Democratic Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan is endorsing independent candidate Michael Cappellini in the upcoming special election to replace former Democratic Commissioner Matt McGloin.
Gaughan announced his “enthusiastic endorsement” of Cappellini in a statement lauding the independent candidate from Jessup as the “antidote” to old-guard politics. He also took aim at the Lackawanna County Democratic Committee and the county Democratic Party’s leadership, albeit without naming names.
“Over the past year, Lackawanna County government has suffered from needless political theatrics and power plays from a small group of political cronies hellbent on controlling county government for their own benefit,” Gaughan said Tuesday. “The vacant seat has fielded exactly the kind of backroom maneuvering that citizens rightly reject. Now, thanks to a court-ordered special election that I fought hard for, the voters will speak, and I believe Michael Cappellini is the voice we need.”
Jeff Horvath/Staff Photo
Michael Cappellini of Jessup announces his intent to run for Lackawanna County commissioner in a Nov. 4 special election to fill the remainder of former Democratic Commissioner Matt McGloin’s unexpired term. (JEFF HORVATH / STAFF PHOTO)
County Democratic Party Chairman Chris Patrick blasted Gaughan for endorsing Cappellini, “an independent with zero experience in county government,” over former state Rep. Thom Welby, the Democratic nominee in the commissioner special election. Welby is a “lifelong Democrat and respected public servant,” Patrick said.
“Let’s call this what it is: control,” Patrick said in a statement. “Billy doesn’t want an independent voice; he wants someone he can control. Cappellini would be beholden to Gaughan, not to the men and women of Lackawanna County. That’s exactly what Billy wanted from day one — and why this process has been delayed again and again.”
They’re the latest salvos in a political war over replacing McGloin that began shortly after the former commissioner left office in late February.
Legal battles
Gaughan and the county initiated in March a legal battle challenging a county Home Rule Charter provision that tasks the Democratic Committee with advancing three potential appointees to fill the vacancy for consideration by the judges of the county Court of Common Pleas. That charter provision, they argued, violates a state rule of judicial administration that would have removed the committee from the replacement process altogether.
The applicant the judges ultimately moved to appoint pursuant to the charter process — which twice survived Gaughan and the county’s legal challenge, first in county court and then on appeal in state Commonwealth Court — is former county Economic Development Director Brenda Sacco.
Brenda Sacco walks into the Lackawanna County Courthouse Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
The judges appointed Sacco in early September to fill the commissioner vacancy at least temporarily, but her appointment was stayed pending resolution of Gaughan and the county’s legal challenge, which is currently pending before the state Supreme Court.
Sacco’s near-appointment followed a surprising late-August vote by the county election board to declare a special election to fill the remainder of McGloin’s unexpired term running into early January 2028. Gaughan and county Judge Terrence R. Nealon, sitting as members of the election board, voted for the special election, with Republican Commissioner Chris Chermak abstaining from the vote.
The county Democratic Committee, Sacco and two other potential appointees then sued early last month seeking an injunction to block the special election that they argued was illegal. That effort was unsuccessful, with a panel of county judges denying the injunction and a state appeals court later affirming the county panel’s order.
The candidates
Despite seeking to block it on legal grounds, the Democratic Committee chose Welby as the party’s nominee in the special election for commissioner. Welby, a Scranton resident, has a history of winning special elections, having done so in 2021 to fill former state Rep. Marty Flynn’s unexpired term in the 113th state House District after Flynn became a state senator.
He faces Cappellini and Republican nominee Chet Merli, a member of the Lackawanna County Regional Planning Commission’s board, in the Nov. 4 special election.
Former Democratic state Rep. Thom Welby, pictured here in 2021. (FILE PHOTO)
Otherwise a Democrat, Cappellini said last month he decided to pursue the vacant seat as an independent after he requested the Democratic nomination for commissioner in the special election but didn’t hear back from party officials.
“Endorsements carry a lot of weight and I’m proud to have the endorsements I have, and particularly the one from the sitting commissioner, Billy Gaughan,” Cappellini said Tuesday afternoon. “And should I be afforded the opportunity, I really look forward to working hand-in-hand with he and Chris Chermak to ensure that we continue to move the county (forward) together with the vision that I have.”
Also reached Tuesday afternoon, Welby cast himself as the candidate that would truly bring an independent perspective to the commissioners’ office. Cappellini, he said, would be “100% aligned with Billy.”
Reassessment
One important issue where Welby and Gaughan are not aligned is the county’s nearly completed property reassessment, its first since 1968.
Like Chermak, Welby has expressed a desire to delay implementing the reassessment, voicing concern that thousands of property owners didn’t understand the process and didn’t get to file an appeal of their reassessed values. It’s a proposal and an argument Gaughan vehemently rejects.
The prospect of pausing reassessment is also complicated by a stipulated court order county officials agreed to several years ago postponing further action in a lawsuit filed by three taxpayers seeking to compel a reassessment on the basis of tax fairness. Those litigants specifically alleged the county’s 1968 assessments had resulted in disparate taxes on similar properties, with some property owners paying more than their fair share and others paying less.
Among other terms, the stipulated order postponing the litigation states that the county “shall fully complete the Reassessment and implement the final new assessed values for use in all real property taxation in Lackawanna County no later than January 1, 2026.”
The attorney representing the plaintiffs in that case recently said they’d likely move to enforce the court order if the county balks at implementing the new values.
In his endorsement of Cappellini, Gaughan blasted talk of pausing reassessment as misleading, dishonest and “a return to the old guard machine politics of a bygone era.”
He later called on voters to elect a commissioner who isn’t “beholden to the same cronies, entrenched networks and status quo alliances.”
“Michael Cappellini is precisely that person,” he said.