Word still elusive to the Press--- "DEMOCRAT"

About a dozen county contractors have donated more than $100,000 combined to Lehigh County Executive Don Cunningham's campaign war chest while receiving ''no-bid'' contracts worth more than $3 million, a Morning Call analysis of county and campaign finance records shows.

One of those contracts went to Computer Aid Inc., of Allentown, whose president has donated a total of $17,000 to Cunningham's campaign fund in the past four years.

In that time, Computer Aid Inc. has been paid more than $1.5 million under a contract to manage the county's information technology department.

In May the contract was extended for three years, with increases each year. Six months later, company President Anthony Salvaggio wrote checks for $10,500 to Cunningham's campaign fund.

The first order of business is assisting the ever predictable media in finding that elusive little word..."DEMOCRAT." How they keep losing it is mind-boggling. This is an above-the-fold front page story in The Morning Call where the subject is a DEMOCRAT who holds high aspirations of being Pennsylvania's next Governor. Not once is his party affiliation mentioned in the entire article. HE'S A DEMOCRAT.

It is nice to see that the Republicans in the state aren't all a bunch of defeatist pansies. That's the only way this article sees the light of day in the Tribune Company owned paper. Someone had to apply a little pressure from the "right" side of the aisle.

Computer Aid is not the only contractor to contribute to Cunningham's war chest since his first run for county office in 2005, state campaign finance and county vendor records show.

The larger donors include engineering consultant McTish Kunkel and Associates, whose principals donated $28,500 since 2005; The Philadelphia Trust Co., whose employees contributed $13,600; and Concord Public Financial Advisors, whose principals gave $8,500.

Those firms received no-bid contracts worth more than $300,000 during that same time. Cunningham and his top administrators say none of the contracts was the result of pay to play.

No-bid contracts are a joke to start with...but since Don Cunningham is a DEMOCRAT with abitious goals...we should just take him at his word...right?

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Another misplaced word by the media...they need a box.

Newspapers still missing elusive word...