{"id":26010,"date":"2025-11-05T22:19:28","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T22:19:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/26010\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T22:19:28","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T22:19:28","slug":"lehigh-county-commissioner-reelected-in-face-of-drug-charges-armchair-lehigh-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/26010\/","title":{"rendered":"Lehigh County commissioner reelected in face of drug charges | Armchair Lehigh Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"

Armchair Lehigh Valley content is published on lehighvalleylive.com<\/a> as part of a partnership with the website, which aims to give voters nonpartisan factual information. Armchair Lehigh Valley is run by publisher Katherine Reinhard and editor Robert H. Orenstein. For more information, or to subscribe at armchairlehighvalley.substack.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Incumbent Democrat Zachary Cole-Borghi held onto his seat on the Lehigh County Board of Commissioners in District 3 in the face of drug charges<\/a> while newcomer Sarah Fevig flipped the District 5 seat to blue in Tuesday\u2019s election.<\/p>\n

Three unchallenged incumbents \u2013 Republican Antonio Pineda in District 1, Republican Ron W. Beitler in District 2 and Democrat Geoffrey Brace in District 4 \u2013 were reelected.<\/p>\n

Cole-Borghi\u2019s and Fevig\u2019s wins come as Democrat Josh Siegel, a state lawmaker from the 22nd House District, won the race for Lehigh County executive <\/a>with 60.61% of the vote over Republican Roger MacLean, a former Allentown police chief and city council member. Democrats now have a 7-2 majority on the board.<\/p>\n

Cole-Borghi defeated Republican Jacqueline Rivera in District 3, receiving 9,046 votes to Rivera\u2019s 4,002, according to unofficial results posted by Lehigh County. Both candidates live in Bethlehem.<\/p>\n

His win came as he is facing charges of intent to deliver a pound of marijuana and possession of marijuana \u2013 charges which he has denied, said are politically motivated and vowed to fight.<\/p>\n

The race was a repeat of the 2021 contest where Cole-Borghi won with 59% of the vote. This time around, he won with 69.33% of the vote.<\/p>\n

Cole-Borghi had been working as Bethlehem\u2019s right-to-know officer when he was arrested in City Hall. He no longer holds the position. He is free after posting $50,000 bail. All records on the arrests are sealed.<\/p>\n

Cole-Borghi addressed the charges at a Sept. 10 meeting of the county board of commissioners.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be clear, I have never sold drugs to anyone, vehemently deny any suggestion to the contrary, and insist that I will prove my innocence,\u201d Cole-Borghi of Bethlehem said in a statement that was also sent to Armchair Lehigh Valley.<\/p>\n

Fevig, 44, of Upper Saucon Township defeated Republican Patrick Leonard with 60.61% of the vote to Leonard\u2019s 39.3% (12,059 to 7,836O. Leonard, 59, is Upper Saucon Township\u2019s director of general services and deputy emergency management coordinator.<\/p>\n

The District 5 seat was open because incumbent Republican Jeffrey Dutt did not seek reelection.<\/p>\n

Fevig, 44, is assistant vice president for financial aid and scholarships at The New School in New York City.<\/p>\n

This was her first run for political office. Her win came as she had the backing of Pennsylvania democracyFIRST PAC, which provided her with $73,646 worth of in-kind contributions related to literature, advertising and mailings.<\/p>\n

She also spent $6,765 on the race from contributions she received. Donors between June 10 and Oct. 20 included the political action committees of state Sen. Nick Miller, D-14th, ($500); Lehigh County Commissioner Geoff Brace ($1,000); International Union of Operating Engineers ($2,500) and state Rep. Peter Schweyer, D-134th ($500).<\/p>\n

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Armchair Lehigh Valley content is published on lehighvalleylive.com as part of a partnership with the website, which aims…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":{"0":"post-26010","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-headlines","10":"tag-allentown-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26010","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=26010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}