Don Cunningham for Executive in Lehigh County

Don Cunningham, former Mayor of Bethlehem and Secretary of the Department of General Service is a rising star in Pennsylvania Politics. He directed the cost-saving programs at DGS and has returned home to Lehigh County to run for County Executive. Please join Governor Ed Rendell and the host committee in honoring him on Tuesday, September 27th, at 5:00 pm at the Red Door (110 North Second Street, Harrisburg). The recommended contribution is $500.00. Checks should be made to: Friends of Don Cunningham Committee. To learn more about Secretary Cunningham, check out his website. I expect he'll be Governor of Pennsylvania someday.

Donald T. Cunningham, Jr. was confirmed by the Pennsylvania State Senate on February 11, 2003 as Secretary of the Department of General Services (DGS), which oversees the core business operations of state government and manages nearly $4 billion in annual spending.

Cunningham was nominated by Governor Edward G. Rendell because of his experience with managing large government operations during difficult financial times and improving the quality of services while reducing the cost of operations. He played a central role in the Rendell Administration's effort to improve the management and productivity of state government, leading the effort to reduce $250 million in spending by streamlining government and introducing modern business management practices.

Prior to his appointment, Cunningham was Mayor of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the state's seventh-largest city, from 1998 to February 2003. In a city hit hard by the decline of Bethlehem Steel Corp. and the loss of 20,000 steel manufacturing jobs and a substantial portion of its tax base, Cunningham guided more than $1 billion of new development and the creation of 2,500 new jobs into the city during his tenure as mayor. He received national recognition for his work in economic development and urban revitalization for leading an economic renaissance and transforming Bethlehem into a New Economy city.

In addition to his work in economic development, Cunningham proposed five city budgets with only one small (5½ %) tax increase and developed new and innovative programs to improve public safety and the delivery of neighborhood services. He was recognized for his innovations in the delivery of local government services by both the U.S. Conference of Mayors (1999) and former Governor Tom Ridge (2001). The Democratic Leadership Council named Cunningham one of the top ten state and local "rising stars" in the Democratic Party in 2000.

His service-driven approach to government, emphasizing fiscal austerity and aggressive economic development, led to his election by his peers in 2002 as the president of the Pennsylvania League of Cities and Municipalities. Cunningham was the youngest mayor elected in the history of Bethlehem (1997) and the first mayor reelected (2001) with no opposition in the primary and general elections.

While in office, Cunningham spearheaded the redevelopment of the former Bethlehem Steel manufacturing lands, one of the largest urban brownfield renewal projects in the United States.

Before his term as mayor, Cunningham served for two years as a member of Bethlehem City Council. He also worked in the private sector where he served as Senior Information Specialist at Pennsylvania Power and Light Co. in Allentown and Media Relations Director at Moravian College in Bethlehem. Cunningham started his career as a newspaper reporter working for the former Bethlehem Globe Times and as a suburban correspondent with the Philadelphia Inquirer.

While in state government as Secretary of DGS, Cunningham served on the State Public School Building Authority and Pennsylvania Higher Educational Facilities Authority, as well as the Board of PENNVEST, the Capitol Preservation Committee, the Governor's Homeland Security Advisory Council and the Agricultural Land Preservation Interagency Committee.

Cunningham is a native of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and was educated entirely in Pennsylvania schools. He graduated from Shippensburg University with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and earned a Master of Arts in Political Science from Villanova University.

Cunningham resides in West Bethlehem, the Lehigh County portion of the City, where five generations of the Cunningham Family have lived in the same neighborhood. He is married to the former Laura Allen. His children, Bridget, Shane, and Brendan, attend Bethlehem Area public schools.