03 Nov City Confidential: Week of 10/30/18

There was no want of talent Thursday as the Scranton School Board selected from a pool of twelve (TWELVE!) candidates vying to fill the seat left vacant by the passing of Carol Oleski.  We’re too lazy to type all of the names but the school directors had their work cut out when it came to conducting interviews.  In terms of standards, we know from his comments two weeks ago that Bob Lesh was not looking for another Einstein like Harvard grad Page Gebhardt Cognetti.  In the end, both Paige and BL agreed on Greg Popil for the spot.  Popil previously served on the School Board (is that an automatic disqualification?) and is retired from the Pennsylvania State Auditor where he worked as an auditor (perhaps that’s an automatic hire?).  Congratulations and good luck, Mr. Popil.  You are going to need it.

Let’s take out our politics almanacs and look up “oldest trick in the book.”  Poor John Chrin is either really bad at politics or has a really bad staff.  The Republican challenger  responded Friday to the recent barrage of Matt Cartwright funded television ads calling him the man from New Jersey.  Instead of changing the subject, he breathed more air into it!  According to a release from his campaign, “Like a gunslinger reaching into his holster, John Chrin pulled out his wallet and showed two forms of identification — his driver’s license and his permit to carry a concealed weapon — that each clearly show an address in Skytop, Monroe County.”  Don’t worry, John.  This will all be over soon.

Our predictions going into Tuesday: Bob Casey by a mile, Tom Wolf by two miles, Cartwright clings on narrowly, John Blake cruises, newcomer Kyle Mullins goes to the House, and unopposed Marty Flynn‘s numbers make a dictator jealous.

Last week, we forgot to mention Bob Bolus‘ sanctuary church shenanigans.  He strung a banner up on a church he owns in West Scranton.  Classic Bolus but there is one question that no one in the media has asked – why does Bob Bolus own a church?!