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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Walter &#8220;Fuzzy&#8221; Terpak was at his usual spot at Dukey&#8217;s Cafe Wednesday, wallowing in his 15 minutes of fame.</p><p>Terpak and his favorite establishment were recently featured in a story in the New York Times Magazine about Donald Trump&#8217;s popularity in what has been a traditional Democratic stronghold &#8212; Luzerne County.</p><p>Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee for President of the United States and is expected to face Democrat Hillary Clinton.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not a Trump supporter,&#8221; Terpak said, sitting next to his girlfriend at Dukey&#8217;s oval bar. &#8220;I like some of the things he stands for, but I&#8217;m still not sure who I&#8217;m voting for in November.&#8221;</p><p>Adam Davidson, who wrote the magazine piece that appeared July 6, said via email he was looking for a place that strongly supported Trump. He said he looked around for counties in which Trump received unusually high support in contested Republican primaries.</p><p>&#8220;Luzerne (County) stood out,&#8221; Davidson wrote. &#8220;Trump received a higher percentage of votes there than any other county in Pennsylvania and nearly any one in the country.&#8221;</p><p>That got Davidson to do more research, so he traveled to Wilkes-Barre and talked to people in town.</p><p>&#8220;I learned that several thousand county residents changed their registration to Republican so they could vote for him and that Trump held a large rally in Wilkes Barre,&#8221; Davidson wrote. &#8220;I read more about the area and saw that its history touched on many of the themes that interested me &#8212; trade, dying industry, aging, less-educated workforce.&#8221;</p><p>So Davidson talked to people and one of them suggested Dukey&#8217;s was a great place to meet regular Wilkes Barre folks.</p><p>&#8220;They were right,&#8221; Davidson said.</p><p>Davidson wrote about the region &#8212; how it was built on coal mining and sustained by manufacturing. The story noted the number of closed factories and claimed the region&#8217;s workforce is lacking in the necessary educational requirements needed to attract today&#8217;s businesses.</p><p>However, Davidson&#8217;s story also offered positive things about NEPA, such as this &#8220;is actually not a deeply depressed area.&#8221; The story notes the local economy &#8220;has grown moderately over the past decade&#8221; and Wilkes-Barre &#8220;even has a modest high-tech scene.&#8221;</p><p>The problem, as seen by Davidson, is Wilkes-Barre&#8217;s displaced workforce doesn&#8217;t fit well into the new, high-tech jobs that today&#8217;s economy demands.</p><p>The end result was okay with Terpak and Linda Prutzman, who has owned Dukey&#8217;s with her husband, Wayne, for 16 years.</p><p>&#8220;Really, though, there are two topics that bar owners try to refrain from,&#8221; Prutzman said. &#8220;Religion and politics.&#8221;</p><p>However, she said the 2016 presidential race has generated &#8220;a lot of political buzz&#8221; around Dukey&#8217;s.</p><p>&#8220;The sense I get is that nobody is really thrilled with either candidate,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I think most people are trying to decide which one is the lesser of two evils.&#8221;</p><p>Prutzman said Davidson &#8220;just popped in&#8221; one evening and started talking to her customers. She said Dukey&#8217;s prefers to be known for its clams and lobster tail, rather than its politics.</p><p>Terpak, 60, said Dukey&#8217;s has always been a sports bar and his second cousin was the original owner. Since the Times story came out last week, Terpak and Prutzman said there hasn&#8217;t been a lot of discussion about it.</p><p>&#8220;I guess most people liked it,&#8221; Terpak said of the story. &#8220;I haven&#8217;t heard anything derogatory. But some people didn&#8217;t like the way it made Wilkes-Barre people appear &#8212; that we are uneducated coal crackers. That&#8217;s just not true.</p><p>&#8220;There really hasn&#8217;t been much of an impact,&#8221; he added. &#8220;But I guess it makes for some good banter around the bar.&#8221;</p><p>For Terpak and other Dukey&#8217;s customers, the attraction will always be more than politics.</p><p>&#8220;This is a good place with good people and good food,&#8221; Terpak said.</p><p>As far as Trump or Clinton getting his vote, Terpak said his decision is still, well, fuzzy.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll weigh everything,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Like I said, I like Trump&#8217;s economic policies, but I&#8217;m against other things he says. But hey, there isn&#8217;t an ideal candidate out there.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/web1_TTL071516dukeys2-5.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Linda Prutzman is the owner of Dukey&#8217;s Cafe in Wilkes-Barre. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/web1_TTL071516dukeys2-5.jpg</photo0><caption0>Linda Prutzman is the owner of Dukey&#8217;s Cafe in Wilkes-Barre. </caption0><photoCredit0>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/web1_TTL071516dukeys1-5.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Dukey&#8217;s Cafe patron Walter &#8216;Fuzzy&#8217; Terpak spoke with New York Times Magazine reporter about support for presidential candidate Donald Trump. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/web1_TTL071516dukeys1-5.jpg</photo1><caption1>Dukey&#8217;s Cafe patron Walter &#8216;Fuzzy&#8217; Terpak spoke with New York Times Magazine reporter about support for presidential candidate Donald Trump. </caption1><photoCredit1>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/web1_TTL071316flood3-5.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Linda Prutzman, left, owner of Dukey&#8217;s Cafe in Wilkes-Barre, and regular patron Walter &#8216;Fuzzy&#8217; Terpak reflect on a story about Luzerne County&#8217;s support for Donald Trump that appeared in the New York Times magazine. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/web1_TTL071316flood3-5.jpg</photo2><caption2>Linda Prutzman, left, owner of Dukey&#8217;s Cafe in Wilkes-Barre, and regular patron Walter &#8216;Fuzzy&#8217; Terpak reflect on a story about Luzerne County&#8217;s support for Donald Trump that appeared in the New York Times magazine. </caption2><photoCredit2>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Bill O&#8217;Boyle</p><p>boboyle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Bill O&#8217;Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Trump voter numbers lead New York Times Magazine to Dukey’s in Wilkes-Barre