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.
"In fact, Pennsylvania is so important that our model gives Trump an 84 percent chance of winning the presidency if he carries the state - and it gives Biden a 96 percent chance of winning if Pennsylvania goes blue," their recent calculations claim.
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."
"No, [we call ourselves] Americans. You know, George and Sally, and our regular names. We don’t go by whatever jurisdiction or part of the country we are from. We are all Americans," William Bocklett says.
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.
"If the answer is Joe Biden, it must be a stupid question," one of them reads.
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.
"In 2016 you didn’t see all these Trump signs, but now you do, because people are tired of the Democrats’ way of trying to monopolize everything, trying to run everything their way or they are going to cry about it," he says.
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.
"That was a big thing against her because you have a lot of veterans. And once they heard that, this is - no way," he says.
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.
"At least he didn’t shoot me," he giggles when the contact is facilitated.
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.
"Even though I hate to admit it, a woman being president bothered a lot of people. And there were a lot of Democrats who didn’t feel she represented them at the level they wanted," Partyka says. "I think Biden will bring the people together. Where Trump likes to divide, Biden feels he can represent everybody. He is a centrist by nature."
He sees Biden as a champion of common Americans.
"He generally thinks of the working guy. Once he gets the bills passed, they are going to benefit us the most. As a small business person we are barely recognizable. I am just looking for someone who is going to make the taxes fair not just for the wealthy and corporations," Partyka says.
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.
"There was no support, there was no one you could call to get more information. It came very abruptly, we had less than 24 hours to take things out into consideration and to think out what to do next. It wasn’t pleasant to business owners," Gaffaney says. "So I will be definitely taking it into consideration when it is time to vote in November. For me personally, as a business owner, as a mom with two kids, it’s certainly impacting my decision."
She blames Pennsylvania’s Democratic authorities, not the president, and suspects there is a covert political and electoral rationale behind their moves.
"Oh no, that was not the president, that was Pennsylvania. I agree that each state should make laws and decisions depending on their particular situation. And I don’t think it was done in Pennsylvania. I think it was done out of a political stance and not what the people of the area need and want," Gaffaney says.
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.
"Hillary Clinton’s family is from Scranton and so too is Joe Biden’s. It is going to be an overwhelming victory. We are going to carry the county and we will probably carry Pennsylvania," McGregor says. "I am positive, because I am out there every day, working on the campaign, talking to people and we all have friends and family who have lost their lives and were affected by COVID."
Just beyond the corner, two elderly gentlemen are unloading a truck full of Trump placards.
"First of all, Biden left when he was four years old. He continues to claim Scranton is his hometown. The only time he shows up is every four years when he needs votes. He has done absolutely nothing for this area. If I was a politician, I wouldn’t tell people I am from Scranton because we have some of the most corrupt government officials in the country," Ernest Lemoncelli says.
Last Friday, former Scranton mayor Bill Courtright was sentenced to seven years in prison for extorting money in kickback schemes.
"So there you go," Lemoncelli says.
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.
"We talk about the policies and his accomplishments. He has been nominated for three Nobel peace prizes, he moved the embassy to Jerusalem as the last seven presidents had promised. He finally did it, he has taken out ISIS [Islamic State, a terrorist organization banned in Russia], he has done so much for the country. It’s almost impossible to name them all, all the accomplishments," Lemoncelli says.
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.
"We don’t do foreign media. It’s a policy. It’s what my boss said," a Trump official welcomes journalists. "I really can’t talk to you at all. Have a great rest of your day," a Biden representative smiles and out of an abundance of caution takes away pamphlets to prevent them from being filmed.
At least something both warring camps can agree on.
