Catasauqua business owner David Molony officially announced his candidacy for representative of the 133rd Legislative District at a Feb. 23 kickoff meeting. During the meeting with his campaign supporters, Molony, a nationally recognized acupuncture specialist and Chinese medicine practitioner, gave a short speech outlining his agenda.

This will be Molony’s third attempt to secure a seat in the Legislature. He is a Republican, running unopposed on his party’s ballot in the April 26 primary election. The seat is currently held by Democrat Daniel T. McNeill, who is running for re-election.

“This is the year when voters are expressing their dislike for the way the establishment runs things, doing the same old things and expecting different results,” he said.

“The district was drawn to protect Democrat party candidates. Only 26 percent of the district is Republican. Luckily, we have quite a few independent thinkers voting and people seem to understand why I am running.

My last time out, I had 45 percent of the vote. This time I want to convince another 5 percent to vote for something other than the same old answers to the same old problems.”

Molony alluded to the corruption charges in Allentown as indicative of how establishment politicians act in their own interests, or at least in the best interests of the special groups they represent. He echoed the call of all politicians that he stands with the people.

“I’m not beholden to special interest groups like my opponent,” he said. “This is a time to differentiate between representatives of special interest groups and those who truly represent the voters who elect them.”

In his policy statements, Molony has two key ideas.

“We need to eliminate property tax as a way to fund schools,” he said. “Putting all the funding with the state is subject to corruption even worse than what we see now. Collectively, we must look at creative, economical ways to educate our children.”

Molony claims the current practices are not effective.

“Schools should not be held hostage to the whims of the governor nor should our students have anything less than a well-rounded education that prepares them to be contributing members of society,” he said.

Molony is opposed to a small decrease in property taxes, as proposed by Gov. Thomas Wolf.

“If you don’t eliminate the tax, then they will just creep back up again,” he said. “Gambling revenue was supposed to reduce property taxes. It didn’t. And no one, especially our senior citizens, should lose their home because they can’t pay the tax man.”

Molony’s second idea has raised some eyebrows for its boldness.

“We have a large Syrian Christian community in the valley. We should be asking the governor to send Syrian refugees here and let the churches verify that they are legitimate refugees,” he said. “Syrians are being terrorized for their Christian religion and the war in their neighborhoods.”

Molony referred to a history of churches helping to support refugees. “The system is in place, and we can do so much good to get these oppressed people functioning as productive members of the community,” he said.

Molony likes to mention he worked with the state legislature to pass three bills related to acupuncture and oriental medicine, all of which were passed by a Republican-led legislative branch and a Democratic governor.

The 133rd District includes the Borough of Catasauqua; Hanover Township (Lehigh County); the Lehigh County portion of the City of Bethlehem; Salisbury wards 1, 2 and 3 (div. 2); Whitehall districts 1-6, 8, 9 and 12; and the boroughs of Coplay and Fountain Hill.