Frank Nickischer
Frank Nickischer was a candidate for an at-large seat on the Allentown City Board of Directors in Pennsylvania. The seat was up for general election on November 3, 2015. There was a primary election on May 19, 2015. He filed to run in the Democratic primary. Nickischer did not win a nomination in the Democratic primary.[1]
Biography
Nickischer retired from his job as a teacher in the Allentown School District in 2014. He was the vice-president of the teacher's union while he was employed in the district.[2]
Elections
2015
Five of the nine seats on the Allentown City Board of Directors were up for election in the general election on November 3, 2015. There was a primary election on May 19, 2015. The seats represent the district at-large.
Incumbents Ce-Ce Gerlach (D/R), Elizabeth Martinez (D), Robert Smith (D/R) and Charlie Thiel (D/R) won re-election to their seats. Newcomer Audrey Mathison (D) also won. Incumbent Scott Armstrong (R) and Mark Smith (R) were defeated in the general election.[3][1][4]
Candidates Jonah Adamcik (D/R), Carmen Cheriz (D), Frank Nickischer (D), Timothy Ramos (D/R) and Marc Telesha (D/R) were defeated in the primary elections.
Results
Primary Election
| Allentown City School District, At-Large Democratic Primary Election, 4-year term, 2015 |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic |  Ce-Ce Gerlach Incumbent |
16.2% | 2,266 | |
| Democratic | Elizabeth Martinez Incumbent |
11.3% | 1,581 | |
| Democratic | Charlie Thiel Incumbent |
10.7% | 1,500 | |
| Democratic | Audrey Mathison |
9.8% | 1,366 | |
| Democratic | Robert Smith Incumbent |
9.5% | 1,335 | |
| Democratic | Mark Smith | 8.7% | 1,215 | |
| Democratic | Scott Armstrong Incumbent | 6.7% | 931 | |
| Democratic | Frank Nickischer | 6.7% | 931 | |
| Democratic | Marc Telesha | 6.5% | 909 | |
| Democratic | Carmen Cheriz | 4.8% | 666 | |
| Democratic | Timothy Ramos | 4.7% | 651 | |
| Democratic | Jonah Adamcik | 4.6% | 640 | |
| Total Votes | 13,991 | |||
| Source: Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, "Municipal Primary - May 19, 2015," accessed July 7, 2015Ballotpedia confirmed these results are official by phone. | ||||
Funding
Nickischer reported no contributions or expenditures to the Lehigh County Voter Registration Department in the election.[5]
Endorsements
Nickischer received no official endorsements for his campaign during the election.
What was at stake?
2015
There were five seats up for election in the Allentown City School District. While the incumbents of those seats ran for re-election, a political action committee started by Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski (D) backed only two of the incumbents. The candidates supported by the PAC filed to run in the Democratic and Republican primaries but were identified by the PAC as Democrats.[6]
The PAC was shut down after the FBI began an investigation into contributions made by a local developer that were allegedly in exchange for city contracts.[7]
Issues in the election
Citizens for a Better Allentown PAC
Despite most candidates running in both parties' primaries as a result of cross-filing, partisan lines were clearly drawn in the 2015 primary election for school board. Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski, along with State Reps. Michael Schlossberg (D-22) and Peter Schweyer (D-132), created a political action committee called Citizens for a Better Allentown to support candidates running for the five open school board seats and three open city council seats. The candidates supported by the PAC were Elizabeth Martinez, Audrey Mathison, Marc Telesha and Charlie Thiel. All of the candidates supported by the PAC were identified as Democrats.[6]
Incumbents Ce-Ce Gerlach, Scott Armstrong and Robert Smith were not endorsed by the PAC. Armstrong and Smith identified as Republicans, but Gerlach identified as a Democrat. All three incumbents have had disagreements with the mayor in regard to his Neighborhood Improvement Zone project, which promoted downtown revitalization through tax incentives.
Armstrong had the following response to the news that he was not being supported by the PAC:
| “ | The mayor controls the city, now he wants to control the school district? Pawlowski is supporting those people because he can get exactly what he wants from them.[8] | ” |
| —Scott Armstrong, 2015, [9] | ||
Smith told reporters that he did not take it personally, and Gerlach gave no comment regarding the situation.[9]
Three of the candidates endorsed by Citizens for a Better Allentown won nominations and advanced to the general election. Elizabeth Martinez and Audrey Mathison both won a nomination in the Democratic primary. Charlie Thiel won nominations in both primaries. Marc Telesha did not advance to the general election.
Shortly after the primary election, the FBI began an investigation into Mayor Pawlowski and his involvement with potentially unlawful city contracts. A local developer pleaded guilty in September 2015 to contributing to the mayor's PAC in exchange for contracts from the city.[7]
Since the FBI investigation began, the PAC was shut down and the candidates who were previously supported by the PAC received no more funds. A local political consultant who allegedly supplied the information to the FBI that led to the indictment of the developer shut down his office and moved out of his house the day after the FBI issued subpoenas to people within the city. As of October 2015, the mayor had not been charged with any crime.[10]
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Frank Nickischer Allentown City School District. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- Allentown City School District, Pennsylvania
- Allentown City School District elections (2015)
- Embroiled incumbents see differing outcomes in May 19 school board elections across five states (May 21, 2015)
- Incumbency no guarantee of success in Nov. 3 school board elections (November 6, 2015)
- What happened in Nov.'s top board elections? (November 4, 2015)
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Morning Call, "Crowded School Board Races in Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton," March 12, 2015 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "candidates" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ The Morning Call, "Crowded school board races in Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton," March 12, 2015
- ↑ Allentown City School District, "Allentown City School District Board of Directors," accessed March 11, 2015
- ↑ Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, "Election Results," accessed November 4, 2015
- ↑ Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, "Campaign Finance Reports," accessed February 3, 2016
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Citizens for A Better Allentown, "Who We Are," accessed April 6, 2015
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 The Morning Call, "Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski implicated in FBI probe," September 10, 2015
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 The Morning Call, "Pawlowski, other top Allentown Dems form PAC to fund local candidates," January 28, 2015
- ↑ The Morning Call, "Under FBI's cloud, Allentown election season is subdued," October 29, 2015
| 2015 Allentown City School District Elections | |
| Lehigh County, Pennsylvania | |
| Election date: | Primary election: May 19, 2015 General election: November 3, 2015 |
| Candidates: | At-large: • Incumbent, Scott Armstrong (D/R) • Incumbent, Ce-Ce Gerlach (D/R) • Incumbent, Elizabeth Martinez (D/R) • Incumbent, Robert Smith (D/R) • Incumbent, Charlie Thiel (D/R) • Jonah Adamcik (D/R) • Carmen Cheriz (D) • Audrey Mathison (D/R) • Frank Nickischer (D) • Timothy Ramos (D/R) • Mark Smith (D/R) • Marc Telesha (D/R) |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Key deadlines • Additional elections on the ballot |
