Scranton City Council Race---What Gives? (2009, how much, taxes)

[ScranBarre]

Is anybody as surprised as I am that with most districts now reporting, incumbents Bill Courtright and Robert McGoff are winning by a landslide? Judging by all of the whining people do about how "awful" the city's current council members are, it just doesn't make sense that they'd win. Perhaps fewer residents are unhappy with the state of the city than what we've been lead to think?

[samvit]

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Originally Posted by ScrantonWilkesBarre

Is anybody as surprised as I am that with most districts now reporting, incumbents Bill Courtright and Robert McGoff are winning by a landslide? Judging by all of the whining people do about how "awful" the city's current council members are, it just doesn't make sense that they'd win. Perhaps fewer residents are unhappy with the state of the city than what we've been lead to think?

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It probably more to do with the caliber of their opponents. They did televise a panel discussion on Channel 61 with Courtright, McGoff, Piccolino(sp?), and Rogan. No disrespect to Piccolino and Rogan but they seemed way too young and inexperienced. I admire their eagerness to help the community by participating in city government, but they need some more seasoning. Was anyone else running for city council? I'm not a Scranton resident so I don't keep up with that.

[FightinPhils]

Rogan seemed like a good candidate, despite his age. He seems professional and had a good grasp on the issues. To me, Bob McGoff, despite his age and "experience" seemed to be taking up space. he never had anything of substance to say and just serves as a rubber stamp for Doherty's agenda. He even said that he will vote for more tax increases to pay for Doherty's reckless spending sprees. How people voted for this clown is beyond me, but its probably the fault of two things: people blindly voting straight Democrat, and people voting on ethnic lines and voting for him because of the "Mc" in his name....unfortunately those two things are common occurences in Scranton area voting booths, and is mainly the fault of the older generations (ironic, but its us younger people, that some criticize for not having enough "experience" or age or whatever who actually use our heads in the voting booths and do not vote based on party loyalty or ethnic background). I will agree that Piccolino was a lousy candidate...he didn't come off as very intelligent, and seemed to be a one-issue guy who was ticked off about the eminent domain issue on his pizza place. In the end, there is a very good chance that Piccolino served as nothing but a spoiler for Rogan, because if most of the people who voted for Piccolino voted for Rogan, Rogan would have beat that waste-of-space rubber stamper McGoff.

[CHS89]

Originally Posted by ScrantonWilkesBarre

Perhaps fewer residents are unhappy with the state of the city than what we've been lead to think?

Bingo. The same handful of people at the speaker's podium week in and week out at council does not come remotely close to translating into a representative sample of the city. I concur with Samvit's observation that the quality of the opposition helped decide this race to an extent, as well.

That said, the current council is neither as effective as it would have you believe, nor is it as wildly corrupt as the dozen or so regularly, and loudly, like to contend.

[weluvpa]

CHS89 your kidding me right? I guess you'll have no problems with the next two tax increases that we are now going to get? Sure we should have fielded better candidates but what can you do when the primary race was a joke. The people that ran in the primary clouded the waters so that no one else wanted to run. Rogan was a solid candidate and Piccolino is what he is, its obvious now more than ever that he was there to hurt Rogan.
The democratic committe should be ashamed of its self for those purposely confusing sample ballots that they sent out. They confused the voters into a straight dem vote. Rogan lost by 6%, without Piccolino there he would have beat McGoff. This council is as corrupt as they are made out to be and they are very effective when comes to spending our money for the mayor on stupid things. Its the sheep like you that think that all is well in Doherty land and I guess maybe doubling your taxes might help you wake up abit or maybe we'll see how much they will increase the $400,000,000 debt number in the next 2 years. Your children will be paying the Doherty debt and what will they have received for it? HOW MUCH ARE WILLING TO PAY FOR NOTHING? I GUESS WE'LL SEE!

[CHS89]

Originally Posted by weluvpa

CHS89 your kidding me right?

No, I'm not.

[weluvpa]

So what your saying is that you have no problem with your taxes being doubled and that you will be receiving nothing in return for them. Well I agree at some level about some of the council speakers, but the real problem is the sheep like yourself that have aloud this to continue for years. NIMB mentality is what is killing this city and those that are not willing to try to change things are the biggest part of the problem. I'm sure you voted straight dem because that the "way its been done forever" or you voted for McGoff because you have convinced yourself that a 93.4% tax increase with nothing in return is ok. Either way the sheep are going to pay and pay you will. You will continue to pay and pay from heating bills and huge sewer rates to taxes and you and the rest of the residents will never see anything in return for your hard earned dollars. I hope your money tree is still kickin because the flood killed mine. Sheep, sheep here come the sheep, are you ready for second fleecing? Keep your head in the sand.

[CHS89]

Thanks for your input, Dan.

[NYRangers 2008]

I can't believe Scranton is stuck with McGoof for another 4 years. You won't find a more inept councilperson than him, except for maybe Fanucci. I voted for Rogan because I liked his ideas about cracking down on illegals and he seemed more for the people than any of the others. Oh well, eveything will remain the same now with the 3-2 vote in favor of Doherty. We must rid ourselves of Doherty in the next mayorial election or this city will never recover from this free fall it's currently on.

[weluvpa]

We have another council election in 2009 as well. Fannucci, Gatelli and Janet Evans, their seats are all open for relection in 2009.