Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti easily defeated a primary election challenger Tuesday to earn a shot at another term in office.
With all 48 precincts reporting, Cognetti walloped former Scranton School Board President Bob Sheridan by 6,264 votes to 1,864 to win the Democratic nomination for mayor, according to unofficial results posted Tuesday.
On the Republican side, Trish Beynon, a construction company accounting executive, defeated Lynn Labrosky, a car repair shop co-owner.
Beynon received 926 votes, Labrosky, 808.
The winners will face at least each other in the Nov. 4 municipal election. Former City Councilman Gene Barrett, a former Democrat, and Michael Mancini have announced plans to run as independent or third-party candidates but haven’t filed nomination papers to get on the ballot yet.
Joined by her husband, Ryan, Cognetti walked into her campaign headquarters in downtown Scranton about 10 p.m. to cheers. She thanked her administration and the many volunteers who worked on her campaign.
She said voters chose progress over politics in handing her victory.
“We are just grateful for this opportunity to move on from today and into the general,” she said.
Cognetti said she’s shown residents her administration invested in the city’s police and fire departments and revamped code enforcement. Without mentioning Sheridan by name, she said the “person who challenged her” was on the Scranton School Board during a time of corruption.
“I think in the end, as we've seen in the results … it's always good to have a fight. It's always good to have a reason to knock on those doors, send out the mail that shows all the great work we've done,” she said. “Have to work for it, right? This is Scranton, Pennsylvania. This is where local politics really gets heated,” said Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti.
“I think in the end, as we've seen in the results … it's always good to have a fight. It's always good to have a reason to knock on those doors, send out the mail that shows all the great work we've done,” she said. “Have to work for it, right? This is Scranton, Pennsylvania. This is where local politics really gets heated.”
Cognetti’s first role in local politics was an appointment to the school board in 2017. That was shortly after Sheridan lost his re-election bid.
“I came to the school district to help reform that,” she said. “(It was) the same unfortunate story in 2019 when I became mayor … We've been able to really remake our local government, build that trust. I think you see that in the strength of our numbers here tonight, that people think we're doing a good job.”
She knows residents don’t think her administration is perfect.
“We've still got a long way to go with our road safety. We have an overhauled process for potholes and paved cuts,” Cognetti said. “There's always work to do, but when it comes to trusting in your government, trusting in your institutions, having communication, we continue to do that. I'm very proud of that work.”
Cognetti mentioned having a "fight on our hands" for city council. She supported Todd Pousley, who did not win a Democratic nomination, while three others she did not support won the party’s nominations. Cognetti pledged she would not back down.
"We want good schools, safe roads, safe streets. We want our tax dollars to be spent wisely, efficiently, without waste, without fraud, without abuse,” she said. “It's not that hard. So I am proud every single day that we always take the high road, no matter what we do, no matter who comes after us, and we're going to keep doing that every time.”
In his campaign, Sheridan cast Cognetti as an outsider and said the Oregon native allowed crime, deteriorating streets and blight.
In a subdued party at the Waldorf Park Social Club on East Mountain, Sheridan said he hopes his focus on them leads the mayor to address the issues.
“I wanted what was best for our city. I wanted to win and work very hard for our citizens of Scranton. It didn't turn out that way,” he told WVIA News. “I hope that she can, in the next four years, work a better deal and get a better deal for our citizens. Because if not, this town is in bad shape. It's not going to get any better if she continues the way she's doing it. She has to turn around and have some love for the city, like I did.”
Sheridan wouldn’t say whether he would support Cognetti’s reelection bid in the fall. The city Democratic Party chairman said he wanted to talk to his family first.
“Life goes on, and we'll go back to work tomorrow,” he said to his supporters. “We'll always push for a better city of Scranton.”
For Cognetti, the victory marked her second straight easy primary win against a candidate with lengthy roots in the city’s Democratic Party. In 2021, she won the primary by defeating City Controller John Murray, a former city Democratic chairman. Sheridan, the current city Democratic chairman, temporarily stepped aside to run for mayor.
In 2019, Cognetti won a special election to become the city’s first woman mayor by defeating the city Democratic Party’s endorsed candidate, attorney Chris Cullen.
This time, she campaigned on her six-year record–high ethical standards, modernizing City Hall systems, upgrading parks, police and firefighting equipment and the attraction of tens of millions of dollars in state and federal grants.
Sheridan, Labrosky and Beynon portrayed a city less safe and with more blight and crumbling streets under Cognetti’s rule.
Beynon declared victory for the Republican nomination just shy of 10:00 p.m. at Cooper’s Seafood House.
As her supporters cheered around her in a brightly lit private room amid tables of dainty pastries, Beynon promised to work hard for Scranton if elected. She thanked Labrosky for a “fantastic job” running against her and “everyone in the city of Scranton who believed in me.”
“I'm so happy, so overwhelmed to say that I won the primary, and I appreciate everyone's help,” Beynon said. “My next steps [are] to make sure that I move the city of Scranton forward … [I’ll] work as hard as I can to make sure the people in the City of Scranton know that what they expect from me, they're going to get from me,” said Scranton mayor candidate Trish Beynon.
“I'm so happy, so overwhelmed to say that I won the primary, and I appreciate everyone's help,” Beynon said. “My next steps [are] to make sure that I move the city of Scranton forward … [I’ll] work as hard as I can to make sure the people in the City of Scranton know that what they expect from me, they're going to get from me.”
She said she will make sure Scranton voters “know [she] has their backs,” and doubled down on campaign promises to fix potholes, give city union members a voice and address blight.
“I'm going to listen to them, and I'm going to make sure that it doesn’t matter if you're a Democrat, Republican or independent, I will work for you,” Beynon said. “Because if I become mayor of the City of Scranton, that's my job to work for everyone.”
At Clarky’s Billiards in the city’s Providence neighborhood, Labrosky said she will congratulate Beynon on her win. Her watch party took place amid the clatter of cue sticks hitting pool balls.
“We did agree in the beginning of the campaign season that we would, whoever made it through, that we would support each other,” said Labrosky, with a sad smile.
The Scranton-native added the campaign was “exhausting, exciting and a lot of work,” but she’s looking forward to the next step.
