Paige Gebhardt Cognetti

Paige Gebhardt Cognetti is an American politician serving as the 36th Mayor of Scranton, Pennsylvania. She is the first woman to be mayor of the city and won her seat in a special election.[1][2] A member of the Democratic Party, she ran her first mayoral Scranton campaign as an Independent. She was sworn on 6 January 2020.

Paige Gebhardt Cognetti
36th Mayor of Scranton, Pennsylvania
Assumed office
January 6, 2020
Preceded byWayne Evans (acting)
Personal details
BornEugene, Oregon, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
Residence(s)Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States
EducationUniversity of Oregon (BA)
Harvard University (MBA)

Early life

Cognetti was born in Eugene, Oregon. She graduated summa cum laude from the Robert D. Clark Honors College at the University of Oregon with a BA in English Literature and Romance Languages, and holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School. She started her career as an English teacher in Japan; and was a fundraiser for the Clinton and Obama 2008 campaigns and later served as an advisor at the U.S. Treasury Department.[3][4]

Political career

Prior to Cognetti's run for Scranton mayor, she served as a director of the Scranton School Board[5] as well as a special assistant to Pennsylvania's then state auditor, Eugene DePasquale. She has run on reform and pragmatism platforms: at the school board, she criticized Scranton's no-bid school bus contracts and unapproved payments to contractors.[6] For her mayoral bid, she focused on investments and budgets for local businesses, education, and infrastructure.[7]

Mayor of Scranton

Elections

Cognetti was first elected in 2019 as an independent, but ran as a Democrat for re-election. Cognetti easily won re-election in 2021.[8][9]

Electoral history
Scranton Mayoral Election, 2021[10]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Paige Cognetti (incumbent) 9,851 72.51%
Republican Darwin Lee Shaw II 3,175 23.37%
Write-in 79 0.58%
Total votes 13,585 100%
Democratic hold

References
  1. "Scranton became shorthand for the past. Its reality is far more complicated". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-05-17.
  2. Cole, Devan (6 November 2019). "First woman elected mayor of Scranton, as an independent after sparring with Democratic machine". CNN. Retrieved 2021-05-17.
  3. "Mayor of Scranton to Deliver Johnson College's 2020 Commencement Address". Johnson College of Technology. 2020-03-11. Retrieved 2021-05-19.
  4. "Now the mayor of Scranton, PA, Paige Gebhardt Cognetti's passion for equity inspired by her time in CHC". Clark Honors College. 2020-06-09. Retrieved 2021-05-17.
  5. "Cognetti Resigns From Scranton School Board To Work For State Auditor General". AP NEWS. 2018-12-12. Retrieved 2021-05-19.
  6. "Scranton School Board To Ask District Attorney To Investigate Mechanic Insurance". AP NEWS. 2021-05-14. Retrieved 2021-05-19.
  7. "Scranton Mayor-Elect Paige Cognetti offers an object lesson for Philly politics". The Philadelphia Citizen. 2019-11-15. Retrieved 2021-05-19.
  8. "Paige Cognetti claims victory in Scranton mayoral race". PAhomepage.com. 2021-05-19. Retrieved 2021-05-19.
  9. Fearon, Dylan (2021-05-19). "Cognetti defeats Murray in democratic primary for Scranton mayor". WOLF. Retrieved 2021-05-19.
  10. "Lackawanna County Election Results" (PDF).


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