A letter to Lackawanna County President Judge James Gibbons seeking clarity on the proper composition of the county Board of Elections is part of a \u201cscheme\u201d by Democratic Commissioner Brenda Sacco to remain in office despite Tuesday\u2019s special election to decide her successor, Democratic Commissioner Bill Gaughan said.<\/p>\n
The election board tasked with certifying the results of the upcoming contest is currently composed of county Judges Terrence R. Nealon, Margaret Bisignani-Moyle and Frank Ruggiero. It\u2019s a role commissioners would otherwise play if the office of commissioner wasn\u2019t on the ballot.<\/p>\n
The letter sent Thursday to Gibbons, signed by new county Solicitor Paul James Walker of Clarks Summit and election board Solicitor Donald Frederickson, seeks \u201cclarification from the Court on the proper constitution of the Board of Elections for the upcoming general election.\u201d It notes that, while the office of commissioner appears on the ballot, \u201cnone of the sitting commissioners are candidates or running for re-election.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sacco, recently appointed to temporarily fill former Democratic Commissioner Matt McGloin\u2019s vacant seat, has said she hopes to hold the seat for the remainder of McGloin\u2019s unexpired term running into early January 2028. That\u2019s the unexpired term the winner of the special election between Democrat Thom Welby, Republican Chet Merli and independent candidate Michael Cappellini is expected to fill, replacing Sacco as commissioner after the election results are certified.<\/p>\n
The letter \u201cis totally absurd,\u201d Gaughan said. \u201cIt\u2019s clear that this is the scheme that I was referencing, I wasn\u2019t quite sure what it was going to be, but the scheme that they\u2019ve cooked up is they want to get back on the election board so they can find a way not to certify the election so Brenda Sacco can stay in power for two years unelected.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sacco did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Walker, Sacco\u2019s former personal attorney whom she and Chermak hired as county solicitor Friday, rejected Gaughan\u2019s allegation.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst of all Commissioner Sacco cannot vote on the Board of Elections for this particular election no matter what,\u201d Walker said. \u201cThat\u2019s unequivocal.\u201d<\/p>\n
He noted in a statement the letter does not take a position on the law.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a request for dialogue with President Judge Gibbons about procedures for how the Board of Elections is composed,\u201d the statement reads. \u201cHowever, we also understand that the Courts are a busy place and do not entertain any expectation of a rapid response. This is a basic opportunity for conversation that we look forward to having with the Court whenever we are all able. Any indication to the contrary is paranoia. Nothing more, nothing less.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gaughan was unconvinced.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the most ridiculous attempt at subverting an election that I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it makes no sense at all. Why else would they want to be on the election board if not to try to stop the certification so that she can remain in power? Because she has repeatedly refused to answer a simple question about whether she would accept the results of the election on Tuesday and would step down once the election was certified. So this letter, on the heels of all of that controversy, just proves to me that this must be the scheme that they have cooked up.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Walker and Frederickson\u2019s letter said they seek clarity regarding the composition of the election board on behalf of \u201ca majority of the Lackawanna County Board of Commissioners,\u201d Republican Commissioner Chris Chermak said he had nothing to do with the letter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not part of that and I don\u2019t think a commissioner should be on the (election) board,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Chermak reiterated that position later, after Walker disputed that he wasn\u2019t involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt had nothing to do with me,\u201d Chermak said. \u201cI didn\u2019t have anything to do with it. \u2026 I wasn\u2019t part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gaughan reacted thereafter.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf that\u2019s the case then you have Brenda Sacco and her former personal attorney acting on their own, which is totally ridiculous and totally inappropriate,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause I certainly wasn\u2019t consulted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked about the letter, Frederickson deferred to Walker. \u201cThis is his project,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The letter to Gibbons also says he need not respond in writing.<\/p>\n
\u201cRather than have any written back-and-forth, we would be glad to discuss this matter with you at your convenience,\u201d it reads.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A letter to Lackawanna County President Judge James Gibbons seeking clarity on the proper composition of the county…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[201,182,139,28,178,180,179],"class_list":{"0":"post-20247","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-lackawanna-county","9":"tag-local-news","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-scranton","13":"tag-scranton-headlines","14":"tag-scranton-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20247","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=20247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}