Side by side, former U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and Scranton School Director Bob Casey are easy to tell apart. Former Sen. Bob Casey has one of the most recognizable names in Pennsylvania politics and the face to match.
School Board Bob Casey looks nothing like the former senator, but his political career has long benefited by being mistaken for the real thing. This confusion gives him a branding edge over other candidates. Inattentive voters see “Bob Casey” on the ballot and instinctively fill the oval.
School Board Bob Casey wasn’t on the ballot in Tuesday’s primary election, but his signature was apparently used to give some eleventh-hour phony mojo to fellow school director and city council candidate Sean McAndrew by falsely implying that former Sen. Bob Casey endorsed McAndrew.
If you’re confused, mission accomplished.
In a last-minute endorsement letter, School Board Bob Casey urged voters (particularly in Green Ridge) to back McAndrew. Under the heading “Fellow Democrats,” School Board Bob Casey wrote:
“As a member of the Scranton School Board, Sean has been a tireless advocate for Green Ridge… Sean is committed to protecting our neighborhoods, especially Park Gardens. While other candidates are promoting more low-income housing in our neighborhoods Sean has taken a clear stand. He will fight to keep Park Gardens the way it is…”
If you’re hearing dog whistles, mission accomplished.
School Board Bob Casey ended his adoration of McAndrew with a dramatic declaration of the candidate’s upstanding character.
“I’ve worked with him. I trust him. I am proud to support him. Sincerely, Bob Casey.”
Nowhere in the letter does School Board Bob Casey disclose his position on the school board or distinguish himself from former Sen. Bob Casey. He signed the letter, “Bob Casey.”
But he swears he didn’t write the letter he signed. I reached out to School Board Bob Casey on Monday as his letter was generating outrage among disgusted Democrats on antisocial media. He told me he was at a recent political rally and McAndrew handed him the letter and asked him to sign it.
“Sean McAndrew personally handed you the letter?” I asked.
“Yeah,” School Board Bob Casey replied.
I asked him why he would sign a letter that could be used as an old-school “dirty trick” to confuse and deceive voters. It undeniably creates the false impression that McAndrew had the endorsement of the most popular and respected Democrat in Scranton.
“I didn’t mean it that way,” School Board Bob Casey said. “I apologize if they (voters) took it that way. We were at a rally, he (McAndrew) asked me to sign it, I read it, I signed it and I’ll never do that again.”
School Board Bob Casey said it was “probably a mental slip-up” to sign a letter that deliberately omitted his actual identity, but he signed it because he agrees with McAndrew’s message.
“I was more concerned with the message to the people in Green Ridge – ‘Do you want low-income housing (Black, brown and poor people in your lily-white, middle-class neighborhood)?’”
That parenthetical addition is mine. I hear dog whistles just fine. Memo to Casey and McAndrew: Almost 80% of the roughly 9,300 students in the Scranton School District live in “economically disadvantaged” households, Superintendent Erin Keating, Ed.D., said recently. How do you think your dog whistles sound to these young, struggling Scrantonians whose education you swore oaths to serve?
To be clear, I’m not calling School Board Bob Casey or Sean McAndrew racists, but the war of whispers being waged in Green Ridge certainly is. Boiled down to its malevolent essence, the message MAGAcrats and MAGA Republicans are pushing is:
“Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti is an outsider who wants to give Scranton away to other outsiders. Sean McAndrew and his ‘bipartisan’ pals will stop her.” #SCRAN’NON.
In his defense, School Board Bob Casey said sharing a name with a former U S. senator isn’t always a blessing. It’s caused him and his family headaches for years, from political attacks to hotel registrations to dry cleaning.
“To be honest with you, I’m sorry I was ever named Bob Casey,” he said. “All my life I made an effort to distinguish myself (from Sen. Bob Casey). I’m out in the public. People know me as Bob Casey. I go to local restaurants, they call me Bob. When I go places, I get introduced as Bob Casey. It’s my name.”
True, but it’s also the name of a former U.S. senator who is the most popular and respected Democrat in Scranton and it apparently was used to confuse and deceive voters.
Casey pointed out that on the 2023 ballot, he ran as “Robert J. Casey.” Also true, but his campaign signs touted “Bob Casey” for a seat on the board. Robert J. Casey won the seat, but “Bob Casey” was surely a winning silent “running mate.”
McAndrew and I played phone tag on Monday, and he didn’t return a message I left Tuesday morning. I made it clear I wanted to discuss the “Bob Casey endorsement.” My deadline arrived before the polls closed, so I don’t know whether the letter helped or hurt McAndrew’s campaign.
Win or lose, McAndrew owes voters answers about the eleventh-hour “endorsement.” I believed Casey when he said he didn’t write the letter. So who wrote it? Did McAndrew personally hand Casey the letter and ask him to sign it, as Casey claims? If so, did McAndrew distribute the letter with the intent to confuse and deceive voters? The primary election is over, but these questions linger. It’s a long way to November.
In the meantime, a reminder that the lone local candidate endorsed by the real former U.S. Sen. Bob Casey is the very mayor McAndrew and the MAGAcrats are so desperate to depose.
“Mayor Paige Cognetti has delivered the honest, responsive government Scranton deserves, one that works as hard as the people it serves. Under her leadership, the city has strengthened its finances, cut red tape for businesses and invested in public safety and our neighborhoods, all while keeping costs down for residents.
“I’m proud to support Paige for re-election because she’s making Scranton a stronger, more vibrant city — a place where families can thrive, businesses can grow and every citizen can share in its progress.”
Sincerely, Bob Casey.
CHRIS KELLY, the Times-Tribune columnist, sincerely wrote this column. Contact the writer: ckelly@scrantontimes.com; @cjkink on X; Chris Kelly, The Times-Tribune on Facebook.