This morning, as we’re weighing the implications of last night’s election, and the candidates and volunteers are considering life without the grueling hours of the past four months, I find myself ever more optimistic about the future of our city and region—despite the fact that the smartest, savviest, most plugged-in, dedicated, and worthy candidate didn’t win.
As most of you no doubt know, Liz’s campaign for County Commission began with nearly zero name recognition, zero money, zero infrastructure, an outsider status (having grown up in Cleveland), and no Y chromosome, and yet she came within 400 votes of knocking off a well-funded incumbent.
This is an extraordinary accomplishment, even if it comes as no surprise.
When I asked Liz why in God’s name she wanted to submit herself to half a year of campaigning, never mind, should she win, the thanklessness of the job, she told me what we already know about her—that had fallen in love with this city and its people and its future, and given her wealth of experience in the commissioners’ office and the state treasury, if she wasn’t willing to dedicate her competencies to this position, well, what was she doing here?
Anyone who has benefited from The Women’s Narrative Project or the Women’s Resource Center or her statewide Women and Money program or Pages & Places and its offshoots or any of the myriad things Liz has founded or directed or merely contributed her vast personal resources to knows that this is what she always thinks. It is her alpha and omega. It’s who she is.
As I listened to her address her volunteers and supporters last night, two thoughts crystalized, if not for the first time:
(1) A real political rock star has been born—one who has not only the charisma and strategic intelligence and stamina to be a breathtakingly strong candidate and office holder, but also one whose convictions point our city, our community in precisely the direction we need to go.
(2) How impoverished we would be without her, and how unbelievably lucky we are that this woman who can do whatever she wants, wherever she wants, has chosen to dedicate ourselves to us.
If you see Liz, thank her for that, and then let’s pledge to follow her lead and Create Scranton. Let’s make this a place that lives up to our hopes and our expectations of ourselves.
Bill Black
Co-Director (along with Liz)
Pages & Places Book Festival