{"id":308341,"date":"2026-10-17T00:16:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T00:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/308341\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T00:16:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T00:16:07","slug":"building-trades-council-not-endorsing-in-8th-district-congressional-contest-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/308341\/","title":{"rendered":"Building trades council not endorsing in 8th District congressional contest"},"content":{"rendered":"

WILKES-BARRE \u2014 The Northeast Pennsylvania Building & Construction Trades Council is not endorsing a candidate in this year\u2019s fiercely-contested battle for the 8th Congressional District due to split opinions among leaders of the council\u2019s 14 unions, council President Warren Faust said Friday.<\/p>\n

The 8th District candidates \u2014 Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan Jr. and Democratic Mayor Paige Cognetti \u2014 both attended a Friday gathering arranged by the building trades council that gave union members time to talk to election candidates and local elected officials.<\/p>\n

Two years ago, Bresnahan unseated Matt Cartwright, a Moosic Democrat who served in Congress for 12 years, and the Northeast Pennsylvania Building & Construction Trades Council endorsed Cartwright in that election.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan Jr., R-8, Dallas Twp., meets with members of trades unions at a Northeast Pennsylvania Building & Construction Trades Council meeting on Friday in Wilkes-Barre. (Michael P. Buffer)<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it says a lot because when I had ran initially, they had a long-term existing relationship with Congressman Cartwright,\u201d Bresnahan said of the decision to not endorse a candidate this year. \u201cWe look at problems comprehensively, and they know that I\u2019m always a phone call away when different initiatives come up. \u2026 This is the lifeblood of Northeastern Pennsylvania. It\u2019s the skilled trade. You can\u2019t have any kind of production inside of Northeastern Pennsylvania without having the people and the resources with family-sustaining careers to build those actual investments. So anytime we can support the building trades, we\u2019re here to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cognetti explained why she attended the Friday\u2019s gathering at the Sheet Metal Workers Local 44 office in Wilkes-Barre.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great that we can have a moment like this where the legislators and candidates from the Democratic Party and Republican Party are together talking about solutions and how we can work together to make sure that our men and women in labor are working, lots and lots of jobs coming up, and making sure that their wages and benefits and secure retirement are there for them,\u201d Cognetti said. \u201cWe need to grow the union opportunities across the board in this region. We need to make sure that we\u2019re educating our children about the professions in the trades and other labor organizations because I think that the newer generations don\u2019t quite grasp yet the importance of a secure retirement. And that\u2019s one of the key pieces that union membership can deliver. So it\u2019s great to be able to support the trades, and as mayor, we\u2019ve done a tremendous amount of work in Scranton.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FromFrom left to right, Luzerne County Council Chairman Jimmy Sabatino, Council Vice Chairwoman Brittany Stephenson and Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, a Democratic congressional candidate, chat during a Northeast Pennsylvania Building & Construction Trades Council meeting on Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, in Wilkes-Barre. (Michael P. Buffer)<\/p>\n

The following state legislators attended: Sen. Marty Flynn, D-22, Dunmore; Sen. Lisa Baker, R-20, Lehman Twp.; Rep. Brenda Pugh, R-120, Dallas Twp.; Rep. Alec Ryncavage, R-119, Hanover Twp.; Rep. Jim Haddock, D-118, Pittston Twp.; Rep. Dane Watro, R-116, Kline Twp., Rep. Bridget Malloy Kosierowski, D-114, Waverly Twp. Rep. Kyle Donahue, D-113, Scranton; Rep. Kyle Mullins, D-112, Blakely: and Rep. Tara Probst, D-189, Stroudsburg.<\/p>\n

\u201cA good mix of Republicans and Democrats,\u201d Faust said of Friday\u2019s event. \u201cAs you know, Northeast Pennsylvania Building Trades, our members are Republicans, Democrats and independents. It\u2019s crucial that we come together to collaborate and work together for one cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other attendees included: Luzerne County District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce; Luzerne County Controller Tim McGinley; and Luzerne County Council members Jimmy Sabatino, Brittany Stephenson, Joanna Bryn Smith, Patty Krushnowski and John Lombardo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WILKES-BARRE \u2014 The Northeast Pennsylvania Building & Construction Trades Council is not endorsing a candidate in this year\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[836,182,803,139,28,50,178,180,179,181],"class_list":["post-308341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-election","tag-local-news","tag-luzerne-county","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-politics","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-top-stories-stt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308341","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=308341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}