Ed Zucal, following a push for Republican write-in votes for Allentown mayor, appears poised to secure that nomination, setting up a rematch of the Democratic primary in November.
According to Zucal secured 498 GOP write-in votes, more than the 100 needed to secure the nomination and far ahead of any other write-in vote getters.
“Obviously I’m very satisfied with the results,” Zucal said Friday. “The Republicans had enough faith in me to write me in, it doesn’t change the person I am, for the Democrats as well that wrote me in, I’m still the same person, I’m looking forward to representing the Republicans in the November.”
Zucal lost his bid for the Democratic nomination in Tuesday’s primary election, receiving only around 19% of the votes compared to the incumbent Mayor Matt Tuerk, who received over 80% of the share.
However, in the later weeks of his campaign, Zucal began sending out mailers to Republicans asking them to write him in for the GOP nomination.
Zucal said he plans to reach out to the Lehigh County Republican Committee for their guidelines for write-in candidates and to solicit their support. He is willing to change his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican in order to run, Zucal said.
County Republican chair Joe Vichot could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.
Others who received write-in GOP votes for mayor include Tuerk, who received 114 votes, and Solomon Tembo, who received 11. Tembo, who ran as an independent for Allentown mayor in 2021, had filed paperwork to run for the Republican nomination for mayor this year, but was removed from the ballot because of paperwork and petition issues.
Tuerk, in a phone interview Friday morning, said he was skeptical that Zucal could secure enough Republican support to run a competitive campaign.
“[Local Republican committees] have a county executive race in Northampton County and in Lehigh County that they may want to financially support, so I just, I have a hard time believing that he is going to be able to generate a ton of financial support for a campaign,” Tuerk said.
The primary election results will become official after the county certifies the results in June.
Reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at Liweber@mcall.com.
