{"id":149769,"date":"2026-06-03T21:20:46","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T01:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/?p=149769"},"modified":"2026-06-03T22:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T02:21:09","slug":"pa-7-democrats-assemble-for-damage-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/?p=149769","title":{"rendered":"PA-7 Democrats Assemble for Damage Control"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bob Brooks and his D.C. bosses are struggling to clean up their mess<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Allentown, PA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 Following Bob Brooks\u2019 Wednesday\u00a0event<\/a>\u00a0with his former opponents, the Mackenzie for Congress Campaign released the following statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cBob Brooks\u00a0wiped<\/a>\u00a0his social media history this week, but his former opponents haven\u2019t wiped theirs,\u201d\u00a0said Mackenzie for Congress Campaign Manager Andres Weller.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cIn recent months, Democrats across the Lehigh Valley and the Poconos have rightfully pointed out Brooks\u2019 history of\u00a0fraud<\/a>,\u00a0dishonesty<\/a>,\u00a0shady deals<\/a>, sketchy\u00a0social media<\/a>\u00a0posts, and embarrassing\u00a0gaffes<\/a>. Congressman Mackenzie stands with local Democrats in their criticisms of conman and fraudster Bob Brooks, including by joining Ryan Crosswell\u2019s recent\u00a0call<\/a>\u00a0for Brooks to update his \u2018falsified\u2019 ethics disclosure to include the \u2018court-ordered debt of $130,000 to his in-laws.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, Brooks\u2019 bosses in the D.C. establishment are desperately trying to pick up the pieces from their disastrous primary by putting all of his former opponents together in a room. Ryan Crosswell said it best: \u2018The DCCC will undoubtedly show up here on May 20th, ready to ask all [Democrats] to work for the winner. They will act like they respect these volunteers in the general election after blatantly disregarding them in the primary election\u2026 But if you let them decide the election, they will. And nothing will ever change.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Recent Criticism from Democrats<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every candidate in this race has loyal, Super Democrat supporters.\u00a0 The people who volunteer, and canvass, and phonebank, and sit out in the cold under four layers at Democratic committee tables at community events.\u00a0 And they have no say in this.\u00a0The DCCC will undoubtedly show up here on May 20th, ready to ask all of them to work for the winner.\u00a0 They will act like they respect these volunteers in the general election after blatantly disregarding them in the primary election.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>And that doesn\u2019t even account for all the dark money being spent by the same establishment to try to get him across the finish line (hint: if the ad doesn\u2019t say \u201cI approve this message\u201d, it\u2019s dark money).\u00a0 And the only reason they\u2019re trying this hard to force him on us is because they\u2019re seeing how upset people are that he\u2019s getting forced on them.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

This election is not the DCCC\u2019s or the DC insiders\u2019 decision.\u00a0 This is yours.\u00a0 It\u2019s your kids in our schools. It\u2019s your parents in our nursing homes.\u00a0 It\u2019s you and your neighbors who have been out at No Kings events standing up for our country.\u00a0\u00a0But if you let them decide the election, they will.\u00a0 And nothing will ever change. –\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Ryan Crosswell<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

I’m calling on Bob Brooks to disclose any and all pending debts in his House Ethics Disclosure filing, which is due today. His last disclosure was falsified: it did not disclose a court-ordered debt of $130,000 to his in-laws\u2026 Because he didn’t include it in his previous disclosures – which every candidate in the country was required by law to file – voters only learned about it when his mother in-law filed a fraud lawsuit against him in February. Only then did his campaign admit that they intentionally didn\u2019t disclose this debt in their House Ethics filing.\u00a0–\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Ryan Crosswell<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

“If Washington, D.C. insiders want to know why they’re hated, look no further than this race: They’ve thrown their support behind the one candidate who has missed the most events, avoided the most questions, has a pending fraud lawsuit and threw the governor under the bus when asked about his own endorsement of an election denier.”<\/em>\u00a0–\u00a0Ryan Crosswell<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Bob Brooks sent a fundraising text for me saying the job was \u201ctoo big for him.\u201d\u00a0–\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>LaMont McClure<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

“He’s a human gaffe machine.” –\u00a0Lamont McClure<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

In a district that\u2019s 23% Latino, my opponent shrugged off the deadliest attack targeting people who look like us. That\u2019s unacceptable. Our community has always fought back but we shouldn\u2019t have to do it alone. We need a leader who sees us, respects us, and fights for our safety. –\u00a0<\/em>Carol Obando-Derstine<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI absolutely do not think it is appropriate for the DCCC or any outside organization to weigh in on this race before it has been determined by the voters. That\u2019s what the primary is for for the people to vote their choice to represent the Democratic party.\u201d –\u00a0<\/em>Lori McFarland<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Democratic establishment is always talking about diversity and representing all sectors of a community\u2026 They\u2019re presented with a Latina, highly qualified, highly educated candidate in a district with a large Hispanic population, and I can only surmise they decided maybe PA-7 wasn\u2019t ready for this kind of candidate\u2026 This is their new mantra\u2014we\u2019ve got to get the working-class back, so all of our best candidates are these working-class dudes\u2026 Probably even more important to the outcome of a race are suburban women. So hey, what about them?\u201d –\u00a0<\/em>Susan Wild<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201c[Bob Brooks ducking interviews] is disqualifying, IMHO. One, the voters deserve every bit of information that they can get on these candidates. Two, who does Bob Brooks think he is? This smacks of ENTITLEMENT.\u201d –\u00a0<\/em>Susan Wild<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nArnaud Armstrong<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bob Brooks and his D.C. bosses are struggling to clean up their mess Allentown, PA\u00a0\u2014 Following Bob Brooks\u2019 Wednesday\u00a0event\u00a0with his former opponents, the Mackenzie for Congress Campaign released the following statement. \u201cBob Brooks\u00a0wiped\u00a0his social media history this week, but his former opponents haven\u2019t wiped theirs,\u201d\u00a0said Mackenzie for Congress Campaign Manager Andres Weller.\u00a0\u201cIn recent months, Democrats … Continue reading PA-7 Democrats Assemble for Damage Control<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143321,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ryan-mack.jpg?fit=672%2C372&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=149769"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149770,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149769\/revisions\/149770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/143321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=149769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=149769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=149769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}