Josh Siegel\u2019s office for the moment is the kitchen table of his Allentown home, where he is preparing to assume leadership of Lehigh County \u2014 an urban, suburban and agricultural patchwork that is home to 390,000 people, umpteen businesses, a heady mix of cultures, and every imaginable blessing and drawback of American society.<\/p>\n
Siegel, 32, is the youngest person ever elected as a county executive in Pennsylvania. Energetic and ambitious, he is eager to follow the path blazed by some of his political heroes: Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, among others, who believed government by power and purse can lessen life\u2019s hardships and even provide a measure of success to people left behind in laissez-faire systems.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe in the old-school Democratic ways,\u201d Siegel said, sitting in his makeshift office one afternoon a couple of weeks ahead of his Jan. 5 starting date, when he will move operations a few miles south to the Lehigh County Government Center. \u201cI\u2019m a firm believer that the public sector and the government has a unique and compelling responsibility to create security and prosperity for people.\u201d<\/p>\n
County government doesn\u2019t have the sweeping influence of state or federal government, of course. Lehigh County\u2019s $538 million budget is devoted to human services, the criminal justice system, elections and economic development, along with infrastructure maintenance, farmland preservation and other programs.<\/a><\/p>\n It\u2019s thoroughly local, in other words, but Siegel has come to believe that trust in American institutions \u2014 battered and frayed, he believes, by the high winds of the Trump era \u2014 can be rebuilt on just this level.<\/p>\n He doesn\u2019t hold back in his criticism of the president. Indeed, one of the five subcommittees of his 30-member transition team is called \u201cLocal Resilience and Response to Trump Administration.\u201d It is exploring the impact of cuts to social safety net services, the presence and actions of immigration enforcement agents and the potential for election interference by the administration, among other topics.<\/p>\n By naming Trump specifically in his Dec. 1 transition announcement, Siegel raised eyebrows among local Republicans.<\/p>\n \u201cMy concern is that this committee doesn\u2019t acknowledge half our community voted for the president in a year when turnout exceeded 70%,\u201d said Ron Beitler, a Republican county commissioner. \u201cI worry about the message that sends to half our community about whether their county government is interested in their concerns and in representing everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, Beitler is hopeful commissioners can work as well with Siegel as they did with the executive he is succeeding, Phillips Armstrong.<\/p>\n \u201cWe acknowledged differences, but end of the day we functioned effectively as a group,\u201d Beitler said. \u201cIn a time when dysfunction is sadly the norm, I\u2019m proud Lehigh County set an example of a body focused on good government, not party politics. I have concerns about whether that focus continues.\u201d<\/p>\n While bluntly acknowledging his disdain for Trump and the MAGA movement, Siegel said the outcome of the election \u2014 he easily defeated Republican Roger MacLean \u2014<\/a> suggests plenty of Republicans find his politics and ambitions palatable.<\/p>\n \u201cI prevailed with almost 61% of the vote, so more than a majority of the county clearly aligned with or expressed support for my policy platform and my vision,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n That vision is largely geared toward helping people who are struggling with joblessness and stagnant wages in a stubbornly inflationary economy.<\/p>\n