BY RODERICK RANDOM
Less than three weeks before Scranton Mayor-elect Paige Cognetti’s due date for her first child, she’s still on the go. Cognetti spent three days this week in Cambridge, Massachusetts, attending a seminar for newly elected mayors at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. This morning, she’s in New York City as one of multiple speakers at the Pennsylvania Manufacturing Association breakfast at the Metropolitan Club. It’s one of the many events that precede and follow the traditional Pennsylvania Society dinner. “It’s a great platform to speak about how we plan to reinvigorate Scranton’s government and economy,” Cognetti said in a text Friday. Not to mention a way to get to know people who might fill some of that vacant Keyser Valley land where she wants to attract new industry and business. “Precisely,” Cognetti said. “(It’s) the beginning of the road show pitching Scranton as a place to do business, grow business, keep business.” Cynics may see that as her first step on the ladder out of Scranton, but talking to business types when your city needs industry sounds like a good first step in a plan to get things done. “Good crowd to be in front of,” Republican political consultant Vince Galko said. We can’t think of any previous mayor or mayor-elect who did this. Former Lt. Gov. Bill Scranton, a key figure in Cognetti’s transition team, arranged the appearance. G. Terry Madonna, the state’s noted political analyst from Franklin & Marshall College, moderates the breakfast speeches. Madonna said other speakers today include U.S. Sens. Pat Toomey and Bob Casey, state House Speaker Mike Turzai. On to the dinner. What’s this thing all about anyway, right? We’ve written about the Pennsylvania Society weekend several times in the last 20 years, but most people around here probably don’t know its history or even care, for that matter. They should. The $500-a-person dinner plays a role, even if it’s a small one, in state politics. By extension, that means a role in your life. Basically, Pennsylvania’s political, business and other elites gather in the nation’s most populous city on the first or second Saturday in December to honor a prominent Pennsylvanian, but mostly to hob-nob, network, raise campaign money and party. Mostly, things that help Pennsylvania don’t get done at this dinner, but deal makers at least get acquainted and reacquainted. Unquestionably, lots of political candidates get their introduction there. The dinner started in 1899. The following year, “a young British journalist and member of Parliament dropped in and regaled the diners with stories about his adventures in the Boer War in South Africa,” the society’s history page says. “The young man’s name was Winston Churchill, and thus began a tradition of having a guest speaker of interest at the dinner.” New York is the dinner’s home because a historian from Pennsylvania named James Barr Ferree lived there and invited 55 fellow Pennsylvanians also living there to join him for dinner at The Waldorf Astoria Hotel. They started the society. Tradition keeps the event in New York, though it moved to the New York Hilton Midtown in 2017 because the Waldorf closed for three years of renovations. It’s supposed to reopen next year. “Well it’s not what it used to be when (it was) hosted primarily at a singular, central venue, the Waldorf,” texted state Sen. John Blake, D-22, Archbald, who attends from time to time. “Now it is more fragmented and, at least to me, not as effective as a means for networking between lawmakers, business, government affairs folks, labor and academia. I also wish it were hosted in Pennsylvania. It is an expensive proposition with not too much return or value to me individually as a state senator or to Pennsylvania generally.” A lot of the events before and after the dinner happened in the Waldorf, including insurance executive Chuck Volpe’s post-dinner reception, which he started in 1991 and is repeating this year at the Hilton. More events happen outside the dinner venue now. Yes, New York costs individual attendees more, and the money gets spent there instead of Pennsylvania, but come on, it’s New York. Gov. Ed Rendell and plenty of others think the New York thing is so over, but the tradition endures. This year, the 121st dinner will honor University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann with the society’s Gold Medal for Distinguished Achievement. At the 112th dinner, the late Gov. Robert P. Casey received the same award posthumously. Roderick attended. You should have seen the Grand Ballroom. Pretty spectacular. Hope it survives the renovations. Most of the action happens outside the dinner. The Pennsylvania Society dinner website listed 43 events between Thursday and Sunday, most of them invitation-only. They include a reception late Friday afternoon for Casey at the Long Room, an Irish gastropub — a trendy name for a bar/restaurant — a few blocks from the Hilton. Events like these host all the networking, fundraising and partying that goes on. The society has several other local connections: ■ Julien Scranton, former Lt. Gov. Bill Scranton’s daughter, serves as society executive director. ■ Elizabeth Preate Havey, a daughter of former state Attorney General Ernie Preate, is the board secretary and is in line to become the society council’s first female president. ■ Dr. Louis DeNaples Jr., the director of emergency medicine at Geisinger Community Medical Center and son of Dunmore businessman Louis DeNaples Sr., is a member of the society council. ■ Robert J. Ciaruffoli Jr., the society council president and former chairman and chief executive officer of ParenteBeard, a certified public accounting firm with local ties, is a King’s College graduate. ■ John Daniel Moran Jr., the council treasurer and president and chief executive officer of Moran Industries, Inc., a warehousing, logistics and transportation company based in Watsontown, Northumberland County, also is a King’s grad. BORYS KRAWCZENIUK, The Times-Tribune politics reporter, writes Random Notes.