Brown Upsets Callahan for Northampton County Executive

John Brown is on his way to the Northampton County Executive's office.

The Bangor mayor won a surprising victory Tuesday over Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan, who conceded the race around 10:15 p.m., according to published reports.

Unofficial results showed Brown with 51 percent of the vote, with 72 percent of precincts reporting.

Brown is the first Republican executive in Northampton County since 1997. He had campaigned on his experience as a businessman and his record of bipartisan leadership.

"We have to be able to manage fiscally," he said in an interview with WFMZ-TV, saying he had run a grassroots campaign that registered with voters.

Callahan, meanwhile, had campaigned on a promise to boost economic development, improve county brownfields and keep the county nursing home Gracedale in public hands.

His campaign for executive coincided with the end of his 10-year stretch as mayor in Bethlehem. 

Callahan told WFMZ Tuesday that although he had broad name recognition, "a heck of a lot more Republicans showed up today than Democrats and that changed the dynamic of the county."

"We didn't get our vote out" in Bethlehem or throughout the county, he said. "It's John Brown's night and I congratulate him."