Who is David T. DiGiacinto?

David T. DiGiacinto is the Democratic Candidate for Controller in the City of Bethlehem. He is a 1975 graduate of United States Military Academy at West Point.

He spent 6 years as a Captain in the U.S Air Force as a Pilot-In Command, resigning his commission in 1981. After which he spent 18 years with Pfizer in various positions including Sales, Marketing, Business Development and General Management in the Chemical/Food Science and Consumer Health Care Groups.

He joined Spencer Trask Specialty Group LLC, a leading private equity firm which helps start-up companies develop their products, in 2000 and is currently a Senior Managing Director.

He serves on the Board of Directors of several companies, including Minrad International, Inc., a pain management company that focuses on anesthesia and analgesia, where he is an Independent Director, Member of Compensation Committee, Member of Nominating Committee and Director of Minrad Inc; and Vyteris, the maker of a drug delivery patch, where he is Secretary, Director, Chairman of Audit Committee, Member of Compensation Committee and Member of Nominating Committee

He is also the owner of BETHNY Enterprise, Inc., which I have no idea what it does.

He expressed his interest to fill the vacancy on City Council created by John Callahan's election to the office of mayor in 2004. He was nominated to be a finalist by Councilman Schweder. The appointment eventually went to Joseph Leeson.

He was a member of the Bethlehem Authority, at one point he was the vice-chairman of the authority, which is the oversight committee for the City's water department and the watershed. He was not renominated to the board earlier this year by Mayor Callahan.

As you can see, Mr. DiGiacinto has a very impressive business background. His experience at Pfizer and in his current positions with Spencer Trask and serving on the board of directors of publicly traded companies make him qualified to be the City Controller.

The politics behind this election are quite interesting. The following account is mostly hearsay and has not been verified, however from the facts I stated above I believe it is true.

DiGiacinto was supportive of James Delgrosso in the 2003 special election for Mayor. Delgrosso was the candidate backed by Schweder and TJ Rooney. DiGiacinto, as I mentioned above, was nominated by Schweder to fill Callahan's seat on Council. Just connect the dots.

DiGiacinto's political donations also support his allegiances.

( Note: The politics going on in Bethlehem politics at this time were crazy, to say the least. There were secret meetings, back room deals and unreturned phone calls. For those of who do not know the whole story, please read this May 30, 2004 article from the Morning Call, which is reprinted here. It is a great article that explains the different factions in the Democratic party in Bethlehem.)

When DiGiacinto's term on the Authority was up, Callahan did not re-nominate him due to his allegiance to Schweder and Rooney.

Now DiGiacinto is the Democratic nominee for City Controller.

How will Callahan deal with DiGiacinto? Will he support the Republican Candidate Meg Holland? Rumors have it he may already be supporting Holland.