Callahan Supports Fellow Democrats

Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan and other incumbent Democrat members of City Council publicly endorsed BASD school board candidates Basilio Bonilla Jr. and Sudantha Vidanage, along with incumbent board member and current president Michele Cann, at a press conference Thursday afternoon, symbolically held in front of the district's Education Center.

“We wanted to make it clear we all stand together,” Callahan said, joined by city council member Willie Reynolds, city council hopeful Michael Recchiuti and other Democratic Party members, candidates and supporters.

Despite Bonilla's youth, he will make a fine school board director if elected, Callahan said, noting that he is a BASD graduate and current college student.

“He brings a unique perspective,” he said. “If Bethlehem's going to be successful moving forward, we're going to need the next generation.”

Vidanage is directly representative of the American dream, Callahan said, adding that he received his education in the U.S. and his two daughters are BASD graduates.

“He understands the importance of education,” Callahan said of Vidanage.

Coming out in support of programs set to be curtailed or eliminated due to budget shortfalls, Callahan, also educated in Bethlehem's public schools, said that he would not be where he is today, had it not been for Head Start classes he attended as a child.

“I was certainly not a kid that people looked at and said, 'That kid's going to be mayor one day,'” Callahan said, adding that speech therapy provided by the pre-kindergarten program corrected a speech impediment and set the stage for a successful school experience later.

The three endorsed Democratic candidates face three Tea Party Republicans in next Tuesday's primary.

A seventh candidate, incumbent school board director Eugene McKeon, is cross-filed and runs unopposed in Region 3.

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 For statements from candidates for BASD board director, please click here.