They do things a little differently in Lansdale.
For instance, elected officials embrace the radical notion that they should put aside their political differences and pull together for the welfare of the town.
So when Mayor Andy Szekely and his challenger, former Borough Council President Ben Gross, were trying to generate excitement about November's mayoral election, they considered having a debate in the park.
Szekely would wear a seersucker suit. Gross would don his customary bow tie. Looking like members of the Princeton debating team circa 1924, they would present their competing ideas for renewing their beloved community.
"We wanted to get together and do something quirky," Szekely said.
But in the age of reality TV, would that draw a crowd?
"I don't think anybody's going to show," Szekely worried.
Gross: "How about arm wrestling?"
Szekely: "A little iffy."
Then Gross had a truly bizarre flash of genius: They would settle their differences, negligible though they may be, in the ring, mano a mano. Better yet: sumo a sumo.
And so it was that Republican Szekely, 39, a chiropractor, and Democrat Gross, 40, real estate lawyer and developer, wriggled into blimp-like inflatable suits yesterday and squared off in the band shell at Whites Road Park. Despite overcast skies and intermittent sprinkles, a hundred or so townsfolk gathered on the grassy hillside where they usually listen to concerts or watch movies to behold this wondrous civic spectacle.
It was a novel and much-anticipated event in this Montgomery County borough of 17,000, which is endeavoring, with fresh energy, enterprise, and common purpose, to revitalize a historic downtown plagued by the usual woes of vacant storefronts, absentee landlords, and anemic retail traffic.
Steve Moyer, 67, vice president of the borough historical society, served as ringmaster and emcee. Wearing his wife's red kimono, he outlined the rules. There would be three rounds. You win by pushing or throwing your opponent out of the ring, or causing your opponent to touch the floor of the ring with a part of the body other than the soles of the feet.
"You're allowed to push, slap, trip, and flip," Moyer said. "Kicking and striking with fists, hair-pulling, eye-gouging, grabbing the vital organs, and choking are prohibited."
