{"id":236790,"date":"2026-07-06T16:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T16:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/236790\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T16:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T16:24:08","slug":"little-money-moving-in-135th-district-race-as-samuelson-leads-poplawski-by-4k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/236790\/","title":{"rendered":"Little money moving in 135th District race as Samuelson leads Poplawski by $4K"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\"\"Joseph Poplawski, left, and state Rep. Steve Samuelson. \/ Contributed photos<\/p>\n

Fundraising has not been a factor so far in the race for Pennsylvania\u2019s 135th House District, where incumbent Democrat Steve Samuelson leads Republican challenger Joseph Poplawski in finances.<\/p>\n

Samuelson\u2019s campaign committee, Friends of Steve Samuelson, reported $5,102 available with $4,902 cash on hand after spending $200, according to the latest campaign finance reports for the period ending June 8. Meanwhile, Friends of Joseph Poplawski reported $839 available with $99 on hand after spending $740.<\/p>\n

The 135th District includes the Northampton County side of Bethlehem and part of Hanover Township. Samuelson has represented the district since 1999 and is seeking his 15th consecutive term.<\/p>\n

Poplawski, a Bethlehem resident who owns a home inspection company, is seeking state office after running an unsuccessful bid for Bethlehem City Council last year. The election is Nov. 3.<\/p>\n

Samuelson\u2019s campaign has reported no monetary or in-kind contributions this year, and minimal expenditures \u2014 just tickets for dinners with the Bethlehem NAACP and Lehigh Valley Labor Council totaling $400.<\/p>\n

The Samuelson campaign was more active in 2025, when it reported $19,100 in contributions, mostly from political action committees, and spent $16,111. The biggest contributions last year were $2,000 each from Certified Public Accountants PAC and Law PAC, both in Harrisburg; and $1,000 from Operators for Skill PAC in Harrisburg. All other PAC contributions were $500 or less. The biggest individual contributions in 2025 were $2,500 from Wind Creek Bethlehem LLC and $1,000 from John D. Berkheimer of Bangor, the CEO of Berkheimer Associates.<\/p>\n

The Samuelson campaign\u2019s most significant expense last year was a $15,000 contribution to the Pennsylvania House Democratic Campaign Committee, the party\u2019s campaign arm in Harrisburg. The committee ended 2025 with $5,302.<\/p>\n

Poplawski\u2019s campaign reported $949 in contributions this year \u2014 most of that as a $740 in-kind contribution from Poplawski himself for sign printing, which was also listed as the biggest expenditure so far. The other $209 contributions came from Friends of Heather L. Christein, the campaign committee for an unsuccessful 2025 Bethlehem Area School Board candidate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joseph Poplawski, left, and state Rep. Steve Samuelson. \/ Contributed photos Fundraising has not been a factor so…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-236790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}