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Although a conversation on race could be constructive for Luzerne County audiences, Sean M. Donahue is not the man to guide a rational examination of the issues.
Nor is he a sensible choice to serve as Hazleton’s mayor.
Running for the city’s top executive post as a write-in candidate, the 45-year-old Hazleton native has aligned himself with the American Freedom Party – an organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center has pegged a hate group. Donahue calls himself a white-rights activist. He recently told a Times Leader reporter, “Immigrants have a huge unfair and illegal advantage over me that goes unchecked.”
Donahue strikes us as someone who, due to extended unemployment or for other reasons, has become overly disgruntled. He sometimes mass emails material that sounds bitter, foreboding or nonsensical. As recently as Wednesday, an email purportedly sent by him to 112 recipients – most of whom probably would rather not be on his send list – was addressed to “Dear Media and Government Leaders.”
It stated: “Please let the people of Pennsylvania know that in avid support for my campaign for Mayor of Hazleton in 2015, I have updated my blog with an organization of visual, written and rhythmic expressions of free speech arranged into a collage of honed and focused explicit political intent.”
Huh?
A quick check of the blog confirms it is equally muddled. It includes profanity and posts supportive of racial segregation.
In various forums, Donahue has made clear his dislike for the Hazleton newspaper, the Hazleton police chief, Luzerne County’s district attorney, the CareerLink agency and other entities. No doubt, this editorial will provoke his further disdain toward the Times Leader. That’s OK.
It needed to be said that, in our opinion, no one should seriously consider Donahue a viable candidate for Hazleton mayor or any elected public office.