Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-PA) has released a new campaign ad attacking Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, his Democratic opponent in Pennsylvania’s congressional race, accusing her of raising taxes, cutting teaching positions and pushing to reduce police funding.
“Paige Cognetti and her allies are full of baloney, spending millions to paint me as something I am not,” Bresnahan says in the ad. “I voted to ban congressional stock trading, and I don’t trade my own stocks. Paige worked for Goldman Sachs and Wall Street.”
The ad is a response to attacks from Cognetti’s campaign, which has accused Bresnahan of making roughly 600 stock trades this year tied to industries affected by his votes. “This year he’s already made 600 trades,” Cognetti said in a September campaign video, according to the New York Times. “Sold Chinese stocks the week of a tariff. Buys missile stocks before a war. Buys jet stocks before a big contract. Oversees crypto? Buys crypto stocks before a vote.”
Democrats have also run ads pointing to Bresnahan’s trading of stocks tied to the data center industry around the time of a local development deal. Bresnahan’s campaign has called Cognetti’s description of his trades “lies,” telling the Times that the congressman has “taken legitimate steps to ban congressional stock trading.” His campaign says he relies on a financial adviser who executes trades without his advance knowledge.
In the ad, Bresnahan turns the focus to Cognetti’s record in Scranton. “She raised taxes, cut benefits, fired teachers, and wants to disarm the police,” he says. “She’s lying, and she knows it. But, lying to Northeastern Pennsylvania is what Paige and her money machine do best.”
Teacher Cuts and Budget Shortfall
Bresnahan’s claim about teacher layoffs stems from Cognetti’s time on the Scranton School Board. Townhall reported in July that she voted for a city budget that cut 89 teaching positions and raised taxes on residents, while the budget still produced a $4 million deficit.
Police Budget Dispute
At an August press conference alongside House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Bresnahan addressed Cognetti’s denial that she sought to disarm police. According to the Times Leader, Bresnahan said that “Cognetti said that she didn’t disarm the police,” but added that “doesn’t erase what her administration actually did” — a reduction of the city’s guns and ammunition budget from $43,500 to $20,000 in 2021, a cut of more than 50 percent, which he said followed engagement with anti-police activist groups.
Bresnahan said Scranton City Council, not Cognetti, later added a separate $23,629 “special operations ammunition” line item that year to cover the shortfall, and noted that Cognetti did not sign the 2021 budget.
Absentee Concerns at Home
Cognetti has also faced criticism from Scranton city council members and residents who say she has been largely absent from local governance while campaigning for Congress, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
“We got a mayor who’s not here,” Scranton resident Rik Little said. “The mayor should be here every week.”
Scranton Councilmember Sean McAndrew made a similar point during a July meeting on a $1.9 million deal between the city and Fidelity D&D Bancorp. “The only thing [I know] about the mayor’s five-year outlook is she doesn’t plan to be here,” McAndrew said. “She plans to be in Congress.”
Recent polling shows Cognetti with a narrow lead over Bresnahan in a race that has become one of the more closely watched midterm contests in Pennsylvania.
