Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti was reelected on Tuesday and will also run for Congress in the 8th Congressional District. File Photo<\/p>\n
SCRANTON \u2014 Mayor Paige Cognetti cruised to victory on Tuesday, easily outdistancing her challengers and stating that her victory and many others by Democratic candidates demonstrate that voters want good government.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey will elect leaders who are going to show up and fight for them,\u201d said Cognetti, 45. \u201cAlthough it was my name on the ballot, we all know that something much more fundamental was at stake \u2014 integrity was on the ballot, accountability was on the ballot, and the promise of an end to self-serving corruption was on the ballot.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to unofficial results from the Lackawanna County Bureau of <\/a>Elections<\/a>, Cognetti received 9,701 votes. Her three challengers were far behind: Republican Trish Beynon, 3,589; Independent Eugene Barrett, 3,553; and Independent Rik Little, 154.<\/p>\n Cognetti said she first ran for Mayor in 2019 as an Independent against a Democratic machine that she said wanted to keep using city government to benefit themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cI took on the machine to clean up City Hall, and we got to work by cutting red tape, fixing our finances, attracting new businesses, putting more cops on the beat, building new parks, and making real reforms,\u201d Cognetti said. \u201cWe have shown the rest of the country what government can do when it works as hard as the people it\u2019s elected to serve.\u201d<\/p>\n Cognetti ran for Mayor, but in September she announced that she would run for the Democratic nomination in the 8th Congressional District, occupied by freshman U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan, R-Dallas Township.<\/p>\n \u201cWashington politicians could learn a thing or two from our efforts,\u201d Cognetti said. \u201cWe work hard, we look out for our neighbors, we lead with transparency, and we get things done. That\u2019s how it should be.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite her plan to run for Congress, Cognetti said she loves being the mayor of Scranton.<\/p>\n \u201cI made the decision to run for Congress next year to take on a corrupt Washington that has left our community behind \u2014 while politicians get richer, our costs keep rising, and we get sold out,\u201d Cognetti said. \u201cNobody works harder than the people of Northeastern Pennsylvania, and we are tired of corrupt politicians lying to us and leaving us behind.\u201d<\/p>\n After Cognetti shocked the political establishment and won the Mayor\u2019s seat, she said she took on the bosses in her own party to clean up City Hall and get government back to working for the people.<\/p>\n In Scranton, Cognetti said she has demonstrated what government can achieve when leaders root out corruption and work as diligently as the people they are elected to serve.<\/p>\n Now, Cognetti said she is running to clean up \u201ca corrupt Washington\u201d and defeat Bresnahan, who she said has become the \u201cposter-child of the swamp.\u201d<\/p>\n When she entered the race, she said she immediately received significant local support and has earned the endorsement of Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis, former U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, and U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio. Cognetti said in 2022, Gov. Josh Shapiro and Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis carried PA-08 by more than 9 percentage points.<\/p>\n Cognetti lives in Scranton with her husband and two daughters.<\/p>\n She was the first woman ever elected Scranton Mayor, and was eight months pregnant when she won. Cognetti ran for reelection as a Democrat in 2021, winning a full term with over 71% of the vote.<\/p>\n As Mayor of Scranton, Cognetti said she has made government reform a top priority.<\/p>\n In office she said she has:<\/p>\n \u2022 Turned down the city government car and gas card.<\/p>\n \u2022 Eliminated cash payments and took on no-bid contracts.<\/p>\n \u2022 Took on utilities and fought big businesses gouging consumers.<\/p>\n \u2022 Held more than 100 public events across every neighborhood in the city.<\/p>\n \u2022 Cut red tape, slashing building permit fees.<\/p>\n \u2022 Led the city\u2019s credit rating to investment-grade status.<\/p>\n \u2022 Saved millions for taxpayers by refinancing bonds.<\/p>\n Cognetti said she has reinvigorated the city\u2019s finances and helped attract new businesses while simultaneously laying a solid foundation for a brighter future \u2014 restoring confidence through responsible government and re-imagining outdated ways of doing business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti was reelected on Tuesday and will also run for Congress in the 8th Congressional…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2376,18258,182,2375,178,180,179,6959],"class_list":["post-28042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-breaking-news","tag-cognetti-easily-reelected-mayor-of-scranton-will-continue-run-for-congress","tag-local-news","tag-newsbreak","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-times-leader"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28042","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=28042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}