guy who has represented them the past eight years,” Lenzi said. “Out of 600 signatures I got, only three people knew him.”
Lenzi received a B.A. in Public Service from The Pennsylvania State University in 1984.
He has been a member of the Northampton County Democratic Committee since 2003.
Lenzi has been involved in Democratic politics since high school. He has volunteered on several national campaigns, including the presidential campaigns of Mondale-Ferraro 1984; Dukakis-Bentsen 1988; Clinton-Gore 1992 and 1996; and Obama-Biden 2008 and 2012.
“Throughout my life, my core values have always been to look out for the little guy and give voice to the ones who don’t have one,” Lenzi said.
“I’ve been drilling down on the Democratic freedom agenda that’s been resonating with people. We have to have freedom from aggressive taxation, freedom for a woman's right to choose what to do with her own body, freedom from discrimination, freedom from gun violence. I want to work on these things in our district.”
Rep. Mako, 35, did not respond to requests by lehighvalleynews.com to participate in the general election preview story.
He was raised in Walnutport and graduated from Northampton High School.
He enlisted in the Pennsylvania National Guard following high school and learned to fly Chinook helicopters. He was twice deployed to Afghanistan during the Gulf War.
Mako currently serves on the Appropriations, Finance, Professional Licensure and Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness committees.
During the lead-up to the primary election, among Mako’s priorities was property tax reform. He favored legislation that would give residents who are at least 65 years old and earn less than $60,000 per year a $5,000 break on their school property taxes.
Such a rebate would be made possible with the Senior Citizen Additional Property Tax Rebate Fund.
Mako is also focused on job creation and infrastructure improvements.
Mako hopes to pass legislation that improves parental rights when their child is hospitalized for a mental health issue.
Mako received a B.A. in Finance from Kutztown University and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration with a concentration in International Affairs from The Pennsylvania State University.
Mako resides in Walnutport with his wife, Brittany.
The 183rd Legislative District consists of parts of Lehigh County (Lowhill and North Whitehall townships; Slatington Borough) and parts of Northampton County (Allen, East Allen, Lehigh and parts of Moore townships; and Slatington, Bath, North Catasauqua, Northampton and Walnutport townships).
