You may have seen that one of our local U.S. representatives has written to Amazon President and CEO Jeff Bezos asking him to consider locating one of his company’s headquarters in the 9th Congressional District.

I suspect that some of you are skeptical and may have guessed that this was a possible gimmick by Dan Meuser, the first-term Republican from Dallas, Luzerne County, to gain some local, regional and national attention. By the way, “gimmick” is my word. Still, I am sure that Meuser knows as well as I that there is not a prayer that this will ever happen. I mean it would be a miracle if it did, even if it would be considered, but, let’s face it, this comes off as a publicity stunt, regardless of what kind of a heartfelt spin Meuser and his staff choose to put on it. So far, Meuser said he has not heard from Bezos, but he is trying to set up meetings with company officials in Washington or regionally.

For his part, Meuser insists that he is serious. He feels his district has so much to offer Amazon. It already has a fulfillment center in Hazle Township, so Meuser sees this as a foot in the door.

The sad part about this story is that there are down-on-their-luck local residents who are excited that this is a legitimate effort to bring a major corporation project of untold magnitude to our neck of the woods.

Meuser and his staff are aware that Amazon dropped its plans for an additional headquarters in New York City.

“We do not intend to reopen the HQ2 search at this time,” a company spokeswoman told me. “We will proceed as planned in Northern Virginia and Nashville, and we will continue to hire and grow across our 17 corporate offices and tech hubs in the U.S. and Canada.”

She said Amazon was dropping the NYC plans because of the sustained and noisy pushback by some residents and officials. She had no specific knowledge of the Meuser letter.

Although Meuser knew about Amazon’s decision, he sent his letter anyway, and his office alerted the news media, which dutifully provided him with newspaper space and airtime to announce what he had done. I spoke to Meuser earlier this month, and he pointed out that businesses change and re-evaluate their plans all the time, so this is what he is hoping might happen with Amazon.

“Our communities offer a strategic and ideal location for the world’s fastest growing company,” Meuser’s letter said. “A two-hour drive from New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania’s 9th Congressional District — comprised of all or parts of Schuylkill, Northumberland, Montour, Luzerne, Lebanon, Columbia, Carbon and Berks counties — is situated along the U.S.’s Eastern Seaboard, part of a region that includes more than 50 million people and generates a fifth of America’s gross domestic product. There is literally 60 percent of North America’s population within a 10-hour drive.”

Meuser also emphasized the “skilled and motivated workforce” that exists in the district. He wrote that much of what the district has to offer fits “Amazon’s stated parameters for its new facility.” As much as I agree with the first part of this observation, the second part is a real stretch.

Before Northern Virginia was chosen, Amazon officials said that the company intended to invest more than $5 billion in construction and that the new facilities would create up to 50,000 high-paying jobs on a campus that will be a “full equal” to its current campus in Seattle.

There were 238 proposals submitted by the deadline last fall, including one from the Lehigh Valley. Among the list of 20 finalists were Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Newark. The smallest metro area that made the cut was Raleigh, North Carolina, with a population of 465,000. Contrast this to the two largest metro areas in the 9th District — Wilkes-Barre (41,000) and Hazleton (25,000). The largest city in northeastern Pennsylvania, Scranton (78,000), is in a different congressional district.

Despite all this, Meuser was undeterred.

“Simply stated, if Amazon were to invest and create jobs in Pennsylvania’s 9th Congressional District, it would be creating a renaissance of new opportunities for a former coal-rich area that needs a great American business, like Amazon, to give thousands of families and job-seekers the chance at the American/Amazon dream!” Meuser wrote to Bezos. Meuser ended the letter by offering to conduct a tour through the district for Bezos, the richest man in the world whose fortune is estimated at $131 billion, according to the Forbes magazine list of world billionaires published earlier this month.

Look, I don’t begrudge Meuser’s brief moment in the sun for proposing such a preposterous idea. After all, a politician is always on the prowl for some favorable news media attention. And Meuser told me that even if he doesn’t land the big fish in the district, he would be happy to pick up a few guppies along the way.

My quarrel with this sort of thing is that it plays on the real concerns of many in our area who are either unemployed or underemployed and view this as a legitimate effort that could lead to something beyond spectacular — a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, the likes of a Bethlehem Steel of its former magnitude plunked down in our midst with 19,000 more jobs than Steel had workers at its peak in 1939.

It is not uncommon for legislators at all levels of government to introduce proposals or legislation, knowing full well that they don’t have a prayer to succeed, but maybe they will generate some “ink” and “good vibes.”

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com