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Loftus death the end of an era

By Michael Clark

The last major figure in the Luzerne County Democratic organization’s era of supreme power was buried Friday. Robert A. Loftus, long-time Pittston Mayor, successful businessman, banker and county chairman died at age 91.

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Bob Loftus and Tim Russert at a Greater Pittston Friendly Sons of St. Patrick Banquet. Both men were dear friends of Michael Clark.

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More than 25 years of leadership in county and Pittston politics began for Loftus in 1961 when he won his first of six terms as Mayor of Pittston. Already a successful insurance executive in his early 40s, he won the Democratic nomination for Mayor, the first step in a crushing defeat of the legendary machine of John C. Kehoe.

The Kehoe forces ran the city for decades, amidst constant allegations of corruption and cronyism. Ruling from his wheelchair at the family estate in Harding, the political dictator was a major force in elections for Governor, Luzerne County and Pittston City Hall, and the city school board also. One reason for disdain of Kehoe was that he owned the Pittston Sunday Dispatch, where in a weekly column, As Kehoe Knows It, he cursed enemies and heaped praise on his few friends and himself as well. The annual Kehoe post-Labor Day political clambake on the Harding lawn drew about 2,000 guests that often included Governors and U.S. Senators, Scottish bagpipers and a Caledonian band. Now, as Kehoe lingered through the last days of his terminal illness in October, the new Loftus coalition was mounting an impressive takeover of city government, only two weeks after Kehoe’s death.

At City Hall there was financial chaos. In virtual bankruptcy, the city had no credit, but did have a variety of inoperable trucks, street equipment and other essential services. When St. John the Evangelist school burned in February of 1960, the city’s hook-and-ladder fire truck was out of town, in hock. Kingston’s long ladder truck raced to the raging flames.

In a reform process that consumed most of his first term, Loftus enforced a policy of fiscal discipline that gave the city financial integrity it had not enjoyed in modern times. Over the next few years streets were paved, sewers cleaned on time, taxes collected and snow removed.

The lengthy Loftus ascension to the peak of Democratic political power in the county began in early 1968. Before Christmas, Dr. John L. Doris of Nanticoke, the strongman county chairman, died suddenly. In the November election a few weeks earlier, Democrats took control of the Courthouse for the first time in years. Edmund “Bud” Wideman, Jr. and Frank “Chink” Crossin, a basketball legend in his youth, were elected Majority Commissioners. Wideman soon declared his enthusiasm to succeed Doris, but State Senator Martin Murray of Ashley saw things differently. The Doris ultimate insider and strategist was Murray, who worked side by side with the powerful chairman in putting together an organization that controlled nearly 1,500 state patronage jobs during the administration of Governor David L. Lawrence, only a few years earlier.

Wideman and Murray battled for party control for nearly two years. Murray got the Pennsylvania State Democratic Committee to designate him as the new chairman, but the move proved useless. Wideman fought the Murray forces in court numerous times. Each side turned out hundreds for their primary and general election dinners. As the battle went on, Wideman reached to the county’s northern section, taking the Pittston Mayor on as a partner and leader in battle. Political writers and cynics characterized it as an insurance business pursuit, with Wideman, Murray, Loftus and Crossin each running their own agencies.

By 1970 a pattern of compromise was developing. With court suits exhausted and special county conventions proving nothing, minds turned to running the party with badly needed unity. Bob Loftus was the compromise new county chairman. Wideman and Murray joined forces, with the Democratic organization going on for nearly two decades of unprecedented election victories at the county, school board and municipal levels. Congressman Daniel J. Flood was well along in his 32 years of legendary service in the House, and Murray was soon elected by his colleagues as President Pro Tempore, the Senate’s highest office.

Democrats were elected to the bench time after time; school boards in most of the county were under party control. In the 1980 special election for Flood’s seat, the organization delivered for State Representative Ray Musto to go to Washington, victorious over seven other candidates.

Bob Loftus worked hard in business, government and politics. His recreation pursuits were simple, a nightly five mile walk to Exeter and back, Notre Dame football games in New York or Philadelphia, and a rousing rendition of Irish ballads and old time tunes sung at the pipe organ bar in Duryea’s Cinema Club. Joining in song on a typical evening was the retinue of cronies from politics and school days: Nick Mauriello, Al Clark, and Councilmen Patty Collins and Bob Walsh among others.

The era is over. Party endorsements mean little. Democrat victories are fewer.

The last time I talked to Bob Loftus was on June 6 when I called him at his Wesley Village residence. The TV was on. Barack Obama was speaking at Normandy. D-Day was memorable for Loftus. He landed with tens of thousands of allied troops. By the end of his first day in combat, 15 of his 19-member unit were dead.

Simple in style, Bob Loftus seldom talked about D-Day. On this June 6, however his concerns were about the woman in the next room, Rita, his wife of 64 years. His daughter Mary Fran and son Robert, Jr. had visited in recent days, and Bob seemed happy.

A Pittston native, Michael Clark is a Washington-based public affairs consultant. He was a senior aide to Congressman Flood during the legislator’s last 12 years in office.