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Lackawanna County Commissioner Patrick O’Malley, a former Democrat who served as the Republican minority commissioner for the past three years, changed his registration back to the Democratic party on Friday at the Lackawanna County Board of Elections office. From left, are O’Malley, Lackawanna County Democratic Chairman Chris Patrick and Lackawanna County majority commissioner Jim Wansacz.

SCRANTON — Incumbent Lackawanna County Commissioners Jim Wansacz and Patrick O’Malley will run for re-election as a team on the Democratic ticket in May.

O’Malley, a former Democrat who switched political parties and has served as the Republican minority commissioner the past three years, changed his registration back to the Democratic Party Friday morning at the Lackawanna County Board of Elections office.

“Everything that I’ve ever done in government has always been on behalf of the people,” O’Malley said. “I feel like this is a great opportunity for me to work with Jim Wansacz, who I have for the last three years. I think we’re compatible and I think we have great opportunities on the horizons for Lackawanna County.”

According to O’Malley, the county’s $8.4 million budget reserve, county staffing levels, the new PNC Field baseball stadium, the county’s economic development program and the more than $4 million in community projects are examples of what he, Wansacz and Democratic commissioner Corey O’Brien, who is resigning (in April) to take a job in the private sector, have accomplished.

Wansacz is looking forward to the opportunity to continue working with O’Malley.

“Our Democratic chairman, Chris Patrick, brought both of us together a couple days ago and talked to Pat about coming back to the Democratic Party, where his roots have always been,” Wansacz said. “As a past president of the Young Democrats in Lackawanna County and as an elected Democratic official before, he’s always had good Democratic values. Over the last three years, we’ve done a lot together. It’s about moving the county forward and not going backward, and Pat has been a big part of that.”

According to Patrick, there has been “quite a bit” of interest to fill O’Brien’s seat, for a 10-month period, when his resignation takes effect on March 10. The replacement must be a Democrat.

“I received somewhere in the neighborhood of eight to 10 applications,” he said. “Next Tuesday, March 3, we will interview potential candidates for the replacement (position) and the following week we’ll get together as a 31-member committee and vote on the replacement. We’ll go through the process and recommend three names to the judges.”

Patrick believes this is the first time in history that Lackawanna County will have three Democratic commissioners.