MOSCOW/SCRANTON, Pennsylvania (Sputnik) – As allegations of Moscow meddling in US presidential elections are on the rise ahead of the November vote, as per tradition, many are overlooking the crucial part another city with the same name may play in deciding who takes the White House.
Moscow borough lies in the woody hills of Pennsylvania’s Lackawanna county which together with the neighbouring Luzerne county shaved a staggering 24 points off a traditional Democratic margin to deprive Hillary Clinton of an overall state victory by a mere 44,000 votes.
Without Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral college delegates, a shortfall exacerbated by a loss in several other battleground states, she was defeated nationally by New York billionaire Donald Trump, despite mustering 3 million more popular endorsements.
Ahead of the 2020 election, pundits from the FiveThirtyEight website of political analytics single out Pennsylvania as “by far the likeliest state” to provide either Trump, the Republican incumbent, or his new Democratic rival Joe Biden with the decisive majority in the electoral college.
The ratio of pro-Trump and pro-Biden placards lavishly strewn upon well-kept lawns of Moscow’s single-family cottages or diverging revelations of rare passers-by are hardly a sufficient gauge of public preferences, but still an eloquent testimony to a tumultuous nature of the key battleground – up for grabs – state.
Moscovites Divided
A study conducted in the mid-1980s found out that there are or have been at least 30 Moscows in the United States with just two of them actually named by Russian immigrants, including the one in Pennsylvania. Locals are mostly oblivious to the origins of their borough, now home to some 2,000 people, and get baffled when referred to as “Moscovites.”
The retired truck driver wears a Make America Great Again cap and a Trump 2020 face mask which he soon gets rid of. He planted eight placards urging to vote for Trump in front of his tidy house at the end of Moscow’s main street.
A barn across the road is also adorned with pro-incumbent posters interspersed with Halloween paraphernalia – an angry response to what Bocklett sees as a Democratic obstruction of Trump’s policies.
Bocklett has his own explanation for Clinton’s debacle – a deadly 2012 terrorist attack on a US diplomatic mission in Libya’s Benghazi which happened under her watch as the State Secretary.
Political allegiances broke Bocklett up with an old friend who lives up the street and happens to be a Biden supporter. They have not spoken for months, but as the sense of hospitality gets the better of him – it’s Moscow after all! – he offers to accompany Russian journalists and officially introduce them.
Bocklett hops in a car with a sticker depicting Trump urinating on liberals and off he goes.
David Partyka runs a small workshop on Moscow’s main street. His family generations ago moved to Pennsylvania from Poland and worked hard in local coal mines. He defines himself as an independent, but in 2016 voted for Hillary Clinton. He is going to endorse Biden and believes that with him the Democrats stand a better chance in Pennsylvania.
He sees Biden as a champion of common Americans.
He is speaking outside his workshop in front of a Biden placard, a hand-drawn pacifist sign and a picture of his uncle – Edward Partyka, a US paratrooper, who fought the Nazis in many daring raids behind enemy lines.
Florance Gaffaney, another Muscovite, is undecided but knows that the choice will be ultimately determined by her own bitter experiences of the coronavirus-induced restrictions and a resulting economic meltdown. A mother of two children and a sole provider of the family, she used to sew theatre costumes but was forced to close down 75 percent of her business overnight and survives on stitching COVID-19 face masks.
She blames Pennsylvania’s Democratic authorities, not the president, and suspects there is a covert political and electoral rationale behind their moves.
Home, Sweet Home
Moscow is a 20-minute drive away from Scranton, where Biden was born and raised. The Democratic nominee frequently mentions the city whenever he needs to emphasize that he is essentially from the people and knows life, unlike elitist Trump from Manhattan skyscrapers.
Scranton is also and, perhaps, better known as home to a lovable cast of characters of the Office sitcom. Early in the morning, the downtown is almost empty and almost everyone out there has an electoral business to attend to.
Virginia McGregor goes canvassing accompanied by a daughter and a couple of grandchildren, the youngest still in a stroller. A high-positioned Democratic party activist and an owner of a manufacturing business with a hundred of employees, she has been on the campaign trail for two years and is sure of the success.
Just beyond the corner, two elderly gentlemen are unloading a truck full of Trump placards.
Last Friday, former Scranton mayor Bill Courtright was sentenced to seven years in prison for extorting money in kickback schemes.
A former Republican candidate for the state House of Representatives, he now tries to convince local voters that Trump is a better choice for America.
The latest poll released by CBS News on Sunday shows that Biden is backed by 51 percent of likely voters in Pennsylvania, a 7-point lead over Trump. The incumbent’s supporters distrust the projections, mindful of pollsters’ fiasco with Hillary Clinton, but are wary of massive mail-in voting which is expected to reach 3 million across the state by November. Critics fear that the practice propagated amid coronavirus fears would serve as a mobilization tool for the Democrats and allege it may be misused to tilt election returns in their favour.
Local Republican and Democratic campaign headquarters in Scranton are just a few dozen feet away.
At least something both warring camps can agree on.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
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