Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti is battling a crime crisis in former President Joe Biden's hometown as she mounts a challenge against freshman GOP Rep. Rob Bresnahan Jr. in an evenly divided swing district.
The Electric City has seen a rise in violent incidents, according to local outlets, with five homicides recorded in the first half of 2024 - more than the previous year overall - and a police officer shot in the head who survived.
All this comes as Pennsylvania again plays its role as a political bellwether, with at least three congressional districts in the Commonwealth rated even on a partisan level or within one point in either party's favor.
The 8th District - where Cognetti is challenging Bresnahan - is no different.
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During the 2025 Scranton mayoral debate, Cognetti was pressed on crime statistics reported in the New York Post. She replied that the paper - a corporate cousin of Fox News Digital - is "not a crime database."
"You can go to the actual crime database; you can check those stats online and see that crime is in fact not spiking in the City of Scranton. You can see by every single type of incident what that looks like."
In 2020, Cognetti said during an interview with the Black Scranton Project that she would like to see a city where police officers do not have to carry firearms.
"I do want to get to a point where we don't have to worry about any officers having holsters or guns in them. That is ideally where we get in our whole country," she said, amid a broader discussion on the importance of body cameras.
"I lived in Japan, in those cities, that is where we need to get. We have a long way to get there," she said, adding that there are also law-abiding gun owners like her brother who lives near Glacier National Park and hunts.
A 2024 New York Post report cited Scranton residents concerned about crime, including gang-related shootings, a student found with a gun outside Scranton High School, SWAT responses to domestic disturbances and scholastic lacrosse players who had to be ushered to their cars by police after gunfire erupted nearby.
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During a 2024 interview with Scranton's ABC affiliate, Cognetti said the "situation where these things keep happening" in Scranton is "really tough to swallow."
The interviewer said that year's homicide count was "much higher than the past several years combined - much of it incited by gang violence."
"Those are stark numbers," Cognetti said. "They're also still relatively low compared to unfortunately what some cities suffer."
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Cognetti pushed back on the crime-wave narrative. A spokesperson told Fox News Digital that under the Democrat's leadership, "violent crime has gone down and Scranton has invested millions of dollars in the city's police department to bolster public safety because she believes every person and family deserves to feel safe in their community."
"Mayor Cognetti has expanded the police force and put new cops on the beat, added 51 new police vehicles equipped with smart technology to enhance officer safety and target criminals, and deployed hundreds of citywide cameras to make our streets safer," the Cognetti spokesperson said.
"In Congress, Paige will continue to stand with our brave law enforcement officers and fight for more funding for local police across Northeastern Pennsylvania."
In response to the crime debate, Bresnahan campaign manager Peter Brath said that Cognetti "has repeatedly shown a stunning disregard for the safety of her constituents, including the very law enforcement officers sworn to protect them."
"She downplays rising gang violence and murders, wants to disarm the police, and was recently caught partying in New York City just days after the brutal machete murders of two women and a service dog devastated the community."
"Time and again, Mayor Cognetti refuses to get her priorities straight. The people of Scranton deserve better," Brath said.
Scranton reportedly received about 50 new police vehicles under Cognetti's tenure that include AI-driven computer systems. The investments also included live-feed bodycams and dashcam upgrades.
More than 230 CCTV cameras are also now posted throughout the city to help respond to incidents.
