reported<\/a> last August, Marty and Patel are co-owners of a business property in Wilkes-Barre. Patel is a longtime supporter and donor to Marty\u2019s campaign fund. When Patel\u2019s name appeared in paperwork for a data center proposal, I described him as \u201can aspiring data center developer.\u201d<\/p>\nMarty said I got that wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all fabricated,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was going to sell a piece of property. I guess (Kriger Construction President and data center developer Jim) Marzolino\u2019s property was next to his, and there was going to be a thruway through (Patel\u2019s) property, and he was going to sell it to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had nothing to do with that. I didn\u2019t even know about the deal \u2026 He wasn\u2019t developing a data center. He was like, \u2018Well, if they\u2019re going to give me such and such money for this, I would sell it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Patel is also executive director of the Lackawanna County Democratic Committee \u201cMachine\u201d and was a key architect of the failed plot to install Brenda Sacco to serve out the term of departed Democratic Commissioner Matt McGloin. Amid the Machine\u2019s ultimately failed court fight to stop a special election, it coughed up eventual winner and now Commissioner Chairman Thom Welby.<\/p>\n
Late in the race, Marty\u2019s campaign fund coughed up $100,000 for Welby\u2019s campaign against disaffected Democrat Michael Cappellini, who ran as an independent. Cappellini supporters saw it as Marty putting his thumb on the scale for a longtime ally and party apparatchik.<\/p>\n
Marty saw it as his duty to support the party\u2019s chosen candidate.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike I said then, I would give Thom Welby a million dollars,\u201d he said, adding that Democrats who want to change the party\u2019s direction should do so from within, rather than by running around it. What I call the Machine, Marty defends as \u201cthe democratic process.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is how it works,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t set the rules, but I play the game \u2026\u00a0 And if you don\u2019t like it, too bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marty touted his 13-year record in the House and Senate, something his challenger lacks. He said a lot of his daily work isn\u2019t reflected in headlines.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been tirelessly relentless with my constituent services,\u201d he said. \u201cI help people every day here. I have a line that comes through here every day \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
On a broader scale, Marty pointed to his leadership in resisting an astronomical increase in water rates proposed by Pennsylvania American Water in 2024. He and other legislators and local officials united in opposition to the outrageous hike, which the state Public Utility Commission eventually cut by more than half.<\/p>\n
\u201cI fought a billion-dollar corporation,\u201d he said. \u201cI did \u2026 I\u2019m the one that stopped a hundred-million-dollar increase in our water rates. A hundred-million.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Marty and other legislators and local officials were willing to form the same kind of proactive, unified front against invasive data center development, challengers like Jeffrey Lake might not feel compelled to run.<\/p>\n
The lone \u201cadvantage\u201d Lake can claim in this race is his unequivocal opposition to data center development. His support for a moratorium while lawmakers craft responsible regulations and learn more about the risks data centers pose to public health and economic security mirrors majority public sentiment. Voters overwhelmingly want someone to at least tap the brakes on this runaway train.<\/p>\n
Marty is in a position to do that, but so far has declined to use his office as a bulwark against the annihilation of communities like Archbald. He has repeatedly said data centers should not be built near homes, schools and public parks, but talk is cheap.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a political reality that every elected official needs to understand,\u201d he said. \u201cEverybody\u2019s against data centers, but the reality is they\u2019re here, they\u2019re coming. \u2026 There\u2019s billions and billions of dollars involved, and no matter what, we have to do something to get something from it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marty pulled his support for Senate Bill 939, which would essentially gut local control over zoning. He said he would \u201c100%\u201d vote for broader bills introduced by state Reps. Kyle Mullins, D-112, Blakely, and Kyle Donahue, D-113, Scranton, but he thinks a bill calling for a statewide three-year moratorium co-sponsored by state Sen. Katie Muth, D-44, Berks\/Chester\/Montgomery counties, and state Sen. Rosemary Brown, R-40, Middle Smithfield Twp., has no chance in a Republican-controlled Senate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think a three-year moratorium works,\u201d he said. \u201cI think I could see, like, a year where we get the regulations and the stuff together and set them for brownfields or for coal mines. Put them \u2026 anywhere but in a town. Why not by the Casey Highway up over and away from everything? What is so hard about going there?\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a question for the developers. I was there primarily to ask Marty what he is doing \u2014 practically and proactively \u2014 to protect the people he represents from the manifest threats of invasive data center development.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy don\u2019t you introduce a bill proposing a one-year moratorium?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have some language I\u2019m getting together now for something like that,\u201d he said, but it, too, would be a hard sell to the GOP majority.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s no reason not to do it. Even a bill with no chance of passing would signal to Marty\u2019s constituents that the top dog in Lackawanna County politics is willing to stand up and fight for them.<\/p>\n
While his \u201cpugilistic instincts\u201d sometimes get the better of him, Marty is smarter and shrewder than many of his critics know. His political instincts are usually razor-sharp, which is why it\u2019s been puzzling to watch him shy away from an obviously urgent, righteous fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand the way I operate, I\u2019m not everybody\u2019s cup of tea,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m fine with that. But I know I\u2019m as efficient as they come at doing what I need to do for my district, more so than most people that have been sitting where I\u2019m at.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a low bar, but so far, Marty hasn\u2019t tripped over it.<\/p>\n
Lake and Flynn are slated to engage in their lone scheduled debate on May 7 at 6 p.m. at the University of Scranton\u2019s Brennan Hall, 320 Madison Ave. Lake asked for four debates, but Marty, a former boxer and mixed martial arts fighter, said a single showdown was sufficient.<\/p>\n
\u201cI only need one round,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
CHRIS KELLY, The Times-Tribune columnist, is looking forward to the debate. Contact the writer: ckelly@scrantontimes.com; @cjkink on X; Chris Kelly, The Times-Tribune on Facebook; and @chriskellyink on Bluesky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Though we\u2019ve had our differences over the years, Marty Flynn and I have always shared a mutual respect…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[1590,2116,201,182,3052,139,1559,1560,28,12534,178,180,179],"class_list":{"0":"post-176328","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-chris-kelly","9":"tag-data-centers","10":"tag-lackawanna-county","11":"tag-local-news","12":"tag-midvalley","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-opinion","15":"tag-opinion-columnists","16":"tag-pennsylvania","17":"tag-pennsylvania-senate","18":"tag-scranton","19":"tag-scranton-headlines","20":"tag-scranton-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}