Posted: Wednesday, 11 March 2009 11:45AM
We're Off And Running
Steve Corbett Reporting
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Post time!
The candidates are official and campaigns for many Northeastern Pennsylvania local political offices are off and running.
I’m interested in them all but I’ve got a couple of favorites.
The Scranton mayoral race tops my list.
But just because I like Democratic incumbent Mayor Chris Doherty doesn’t mean he’s going to have an easy run or is a lock for re-election. Neighborhood rebels already are sniping from the rooftops and doing their best to oust him in exchange for Doherty’s failed opponent in the 2005 race.
Democrat and former Scranton Councilman Gary DiBileo is at it again.
So is Doherty’s opponent in the 2001 election.
Bob Bolus filed nominating petitions to run as a Republican. As a convicted felon he can run but he can’t serve and lost his spot on the Republican ballot for Scranton City Council in 2007 because of his conviction for receiving stolen property.
Still, you can’t help but root for him.
After all, this is Scranton, where anything can happen and usually does.
Three Scranton City Council seats are also up for grabs.
I’m thinking about voting against all three incumbents who are up for re-election but will have to decide as the clock ticks on the May 19 primary. They will have to prove to me that they are serious and more informed than their political posturing and immature behavior during the past few years have shown.
But I am supporting Democratic Lackawanna County sheriff candidate and Deputy Sheriff Chester Cipilewski against longtime incumbent Sheriff John Szymanski, who is a holdover from the bad old days of sleazy machine politics. I’d support anybody against Szymanski because of his Boss Hogg-style lack of professionalism that has turned the sheriff’s office into one long Dukes of Hazzard rerun.
The fact that the Republicans didn’t offer a candidate says all you need to know about Lackawanna County Republicans.
Down Luzerne County way, 17 candidates will fight it out for three vacant county judgeships on a county bench that has been wracked by political corruption.
Two former president judges are headed to federal prison in a kickback scheme that prosecutors charge involved selling kids for cash as part of a juvenile “justice” system that makes the jurists look more like leaders in a teenage slave trade ring.
Also in Luzerne County six candidates are running for controller and five want to serve as prothonotary.
Lackawanna County has one judge job open but the race is relatively dull. Still, we can expect surprises and fireworks erupting from the courthouse. After all, it is Scranton, where anything can happen and usually does.
Perhaps the most important race in the region, however, involves the 20 people who have formally entered their names into the running to be part of the “non-partisan” Luzerne County home rule study commission.
Concerned citizens all who, for the most part, lack mainstream political ties, power and big money have begun the process that might one day revolutionize county government as we know it.
Voters will choose 11 candidates who will then draft what amounts to a new constitution for county government that voters will accept or reject after however many years it might take to complete the proposed overhaul.
The number of formal candidates for all open offices in Luzerne County alone is formidable. Hundreds of people want to participate in the public service business. That means that at least on paper they want to uphold the public trust and do the people’s business.
I’m rooting for them all. I’m also rooting for law enforcement officers who police such public service.
There’s got to be at least one crook among the announced candidates. Maybe the names of more than one potential gangster will appear on the ballot in May and November.
I hope we get them once they get into office. Actually I’d like to get them before they get into office.
But you can’t have everything.
Still, we’re in an old-fashioned coal region horse race where both ends of the horse are amply represented.
And they’re off.
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