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INSIDER INFO -- NOVEMBER 2008
In with the New
GOP sees fewer changes
Costa’s the one
Judge found guilty
And the winner is…
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The views contained in The Insider are those exclusively of its editor, Al Neri, unless an article is specifically authored by another writer. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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In with the New
House Democratic leadership ranks change but it’s still mostly old guard legislators who have paid their dues, not newcomers
State Rep. Todd Eachus earned a lot of respect from his caucus by adding to its ranks this past fall when he was chairman of the House Democratic Campaign Committee, responsible for all Democratic contests, including in what races campaign cash was spent and how much to defeat Republicans
On Nov. 18, the Luzerne County Democrat cashed in those political chips when the caucus held its elections and he was elevated to the No. 2 position – House majority leader, beating out two rivals.
That means you’ll be seeing a lot more of Eachus, a seven-term House member, comes next year because he will be the floor leader for the Democrats on legislation and issues before the House and he’ll be prominently featured on Pennsylvania Cable Network’s live and repeat broadcasts of House sessions.
There was never any question how the top of the leadership elections in the House Democratic caucus would go: Keith McCall, D-Carbon, the House majority whip in the last session, had the votes to move up to Speaker and he wanted to do so. McCall is a fixture in the House, having been elected when he was just 23 in 1982 to the seat his father once held.
But it was also clear the caucus would not re-elect its longtime leader Bill DeWeese, D-Greene to his old job as majority leader – not with a cloud hanging over his head from the Bonusgate scandal of the last session which had the attorney general take down 12 Democrats with indictments, most House staffers during the 2005-2006 session.
DeWeese, in effect, accepted a self-imposed demotion to the No. 4 position – majority whip and easily beat two rivals who competed with him for that job. If he emerges from the Bonusgate scandal without further damage – a big IF at this point – he could try to climb back into a higher leadership job in the 2011-2012 session.
One of the losers in the current game of musical chairs was Allegheny County, which traditionally has at least one member in the higher rung of caucus leadership. But state Rep. Frank Dermody, D-Allegheny, was unsuccessful in his bid against Eachus for the No. 2 job of majority leader.
Dermody, the Democratic House caucus secretary, and Eachus, the policy chairman, each eyed that job.
Rep. Dan Surra, D-Elk, a widely-respected outgoing member, who would have been a majority leader candidate himself had he not lost his re-election bid to Republican Matt Gabler, decided to try to help.
As Capitolwire reported Nov. 19, Surra convened a meeting of McCall, Eachus and Dermody. At that meeting, a plan emerged: McCall for speaker, Eachus for leader, Dermody for whip.
That would result in sharp promotions of two rungs each for Eachus and Dermody and would put a western Pennsylvanian in the fourth-ranking leadership spot. It would also mean that Dermody and Eachus would not contest the leaders’ spot, a battle that might keep the loser entirely out of leadership.
In other words, everybody would win, and as an ancillary benefit, there would be no spot in top leadership for DeWeese, whom McCall regarded as a symbol of the past, and Dermody had publicly called this year to be ousted from leadership.
DeWeese’s only option would be to run against Dermody or Eachus, and the meeting attendees were fairly sure either could beat him in a caucus election.
To determine whether to assent to this offer, which Dermody signaled at the meeting was acceptable, Dermody had to figure out a simple problem: could he beat Eachus?
That boiled down into this question: would Dermody’s friends and natural supporters, plus the “we need a westerner for majority leader” votes, plus the “Todd is the protégé of DeWeese and Mike Veon” anti-Eachus votes give him enough?
Dermody thought those combined factors would be enough to give him the victory.
But he miscalculated.
Eachus’ reputation as a harder worker, more productive legislator, policy leader on health care, and overseer of the 2008 election cycle, when the caucus expanded its ranks secured his victory.
In campaigning for leader, Dermody made an alliance with Rep. Bill Keller, D-Philadelphia, who was running against DeWeese, Rep. Pete Daley, D-Washington and Rep. Joe Preston, D-Allegheny, for the majority whip post.
That, and the loss of momentum which his defeat by Eachus created, made it impossible for Dermody to drop down and run for whip after he lost for leader.
And while there was enough anti-DeWeese fervor in the caucus to make the 16-year caucus leader not contest the leader’s election with Eachus, as the old saying goes, “You’ve got to have someone good to beat someone skilled.”
Despite the pay-raise controversy of 2005 which DeWeese helped spearhead and his claim that his caucus spent millions in bonuses for illegal campaign activity on state time, the Greene County Democrat had other factors in his favor.
He had nurtured the state capital culture of a life of perks for incumbent House members which cultivated his support among some of the old guard Democrats and then he relied on his skill in throwing around his gregarious personality to make new friends among new House members.
Also, unlike Dermody, DeWeese figured out almost a week before the vote that he might not be able to defeat Eachus, and evaluated his options. Again, unlike Dermody, DeWeese followed the urging of his colleagues, and ran for whip instead.
With two coal country northeastern Pennsylvanians in the top three – McCall and Eachus – and Evans, a Philadelphian, the caucus felt the southwest deserved the fourth slot.
Dermody thought he could ride that tide of southwestern favoritism into the leader’s office, and was unwilling to take the mere double promotion to whip. But DeWeese was happy to fight to win a triple demotion from top Democratic leader to whip to keep his name and his influence in the leadership ranks.
So Dermody, who pressed on even after he concluded on Nov. 17, the day before the election, that he only had 42 of the 53 votes needed to defeat Eachus, lost his chance to be whip, his goal of ousting DeWeese and his status within the caucus.
Asked why he wanted to run for whip after 16 years as caucus leader, DeWeese said House Democratic leaders “are a team. We always have been. If the third baseman's arm isn't as strong as it needs to be, maybe you move him to second base.”
“I will be privileged to be at the budget table, I will still be able to help our caucus on health care," DeWeese told Capitolwire. “Keith McCall was a very aggressive whip. I like to think I can compete very aggressively at the whip position, with a strong focus on health care, because that is the governor's focus.”
Some House Democrats said the whip position amounted to probation for DeWeese. He was popular enough that the votes were not there for anyone but Dermody to beat him for that post. Dermody declined, and the theory now goes that if DeWeese is no indicted over the next two years and does not otherwise embarrass the caucus, he can win back a higher leadership post in the future.
McCall said he had not told any of the regional caucuses how he would vote in any of the leadership races, since he said that Democratic leadership candidates "need only 53 votes and I need 102" to be elected Speaker in January by the whole House.
Evans said he supported Eachus and DeWeese, and told caucus members that, but of that pair: “They still had to go out and work (campaign for the jobs.) They had to make this happen.”
In the lower-ballot elections, with the exception of Rep. Jen Mann, D-Lehigh, besting Rep. Tim Solobay, D-Washington, it was the veterans besting the youngsters in the remaining leadership battles. Rep. Ron Buxton, D-Harrisburg, defeated Jake Wheatley, D-Pittsburgh, and Rep. Mike Sturla, D-Lancaster, defeated Rep. Mike Gerber, D-Montgomery.
In both races, the fact that electing Buxton and Sturla to leadership posts moved many mid-career members close to chairmanships may have helped them, but so did an iron rule of these kinds of elections: Before your third-term in the House, don’t bother applying for leadership posts.
Even Gerber, vice-chairman of the effort that expanded the Democratic majority in the House, paid a big new-kid tax in the perception of his House peers, and lost to Sturla, although as one House veteran said: “Remember, Sturla has been a star here for years. What people forget is that the difference between Mike Gerber and Mike Sturla is not in brains or hard work. Both have that. It is that Mike Sturla has been doing it since 1990 and Mike Gerber only since 2004. Mike Sturla had to wait his turn, and now, so will Gerber. And, of course, Sturla opens up a chairmanship, and everybody elected in 1992, 1994, 1996, with him and Ron [Buxton] moving into leadership, moves two slots up towards being a chairman.”
A final note on this election: Sturla, who now becomes policy chairman, a stepping stone to major leadership for Veon, DeWeese, Eachus and others, shares a link with four of his 7 fellow members of House Democratic leadership. DeWeese, Eachus Cohen, Evans and Sturla, were all either close allies or protégés of Veon.
Political junkies will recall that Rep. Vince Biancucci, D-Beaver, lost his House seat after his opponent said he was too close to Veon. Democrat Jason Petrella lost his bid for the state Senate due to the same charge. Veon himself lost his own seat in 2006, before the Bonusgate charges – that he led a conspiracy to spend public money on himself and campaigns – even became known, for his pay-raise votes and arrogance.
But in Harrisburg, Veon’s Gang is still alive and thriving.
A reporter in the Capitol was trying to find out by what margin Speaker Emeritus John Perzel, R-Philadelphia, lost the House GOP leader election to Minority Leader Sam Smith, R-Punxsutawney, Perzel’s former protégé and leadership sidekick.
One House Republican said: “What does it matter if it was 7 votes, as John says, or 15 like Sam’s guys say? John ran against the sitting leader of our caucus and lost. He was going to keep running until he hit a brick wall that could stop him. Now he has.”
Perzel was rumored to be considering resigning the House seat he holds in his Democratic-heavy Northeast Philadelphia district and forcing the House GOP to defend it in an open seat special election, but no one knew as of Thursday what he would do.
The House leadership elections took place on Nov. 19 and all 99 returning and newly-elected House Republicans participated.
As Smith gained the edge in intra-party caucus voting, Perzel then moved to make the election unanimous, ending a strange and dramatic attempt by Perzel to reclaim the House GOP leadership he lost in 2007 when he was his caucus’s candidate for speaker again.
Perzel let it be known publicly in late 2006 that, trailing the House Democrats 101-102, he had at least one House Democrat who would vote for him: Rep. Thomas Caltagirone, D-Berks.
House Democrats believed up to two more House Democrats would vote for DeWeese and they were ultimately right. If the Republican caucus held firm and one or more Democrat defected Perzel would become speaker again despite the Democratic majority.
But House Democrats found a group of six House Republicans who were willing to vote for a Republican speaker, other than Perzel, whom the Democrats would support.
A group of about four aspiring House Republicans vied for that job, which ultimately went to Rep. Denny O’Brien, R-Philadelphia, a long-time rival of Perzel’s, who won by 105 to 97.
Neither would, enraging Perzel, who in the primaries of 2008, intervened to try to help primary candidates who might vote for him for leadership and defeat conservatives who were publicly avowing they would never vote for Perzel for leadership.
Perzel’s demise was a massive loss of clout. During the second term of Ridge-Schweiker, both Republicans, and the first tem of Gov. Rendell, a Democrat, Perzel was hailed as the second-most-powerful state official, right after the governor.
Perzel’s power forced Ridge to turn over parking in Philadelphia and taxicab regulation in the city to Perzel’s patronage appointees. And that power prevented Rendell from taking those authorities back from Perzel after Rendell was elected governor. Even after Rendell began pushing to win a Democratic majority in the House in 2006, Rendell always quietly helped Perzel win his own re-elections.
But while he was accruing that power, Perzel became a statewide lightning-rod, usually zapped by the growing Republican conservative movement as a tax-hiking, pay-raising, pension-hiking, anti-reform insider and a RINO “Republican In Name Only.”
Of course, none of the other three House Republicans who represented Philadelphia in the state House during the last decade have been any more conservative than Perzel, and neither have many of the suburban Philadelphia Republicans.
But that mattered little to conservatives, who pilloried Perzel and made support of him for leader a litmus test in many districts, all across the state.
But the biggest change in the caucus comes at the No. 3 spot, where quiet House Minority Whip David Argall, R-Schuylkill, will be supplanted by the House’s most outspoken fiscal conservative, anti-tax and anti-borrowing advocate, Rep. Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny.
Turzai, who raised more than $1 million for fellow House Republicans, second only to Smith, ran the House Republican Campaign Committee and is marked as a rising star for winning three western seats once held by Democrats.
The loss of five net eastern Pennsylvania seats was not held against him, because few insiders felt there was anything he could do about them, and because Turzai western House candidates ran ahead of the GOP presidential vote in many regions.
Turzai won unanimously, as did Caucus Administrator Merle Phillips, R-Northumberland.
Rep. Stan Saylor, R-York, edged out Rep. Doug Reichley, R-Lehigh, for House Republican Policy Committee Chairman, a key strategy and issues position for the caucus. It is also a position often used in both caucuses as a springboard to higher caucus office. And its chairman is also often chair of the caucus campaign committee.
Costa’s the one Allegheny County Democrat Jay Costa follows in big footsteps, winning Senate appropriations chairmanship
The Vince Fumo era in the Pennsylvania Senate ended Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008, just before noon, when the Democratic caucus elected the successor to the man who has dominated their proceedings and actions since he became chairman of its appropriations committee in 1983.
Senate Democrats unanimously elected Sen. Jay Costa, D-Allegheny, a canny veteran of western politics whose stock in the caucus rose steadily throughout this year, as minority chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Three Republican senators sought the position: Corman, Pat Browne, R-Lehigh, and John Rafferty, R-Montgomery. But in the end, Rafferty ended his campaign and threw his support to Corman.
Both positions are expected to be particularly important in the coming fiscal year with Gov. Rendell predicting a $1 billion to $2 billion deficit and not ruling out a tax hike and Senate Republicans insisting the budget be balanced without any tax increases.
Few Senate Democrats believe Costa will ever be as powerful as Fumo was. When Fumo had a heart attack earlier this year, well after he stepped down from the chairmanship of Appropriations, Gov. Rendell held a joint press conference with the still-recovering Fumo and publicly acknowledged he had begged Fumo not to resign and to return to Harrisburg to help him with his initiatives and on a final budget.
Fumo wrote the state’s slots laws, and won major concessions from utilities who contributed to charities to get him to withdraw lawsuits. Even Rendell, who often complained about Fumo, before and after he was governor, recognized Fumo as having a unique ability to influence Senate Republicans and his own caucus.
But one sign that Fumo’s internal power diminished as his Senate tenure ended and he stood trial daily on federal corruption charges of misuse of office staff and funds, is that he was unable to win the election for one of his two protégés: Sen. Mike Stack, D-Philadelphia, or, more likely, Sen. Sean Logan, D-Allegheny.
Now that job will go to Costa, and with Senate Minority Leader Bob Mellow, D-Lackawanna, and Senate Minority Whip Michael A. O’Pake, D-Reading, still in place, one Senate Democrat said: “we have a huge power vacuum and Jay will have a chance to fill a lot of it.”
Costa is best known as a well-liked backroom dealmaker, friendly to the press but not avid to be quoted, with a myriad of allies, including many elected family members, back in Pittsburgh and in Harrisburg: Rep. Paul Costa is his brother and Rep. Dom Costa his cousin.
Some of Fumo’s staff and power are expected to go to other offices now, and the story of the next year will be how Costa is perceived at handling his role in the difficult budget talks that will loom. The state has to close what Gov. Ed Rendell called a $1 billion to $2 billion revenue gap in this year’s budget, and may have only $1 billion in budgetary reserves and unanticipated natural gas lease rights revenues.
Sen. LeAnna Washington, D-Philadelphia, Costa’s only known competitor entering the caucus where the votes were taken, dropped out of the race. Sens. Anthony Williams, D-Philadelphia, John Wozniak, D-Cambria and Logan also pondered a run for that office.
Logan, a Democrat from Monroeville in Allegheny County, was elected caucus secretary over a late challenge by Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Northampton.
Sen. Vince Hughes, D-Philadelphia, was elected caucus chairman, defeating Wozniak; Sen. Richard Kasunic, D-Fayette, was elected policy chair. Sen. Tina Tartaglione, D-Philadelphia, was elected caucus administrator.
Judge found guilty U.S. attorney in Pittsburgh says no one above the law in pursing insurance fraud case
The lesson to be learned from the jury conviction Wednesday in U.S. District Court of former Superior Court Judge Michael Joyce is to beware of a woman scorned (especially one who has information that can nail you to the wall.)
A few years ago, Joyce, an Erie Republican, walked out on his former fiancé, Shelane Buehler, by moving his things out of her house in the middle of the night to live with his new love interest, who eventually became his wife.
Like many couples who break up, Buehler and Judge Joyce, now 59, continued an on-off relationship for about another year with Joyce saying he “couldn’t let her go.”
But it came to an end when Buehler needed the judge to take his name off the deed to her house and he demanded back his diamond engagement ring in exchange. She sent if back alright -- but not before crushing it with a pair of pliers.
But Buehler had more than a hand tool to wield as a weapon of vengeance. Buehler, an Erie architect, made an anonymous complaint to the state Judicial Conduct Board alleging that Joyce had committed insurance fraud.
She said he exaggerating injuries he received in slow-speed rear–end accident in 2001 in order to collect $440,000 in insurance proceeds. The judicial board, in turn, gave its materials to a federal investigation resulting in a jury trial that just ended with a guilty verdict Nov. 19 against Joyce.
Buehler’s acts of revenge and Joyce’s lawyers claim that she was “the liar from the Lake (Erie)” were all on display and part of the drama in the four-week federal trial of Joyce which was held in Pittsburgh because of pre-trial publicity in Erie.
Joyce, who let his judicial term expire after he was indicted, was found guilty of two counts of mail fraud and six counts of money laundering. The jury deliberated for nearly two days. Sentencing is scheduled March 10 before Senior U.S. District Judge Maurice B. Cohill and Joyce faces a sentence of four to six years.
Joyce had claimed to two insurance companies that the accident caused severe pain by aggravating an earlier injury that required surgery to fuse four vertebrae in his neck. He told the insurance companies that the pain prevented him from many physical activities but prosecutors presented evidence that Joyce golfed, played tennis, did in-line skating and went scuba diving at the same time he claimed to be in excruciating pain.
Most damaging to Joyce was the prosecutors’ evidence that Joyce applied for and passed a pilot’s test, including a physical exam by an outside doctor, but hid that fact from the insurance companies and his own physicians.
The prosecutors said Joyce piloted a plane 50 times in 2002, just months after the accident, and that he even purchased a private plane which has since been sold.
Under the guilty verdict, the federal government can seize Joyce’s $380,000 suburban Erie home, his $19,000 motorcycle and an investment portfolio of $100,000 – all of which were purchased or financed with the fraudulent insurance money.
You have to wonder if another political figure on trial in federal court, this one in Philadelphia has taken notice of the Judge Joyce verdict and is possibly second-guessing himself.
State Sen. Vincent Fumo, D-Philadelphia, reportedly passed up on a plea bargain with federal prosecutors that would have forced him to spend one to two years in prison.
Now, he is on trial with a far longer jail sentence in the balance if he is found guilty of the 139 corruption charges levied against him for allegedly defrauding $3.5 million from the state and a non-profit organization he controlled. The trial is expected to take three months and so far, the public and the jury nave been exposed to a string of prosecution witnesses all with brutal testimony against Fumo.
And the winner is… Congratulations to the winner of our 2008 Prognosticator Award Ray Zaborney of Harrisburg; He came closest to the actual results of the 2008 election
Ray Zaborney, a Republican political consultant, came the closest among the many contest entries to the actual results of the Nov. 4 election in Pennsylvania.
More amazing is that Zaborney did it by being the first entry into our contest a full month before the election!
The first question of the contest was to forecast the percentage points by which each candidate would win the election:
The second question of the contest was to forecast how many counties each candidate would carry:
The third question of the contest was to predict the number of state senators from each party:
(Editor’s Note: Zaborney’s prediction could still come true but not until after a special election to fill the seat of James Rhoades who died in October from injuries in a car accident.)
The fourth question of the contest was to predict the number of members of the House of Representatives from each party.
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