Scranton Elects First Female Mayor

07 Nov 2019

Scranton Elects First Female Mayor

Historic, landslide win signals desire for change

Re: Paige Cognetti (MBA 2014)

Topics: Government and Politics-Government Administration Management, Leadership Career/Life Experience

Photo by Chris Sorensen

As an Oregon native running on the Independent ticket, Paige Cognetti (MBA 2014) was not the most likely candidate to claim victory in a special mayoral election that took place Tuesday in Scranton, Pennsylvania. But she won handily, claiming 36 percent of the vote in a crowded 7-person race to fill out the remaining two years of former mayor Bill Courtright’s term. (Courtright, who faces federal corruption charges of bribery and extortion, resigned in July.)

Cognetti moved to Scranton in 2016 following stints at Goldman Sachs and the US Treasury; last year, the Bulletin covered her work on the city’s school board, where she ferreted out fiscal mismanagement in an attempt to bring the district back from the brink of financial insolvency.

Before running for mayor, Cognetti also served as special assistant in Pennsylvania’s State Auditor’s office. Reflecting on her win, she told CNN, “It really seemed like the perfect storm where I would…have the backing of the auditor general, who knows and has seen some of what’s going on in Scranton, where you still have this graft and this nepotism and this patronage network that has really been bringing down areas like this. So having…fought the machine, basically, on the school board and then doing that in the mayor’s race, it all kind of fed into (my win).”

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Featured Alumni

Paige Cognetti

MBA 2014

Featured Alumni

Paige Cognetti

MBA 2014

Stories Featuring Paige Cognetti

- 12 Dec 2018
- HBS Alumni Bulletin
Lesson Plan

Re: Paige Cognetti (MBA 2014); Susan Ochs (MBA 2001); By: Julia Hanna; photographed by Chris Sorensen

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