William L. Heydt Republican Roy Afflerbach Democratic The 2001 mayoral election in Allentown, Pennsylvania was held on November 6, 2001, and resulted in the Democrat and former state senator Roy Afflerbach, being elected over Republican challenger and businessman, Bob Lovett.

The front-runner was Siobhan "Sam" Bennett, former CEO of both the Women's Campaign Fund and She Should Run PAC, as well as being the former first vice chair of the Lehigh County Democratic Party.

Despite outspending her opponents by almost 3 times, she was upset by former state senator Roy Afflerbach by just 43 individual votes.

[6] The Republican primary had two front runners, Bob Lovett, former executive vice president of Air Products and Pamela D. Varkony, a city councilwomen who ran a tough on crime platform and promised to increase tech jobs in Allentown.

[1] Two main reasons where given for Lovett's defeat, the first being that his policies where too similar to incumbent mayor Bill Heydt, and secondly a last minute endorsement of Afflerbach by The Morning Call, Allentown and the Lehigh Valley's most popular newspaper.