Well oiled with Democratic Party support and money from across the country, Democratic Scranton Mayor and 8th Congressional District candidate in the November election Paige Cognetti supports building hyperscale artificial intelligence (AI) data centers.
So does Times-Tribune columnist Chris Kelly.
Cognetti wants the government to “regulate” quality-of-life destroying data centers.
So does Kelly.
They’re free to correct me if they flat out oppose data centers as I do. But it’s clear Cognetti and Kelly also want staunch anti-data-center activists and voters in Archbald and elsewhere in the 8th District to believe they’re on their side.
Don’t trust these two connivers.
Kelly’s 7/26/2026 column about his soft-boiled coffee klatch interview with Cognetti makes an easy argument that he might be the number one kiss-ass in line for a local congressional press secretary gig if she wins the election.
Better than working for the Times-Tribune that could fold at any moment.
Never forget that back in 2014 egoist Kelly announced he would trade his daily newspaper columnist job for a political public relations job (the height of journalistic ethical treason), publicly proclaiming his retirement from a sacred mission to sign on as a spin huckster for then-embattled Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane.
Until Cognetti hit town from Oregon via Washington D.C. via Harvard Business School, Kane reigned as the Scranton darling even more popular than the late political flip-flopper and gadfly Mayor Jimmy Connors.
Then Kane went off the rails, reporting to prison after a jury convicted her of nine criminal charges of political corruption.
Thankfully for Kelly he had second thoughts, staying in the newspaper business before prosecutors handed out subpoenas. Unfortunately for readers who value aggressive, adversarial reporting and commentary that exposes corruption in both Democrats and Republicans, Blue MAGA apologist Kelly remains a marionette in the Democratic Party puppet show.
Paige Cognetti now pulls his strings.
Conversely, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro pulls hers, as do other more important Democratic Party puppet masters who dictate what can and cannot be said by Democratic candidates and officeholders. In Cognetti’s chatty data center talk with Kelly I was surprised to hear her offer weak criticism of the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), a crucial cabinet-level office overseen by Shapiro who chooses the secretary.
Did Cognetti or her campaign stooges get prior advice and approval of her benign critique from Shapiro or any of his lieutenants before sitting down with Kelly? Did Cognetti grovel for permission from boss Democrats before criticizing other boss Democrats?
Ask her.
You might do better than me.
As a Scranton resident whose immigrant Irish grandfather died from Black Lung after mining hard coal underground for 45 years, I am a former registered Democratic voter and journalist who once supported Cognetti in several online news columns, But Cognetti has refused to answer my written questions for more than two years. Her congressional campaign manager Anna Korman also refuses to answer my recent written questions.
Sounding more like a programmed AI chatbot than an impassioned community crusader, Cognetti prefers talking with suck-up lackey Kelly.
In Kelly’s fawning question-and-answer exchange, Cognetti offered flat, technocratic observations about protecting quality of life from data center invasion while at the same time supporting the same data center invasion as long as the business barbarians play by government rules.
When does that ever happen?
Some of Northeastern Pennsylvania’s most “beloved” elected officials, including Kane, got indicted and/or went to federal prison as former public servants who helped themselves to the public coffers at the expense of the public.
“Fighting corruption” shapes the core slogan in the Cognetti campaign, a boast that promises she’ll fight for the people as “Paige against the machine.” Yet Cognetti preens as a plastic smile mill in that same warped political machine, doing the elite party bidding without question. I invite Cognetti to provide a single verifiable example of a successful fight against political corruption since winning the mayoral election in 2019.
Neither Cognetti nor Kelly outright opposes data centers. They support “regulations,” those bureaucratic “rules” business and government never obeyed when coal was king or now as data centers threaten to kill and destroy what the coal barons missed. The bosses couldn’t have successfully pillaged as they did without politicians like Cognetti and newspaper lapdogs like Kelly.
Of course, Republican company man and incumbent Congressman Rob Bresnahan supports data centers too.
Eighth Congressional District Green Party candidate Leila Hazou opposes data centers. Hazou understands that once data centers go up anywhere in Pennsylvania the political climate makes it easier for them to go up everywhere in Pennsylvania.
If developers miss Archbald this time they’ll come for Archbald next time.
With a vengeance.
On July 17th The Scranton City News broke the story about Hazou’s challenge, the first to report Hazou would face off against Cognetti and Bresnahan as a candidate standing against the cruel data center siege.
Until Kelly’s Sunday column Cognetti avoided answering detailed data center questions from the people and the press, providing no specific answers about how exactly she plans to help people fight back. I sent copies of The Scranton City News column to Kelly, Cognetti and campaign manager Korman. Did my column spark overweening PR man Kelly to rush to Cognetti’s defense? Did my column scare smug Cognetti and her slick handlers into creating a superficial data center position for which gullible voters might fall?
Do not sucker for so-called Shapiro-inspired regulations Cognetti and Kelly support. Do not agree to inflict this evil corporate pestilence on yourselves or on others. “Not in My Backyard (NIMBY)” is a dishonorable position. Beware of opportunistic, self-absorbed neighbors, the Chamber of Commerce and turncoat labor union members. They’ll all quickly join Shapiro, Cognetti and Kelly in selling out your dreams.
Aloof and cold-blooded, more bureaucratic manager than gutsy leader, Cognetti talks a good game. Yet she never came close to spelling out in her first public interview about data centers what minimal action she would take to even begin to regulate these environmental monstrosities. She never said what local, state and national elected and appointed officials in her own Democratic Party she would pressure to make sure devil developers play fair. Cognetti never said she would pressure anybody.
Of course, timid Chris Kelly never pushed back.
