Welcome to Armchair Lehigh Valley, a free, grassroots newsletter that aims to provide nonpartisan information on federal, state and local elections and politics in Lehigh and Northampton counties.
For many in the Lehigh Valley, it has become increasingly difficult to figure out who is running for office and what they stand for.
Voters often must rely on campaign mailings, yard signs, social media and word of mouth. For many, Election Day ends up becoming a mad scramble for information.
Armchair was born of this frustration. We aim to give voters factual information in a nonpartisan way to help them make informed decisions at the polls. Our newsletter is free.
Why the name Armchair?
Volunteers, including journalists with decades of experience in the Lehigh Valley, will take an armchair approach to research. Working with computers from our armchairs – or desks, kitchen tables and sofas – we will cull readily available information from a host of sources. These include public documents, nominating petitions, campaign finance reports, ethics reports, social media, press releases, campaign websites and nonpartisan amalgamators of election data.
Armchair will present our research as well as sources in a newsletter via Substack. Information will be archived at armchairlehighvalley.substack.com with headlines that will make it easy to find races.
We also will keep a watch on news regarding election laws, redistricting, voting by mail and related issues.
As a start-up election site, we realize that we are in a building process. But our goal is to become a trusted source for election news.
To that end, we invite candidates to be part of the process. We welcome press releases on announcements, issues, events, endorsements and other relevant information.
Information can be sent to armchairlehighvalley@gmail.com. Anyone wishing to learn more about us can email us as well.
Statement of Financial Independence
We subscribe to standards of editorial independence adopted by the Institute for Nonprofit News:
Our organization retains full authority over editorial content to protect the best journalistic and business interests of our organization. We maintain a firewall between news coverage decisions and sources of all revenue. Acceptance of financial support does not constitute implied or actual endorsement of donors or their products, services or opinions.
We accept gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals and organizations for the general support of our activities, but our news judgments are made independently and not on the basis of donor support.
Our organization may consider donations to support the coverage of particular topics, but our organization maintains editorial control of the coverage. We will cede no right of review or influence of editorial content, nor of unauthorized distribution of editorial content.
Our organization will make public all donors who give a total of $5,000 or more per year. We will accept anonymous donations for general support only if it is clear that sufficient safeguards have been put into place that the expenditure of that donation is made independently by our organization and in compliance with INN’s Membership Standards.
Regards,
Katherine Reinhard, co-editor
Robert H. Orenstein, co-editor
How to read us:
Subscribe: Click here to subscribe or send us an email at armchairlehighvalley@gmail.com and we will add you to our subscriber list.
Follow us on Twitter: @armchairlv
For more information: email armchairlehighvalley@gmail.com
About us:
Katherine Reinhard
As a young journalist, Katherine thought she landed an exclusive when she got to ride in a limo with Tip O’Neill, then the Democratic Speaker of the House, during a 1980s campaign stop in the Lehigh Valley. But everything he told her was a well-rehearsed sound bite, and she didn’t end up with anything the other journalists didn’t hear that day. The experience didn’t damper her enthusiasm for political reporting.
Katherine spent 40 years at The Morning Call in Allentown, first as a reporter and later an editor helping to steer local news coverage. She is now a freelancer, writing for The Morning Call and The Pennsylvania Capital-Star. As a private citizen, she has contributed to political efforts.
Robert Orenstein
Robert seemed destined to become a journalist. As a teenager, he read newspapers every day, paying particular attention to stories about government and politics. After graduating from college and taking a few detours, he finally chose journalism as a career that lasted nearly four decades. He spent most of that time - 32 years - with The Morning Call in Allentown, as a reporter, a bureau editor and finally an opinion page editor before retiring in 2019.