(The following story by Borys Krawczeniuk appeared on the Scranton Times-Tribune website on January 19, 2009.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — They came the Scranton way: on a train. It was a six-vintage-car, one-Amtrak-locomotive venture into the nation’s capital where one of their own, Joe Biden, will be sworn in as vice president Tuesday.
The cars once carried presidents. It was a grand gesture aimed at announcing Scranton’s re-emergence in the nation’s politics.
It was a distinctly James Barrett McNulty production.
The former mayor, with lots of help from attorney Todd O’Malley, was looking for another way to rain attention on the city he once led. So he invited about 100 of his closest friends — city residents and expatriates — to ride along.
Yeah, President-elect Barack Obama made the same trip Saturday with Mr. Biden, but Mr. McNulty started planning his trip first, he reminded a Philadelphia Daily News reporter.
The two-hour sojourn from Philadelphia started at the 30th Street Amtrak station in the style typical of Scranton politicians: speeches.
On the day the Philadelphia Eagles played for a chance at Super Bowl XLIII, one of the speechmakers was state Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffrey, who used to adjudicate hooligans during Eagles games at Veterans’ Stadium.
“Scranton is my home away from home,” Justice McCaffrey said.
Author Malachy McCourt, who said he considers himself an honorary citizen of Scranton he’s been there so often and even campaigned for Mr. Obama in the Electric City, connected the trip to the real occasion.
“We’re going down to support another Irish man, O’bama,” he cracked.
Oh, yeah, that’s right. Mr. Biden is only the No. 2.
No matter.
The train lurched away from the station at 2:18 p.m. At 2:39 p.m., it swung through the Wilmington, Del., Amtrak station where the vice president-elect boarded and disembarked daily for more than 35 years as a U.S. senator in daily trips to his job.
After a short bus trip to the Rayburn Office Building, where many members of Congress have their offices, they partied with people like former University of Maryland basketball and NBA player Tom McMillen, a former Maryland congressman.
In the modest, undecorated Capitol Host Banquet Room, they noshed on hors d’oeuvres of salmon and filet mignon. They sipped beer, wine and whiskey. And they laughed a lot, bonded by the city hundreds of miles to the north, the city of their youths.
Scranton native Bobby Arvon, who sang the theme song from the TV show “Happy Days” in its final season, sang it for the crowd. Mr. McNulty dubbed the song this generation’s version of the Depression-era, “Happy Days are Here Again.”
When Mr. Arvon broke into “Mack the Knife,” Scranton resident Beth Hopkins, 40, did a little wiggle.
“I just think it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be part of anything that has to do with this inauguration,” she said. “You’re so proud of someone from your hometown making it to such a high level.”
The train and party crowds were full of ex-Scranton residents.
“First off, I’m a Scrantonian. How could I not be here?” asked Toni Alperin Goldberg, 72, who grew up in Peckville and moved to Philadelphia 30 years ago. “And Jim McNulty is my friend. How could I not be here? Biden’s the vice president of the United States. How could I not be here?”
Jeanne-Marie Murphy, a former West Scranton resident who now lobbies here for financial services firms, said all her Washington friends from Scranton were cognizant of the connection when Mr. Biden was named Mr. Obama’s running mate.
“All the Scranton people stick together in this town. There’s a lot of them. We all stay in touch,” she said. “There’s always a Scranton connection.”
Just like Mr. Biden.
Tim Gillespie, 62, another lobbyist and ex-West Scranton resident, said he didn’t learn Mr. Biden was from Scranton until years after he came to Washington. As a lobbyist for Amtrak, he gained an instant ally when they learned they had common roots.
Mr. Biden brings a touch of Scranton-learned warmth to Washington, Mr. Gillespie said.
“The thing about him is he knows this town so well,” Mr. Gillespie said. “And people love him. I just knew from the train service. When I would ride Amtrak, Amtrak conductors knew him because he would sit down and talk to these guys.”
Michelene Campagna, 44, of Scranton, a pharmaceutical saleswoman and a friend of Mr. McNulty, said Mr. Biden’s emergence suddenly has her out-of-town colleagues curious about Scranton.
“People from Philadelphia now are calling me, (and asking) “What’s going on in Scranton? All of a sudden they want to chit-chat and see what’s going on. All of a sudden Scranton became a household word,” she said.
As a jazz combo played “You’re Nobody ‘Till Somebody Loves You,” Avanti Cigar
Co. President Dominic Keating looked at the crowd, smiled and said, “It’s a great night.”
And it was.