League of Women Voters for Lehigh County to hold non-partisan candidate workshop featuring Malcolm Kenyatta | Lehigh Valley Regional News

The League of Women Voters of Lehigh County will hold a workshop Jan. 21 to help candidates from any party learn the mechanics of running for office.

State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, D-Philadelphia, will be the featured speaker, but the event is for people of all parties.

“We want to help people who are running to know what they are doing,” said Mary Erdman, president of the Lehigh County League.

The league is non-partisan and the workshop is open to first-time and repeat candidates who want guidance on how to deal with the mechanics of running, such as filing petitions, preparing financial reports and dealing with the press.

The workshop is also open to campaign staff members, who do much of the nuts-and-bolts work of politics.

The league encourages people to run, though the process can be daunting.

“There are people who aren’t crazy about running for office, and then the parties plead with them to run,” Erdman said. “Then they go home and say, ‘Oh my, what did I just do.'”

Erdman said the four-hour workshop will cover every step of the process, and those who attend will receive a 65-page handbook to help guide them.

“We cover everything,” she said. “We have representatives from both parties who talk about what you can depend on your party to do for you.”

In addition to the mechanics of running, this year’s workshop will include an address by Kenyatta, who represents north Philadelphia in Harrisburg. Kenyatta also ran in Pennsylvania’s 2022 Democratic US Senate primary, a race won by Lt. gov. John Fetterman, who also prevailed in the fall election.

“We thought he’d have a good message for candidates for all parties about truly serving the public,” Erdman said of Kenyatta. “After he lost the Senate primary, he didn’t take his ball and go home. He went all over the state campaigning for his party’s ticket. He showed that it’s not always about you.”

Among the speakers at the workshop will be Tori Morgan-R (former South Whitehall Township commissioner), Pete Schweyer-D (state representative, Allentown), Marisa Ziegler-D (Parkland School Board) and Ron Beitler-R (Lehigh County Commissioner) .

This year’s candidate workshop will be held Saturday, Jan. 21 from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm at the Penn State Lehigh Valley Campus, Room 135, 2809 Saucon Valley Road in Center Valley. The cost is $40, including the campaign handbook. Registration information is available on the league’s website.

The League of Women Voters is a non-partisan organization that encourages participation in government and promotes understanding of public policy issues.

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