As we look back on the meanest municipal election season since the last municipal election season, leave it to a late mayor of Scranton to provide a timely reminder of the essence and necessity of unselfish public service.

David Wenzel died Wednesday at about the same time the University of Scranton honored him with an inaugural Public Service Award planned to coincide with the 40th anniversary of his election on Nov. 5, 1985. He was 80 at the end of a life he spent without three limbs after he was gravely wounded in Vietnam. A landmine took both legs and his left arm, but Wenzel served on, first as the city’s tax collector, and as mayor from 1986 to 1990.

I long admired the former mayor but didn’t know him well and only spoke to him a handful of times. I am grateful for his example and his service to the country and city he loved. So is Chris Cullen, my dear friend and a past candidate for Scranton mayor. Chris ran afoul of the Democratic Party Machine in the ’80s when he crossed party lines to help elect Wenzel, a moderate Republican.

Remember them?

“You couldn’t find a person more committed to doing the right thing with a degree of civility, patience and tolerance for his opponents that you just don’t see anywhere today,” he said Thursday.

This is mostly true, but the three candidates in Tuesday’s special election for Lackawanna County commissioner are a notable exception. Democrat Thom Welby, Republican Chet Merli and independent Democrat Michael Cappellini ran as gentlemen and accepted the results graciously.

Welby, default candidate of the Lackawanna County Democratic Party Machine, easily won an election the Machine fought to stop but now claims as a vindication of its alleged leadership. Merli finished a strong second, followed by Cappellini, who proved he has a future in county politics.

In the end, Welby’s challengers congratulated him and wished him well. Same here. While a late $100,000 campaign cash infusion from his former employer, state Sen. Marty Flynn, dinged his otherwise sterling reputation, I trust Thom to serve honorably.

Many Dems disgusted by the Machine’s Machiavellian plot to install interim Commissioner Brenda Sacco for the duration of departed Commissioner Matt McGloin’s term hoped Cappellini would pull off an upset, but like independents up and down the ballot here and elsewhere, the upstart was caught in the undertow of a “Blue Wave” of party-line blackened ovals. Candidates with a “D” next to their names had a clear leg-up in Our Stiff Neck of the Woods and across the country.

Democrats elected or reelected three Scranton City Council candidates and swept every contested county row office and mayoral race on the ballot. Trump wasn’t on the ballot, but his disregard for the Constitution, disdain of common decency and unprecedented incompetence were clearly on the minds of voters across party lines.

The “Blue Wave” even Fox “News” was forced to grudgingly acknowledge was a declaration from fed-up Americans who refuse to be ruled by a mad king and his MAGA Republican vassals in Congress.

The most glaring local manifestation of this predictable backlash played out in Luzerne County, where Democrats retook the majority of county council by flipping four of five seats. Last November, Trump won almost 60% of the county’s votes after Republicans captured the advantage in voter registration.

A year ago, MAGA Republicans seemed poised to rule Luzerne County in perpetuity and make inroads in Lackawanna County. What changed the political calculus? Trump, whose second presidency is the naked realization of the “American carnage” he so melodramatically lamented in his first inaugural address.

While Trump and his Heritage Foundation goons tear down American institutions, inflation, unemployment, and housing and health insurance costs are soaring to historic heights. His defiance of court orders to fund SNAP benefits and his refusal to extend health care subsidies, along with his stupid, most likely illegal tariffs, are hurting his base dearly.

While Americans went hungry, Trump threw a “Great Gatsby” party for his billionaire donors. When you can’t afford milk or medicine for your kids, it naturally turns your stomach to see the president dancing next to a half-naked model with her legs dangling from a giant martini glass.

Trump’s endorsement was once hailed as political gold. More and more, it’s a kiss of death. His pleading with Pennsylvania voters to reject a Democratic Supreme Court majority resulted in their overwhelming retention. If Trump had endorsed the three Democratic judges, they might have lost bigly.

Already encumbered by his votes to slash Medicaid and SNAP benefits vital to his constituents to fund tax cuts for billionaires, MAGA Republican U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan, R-8, Dallas Twp., must now schlep a Trump endorsement into the 2026 midterms.

Democratic Scranton Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti can be counted on to make that burden heavier when her challenge to Bresnahan begins in earnest. Cognetti easily won reelection. Again. It hardly seems like news anymore.

Desperate to spin Paige’s latest sprint to victory as a letdown, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) issued this statement, which I swear I’m not making up:

“Last night, bright red warning signs began to flash for political opportunist Paige Cognetti.

“Cognetti underperformed her 2021 election by 15 points. The more Scranton voters learn about how she increased their cost of living, endangered their children and put their healthcare at risk, the less they like her.”

Note the projection — accusing Paige of what Bresnahan actually did by voting for Trump’s Big Ugly Bill. Even more amusing (and telling) is the cockamamie comparison of Paige’s margins of victory in 2021 and Tuesday. In 2021, she essentially ran unopposed against Republican Darwin Shaw and won almost 73% of the vote. On Tuesday, the mayor was up against three candidates, including an experienced independent and a well-funded Republican.

Paige won 57% of the vote. Republican Patricia “Trish” Beynon and independent Gene Barrett each earned about 21%. Independent Rik Little earned 150 votes. Combine the totals of all three opponents and Paige still wins handily. The flashing lights the NRCC cites are bright blue.

Good people won and lost races on Tuesday. It takes guts and grit to run for public office and all who did deserve our appreciation. Winners should remember that the results might have been different if more voters participated.

Tuesday’s turnout (44.2%) was up from about 37.5% and 35.8% in the 2023 and 2021 municipal elections. In a city of more than 75,000 people, just 9,701 votes reelected the mayor of Scranton. Fewer than 50% of the county’s registered voters turned out to elect officials that most directly affect our daily lives and the communities we call home.

Contrast that apathy with the guts and grit of David Wenzel, a moderate Republican who sacrificed three limbs for this nation and was still determined to serve his city and set an example we can all aspire to emulate, but most will never reach.

That’s no excuse to quit reaching. Wenzel’s bid for mayor in a heavily Democratic city would have been a longshot for a physically whole candidate. Running the city with integrity, honesty and grace for his countless political enemies was a challenge he accepted daily with humility, civility and a personal courage all but erased from today’s poisoned political culture.

Mayor David Wenzel rose to the occasion on prosthetic legs. The least we can do is to follow in his footsteps to the polls.

CHRIS KELLY, the Times-Tribune columnist, thanks all who ran for office on Tuesday. Contact the writer: ckelly@scrantontimes.com; @cjkink on X; Chris Kelly, The Times-Tribune on Facebook; and @chriskellyink on Blue Sky Social.