coverage<\/a>. I\u2019m more interested in the fight behind the fight. The debate showcased a battle of wills between an old-school, transactional politics that stalls progress and rewards predation and new ideas and approaches that don\u2019t worship money as the ultimate expression of success.<\/p>\nThe candidates in this race are ideal avatars of this seemingly endless struggle. Marty represents a cynical, sclerotic system that reduces government to a retail money \u201cMachine\u201d that dispenses fortune and favor based on how slyly insiders \u201cplay the game.\u201d He\u2019s not shy about it.<\/p>\n
At the debate, Marty bragged about the \u201c$130 million\u201d he\u2019s brought home to his district and his leading role in punching out an astronomical rate increase proposed by Pennsylvania American Water. These wins undoubtedly benefited Marty\u2019s constituents, but their value is exclusively defined by the bottom line.<\/p>\n
The same obsession with financial rewards drives the invasive data center developers who want to pave over Pennsylvania and politicians programmed to roll out the red carpet for any investor with deep pockets and shallow goals. Money is the means and end that justifies just about anything.<\/p>\n
This mindset was sharply reflected in an exchange about campaign finance. Lake tagged Marty for his campaign fund\u2019s $100,000 donation to now-Lackawanna County Commissioner Chairman Thom Welby in last year\u2019s special election. Marty again defended the donation and again said he would give Thom Welby \u201ca million dollars\u201d if he could.<\/p>\n
Marty said he\u2019s not opposed to setting a state limit on campaign contributions \u201cas long as everyone is playing by the same rules.\u201d Lake dismissed Marty\u2019s statement as \u201claughable,\u201d considering the contribution to Welby.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey, it\u2019s the parameters of what it is,\u201d Marty replied. \u201cIt\u2019s legal.\u201d<\/p>\n
For my money, it was the most telling exchange of the evening. \u201cLegal\u201d is the lowest standard, the bare minimum of acceptable conduct. In Machine politics, it\u2019s the only measure that matters.<\/p>\n
Marty didn\u2019t build the Machine, but he\u2019s comfortable being a key cog in it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m here, and I\u2019m not going anywhere,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s probably right. A Lake victory would be an upset for the ages. It\u2019s an extremely unlikely outcome. But whether Lake wins or loses, he used the debate to prove himself an able avatar for more responsive, less cynical and staunchly pro-public interest leadership in the Democratic Party and in government.<\/p>\n
Lake offers dissatisfied Democratic voters a viable alternative to Machine control of their party. What they do with the opportunity will be decided democratically at the polls.<\/p>\n
Lake\u2019s candidacy also pushed Marty to pay closer attention to the surging public resistance to data centers near homes, schools and public parks, which isn\u2019t going anywhere, either. If Marty wins the primary, the resistance is bound to dog him through the fall and beyond.<\/p>\n
The race against invasive data center development is a marathon, not a sprint. So is the struggle to pull our politics out of the money gutter. In battles of will, winners treat losses as speed bumps and keep running until they break the tape.<\/p>\n
CHRIS KELLY, The Times-Tribune columnist, urges you to vote in the May 19 primary election. 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":"No physical punches were thrown, but Thursday\u2019s debate between state Sen. Marty Flynn and newcomer Jeffrey Lake was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[1590,2116,8254,6375,182,803,139,1559,1560,178,180,179],"class_list":["post-187500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-chris-kelly","tag-data-centers","tag-debate","tag-democratic-party","tag-local-news","tag-luzerne-county","tag-news","tag-opinion","tag-opinion-columnists","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187500","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=187500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187500\/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=187500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}