{"id":254350,"date":"2026-07-29T04:58:41","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T04:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/254350\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T04:58:41","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T04:58:41","slug":"candidates-line-up-to-fill-empty-lehigh-county-commissioner-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/254350\/","title":{"rendered":"Candidates line up to fill empty Lehigh County commissioner seat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Candidates hoping to fill the seat of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcall.com\/2026\/07\/01\/progressive-lehigh-county-commissioner-to-resign-board-to-pick-replacement\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lehigh County Commissioner Jon Irons, who stepped down this month ahead of a planned move out of state due to a family member\u2019s job,<\/a> will have a chance to make their views known at a public hearing Wednesday in Allentown.<\/p>\n<p>There are 14 candidates hoping to join the nine-person board, which creates local laws, approves funding for county programs, and sets county tax rates and budget.<\/p>\n<p>Among those who will appear before the commissioners\u2019 governance committee is Phillips Armstrong, who served two terms as Lehigh County executive before leaving office at the start of this year.<\/p>\n<p>Also seeking the post are:<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Michael \u201cNykolai\u201d Blichar Jr., an Allentown resident and director of student life and leadership development at Northampton Community College<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Heather Dean, an insurance broker from Allentown<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Stevie K. Draklan, a Washington Township attorney<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Keith M. Miller Sr., an Allentown psychologist<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Jason Nagle, an Allentown resident and program manager at Victory House, which helps homeless veterans<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Glen Paisley, a real estate broker from Lower Macungie Township<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Jay Rohatgi, an Upper Macungie Township resident and Parkland School Board member<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Jeremy Smale, a Catasauqua School Board member<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Ben Stemrich of Allentown, head of the weather department at Blue Ridge 13 News<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Juan Vargas, a South Whitehall Township resident and owner of Nowhere Coffee Co.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Dr. Thomas V. Whalen, an Allentown surgeon and chief medical officer at Lehigh Valley Health Network<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 The Rev. Geoffrey S. Whitcomb, a Lower Macungie Township music teacher who ran an unsuccessful campaign for the 187th House district in the May primary<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Sean Ziller, deputy director of economic development for Bethlehem.<\/p>\n<p>All the candidates for the at-large seat are Democrats, since the Lehigh County Home Rule Charter requires Irons\u2019 replacement be from the same party. The term runs through 2027.<\/p>\n<p>Candidates who receive a recommendation from the governance committee will move forward toward a vote from the full board. The commissioners will appoint their new member next month.<\/p>\n<p>The governance committee consists of Commissioners Sheila Alvarado, Zach Cole-Borghi and April Riddick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Candidates hoping to fill the seat of Lehigh County Commissioner Jon Irons, who stepped down this month ahead&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254351,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,2376,433,182,883,139,28,50],"class_list":["post-254350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-lehigh-county","tag-local-news","tag-local-politics","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254350","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=254350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}