Republican Lehigh County executive candidates make nearly identical pitches in Allentown debate

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Candidates running in the Republican primary for Lehigh County Executive met in a debate Thursday, and laid out nearly identical visions for the county.

Republican voters’ work of choosing between Roger MacLean and Mike Welsh is no easier after the debate, held at Lehigh Valley Active Life.

Neither candidate tried to set himself apart from his opponent.

“As Mike [Welsh] said, Mike and I are going to agree on a lot of things here tonight,” MacLean said in his opening statement.

Their shared prediction proved correct. Moderator Brad Osborne and members of the audience asked the candidates 14 questions in all. Not once did the candidates give substantively different answers.

Both said the county-owned Cedarbrook nursing home is running well and should remain county property.

Both argued that elections workers should limit the number of drop boxes where voters can return mail ballots.

Both declared that county officials should more closely cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport undocumented immigrants.

Both pledged they would not raise the county’s property tax rate, and would strategically expand tax incentives for businesses in certain circumstances.

Contrasting biographies

The candidates’ pitches also shared a lack of concrete policy proposals.

While MacLean and Welsh each pledged to make Lehigh County government more efficient, neither offered specific prescriptions as to how they would do so.

“I'm going to look at the budget," MacLean said. "I'm going to see if we're doing things efficiently.

"I'm going to see if there's places where we can cut or shift or how we can make the budget equal without having to pull from another fund.”

When an audience member asked the candidates where they would look to find efficiencies, both replied that they would examine “each and every department” of county government.

Welsh and MacLean nearly sparred with each other after Osborne asked Maclean why he ran for Allentown City Council as a Democrat in 2015.

MacLean explained that he switched parties purely out of political necessity, saying his “values did not change” when he briefly became a Democrat.

Welsh responded that he was “proud that I’ve been a lifelong Republican.”

The only real contrast between the two Republicans appeared in their biographies, laid out in opening and closing statements.

MacLean worked for the Allentown Police Department for decades, including a stint as police chief from 2006-13.

Welsh has spent all of his similarly long career in the insurance industry, he said, and currently owns A. C. Thompson Insurance.

Attacking Democratic opponent

For all their similarities, they approached Thursday’s debate slightly differently: Unlike his opponent, Welsh came prepared to attack the presumptive Democratic nominee, State Rep. Josh Siegel.

Seigel, running unopposed in the Democratic primary for Lehigh County Executive, will almost certainly face the Republican nominee in November.

Welsh repeatedly criticized Siegel as “far out of the mainstream,” with plans to impose new taxes on Lehigh County residents, cut funding for police in order to send social workers on emergency calls, and “fundamentally change the way we are living now in Lehigh County.”

In a statement, Siegel, who attended the debate, hit back at both candidates and sought to nationalize the race for County Executive.

He said they “were unsurprisingly ignorant of county government, fear mongering about my campaign while offering not a single genuine idea to improve people's lives.”

“Like Elon Musk, [Welsh and MacLean] offered lies about nonexistent waste and savings," Siegel wrote. "What they'll do is cut critical programs and starve county services.

“I have a vision of One Lehigh that creates unity around shared values and principles and offers real solutions and a path forward.”