One a day in March, Gov. Ed Rendell exposed his political and personal vulnerabilities as a candidate, both by his public and behind-the-scenes actions.

First he admitted publicly as a sop to his old pal Joe Hoeffel (see story below) that he had to push Hoeffel out of the race for lieutenant governor because his GOP challenger Lynn Swann, was finding his gibe that Rendell was “the governor of, by, and for Philadelphia” was resonating.

”We don’t need to feed that,” Rendell said at least three times at the Harrisburg press conference on March 8 where he appeared so Hoeffel could get out of the race one day after he formally got in, and still save face.

Hoeffel, who lives about six miles from Rendell, would have been one easterner too many on the ticket, western politicos told the governor. Rendell is a former Philadelphia mayor and district attorney and Hoeffel is a former congressman, county commissioner and state rep from Montgomery County. The fact that Hoeffel was running, despite his being a core member of the Rendellphia Politicians Club, also undercut Rendell’s oft-proclaimed public support for Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll. And the fact that Rendell’s most loyal county parties in the east were refusing to endorse Knoll added more fuel to the fire.

So Rendell had to stomp on his friend Hoeffel to keep Knoll from having a challenger who had a good chance to beat her. And he had to explain publicly that he had vulnerabilities in the west.

This was not news, but it takes all day to get Arlen Specter to admit publicly he’s vulnerable among conservative voters, or Rick Santorum to admit publicly he is vulnerable among moderate Republicans.

Rendell had to humiliate himself, and provide fodder for stories about how the “Governor of Philadelphia” tag is sticking so well.

Then it got worse. Rendell kept his temper throughout that humiliating press conference, and seemed fairly calm, and took a lot of questions.

Then, he got to Washington, D.C., for several events, and found Brett Lieberman of The Patriot-News of Harrisburg waiting to ask him some questions. Since the Patriot had another reporter at the morning press conference, Rendell tried to brush off Lieberman’s questions.

But Lieberman was working on a different angle. Several Democrats had told Lieberman that the Hoeffel/Knoll saga was the latest case of Rendell, in the words of Sen. Vince Fumo, D-Philadelphia, in 2003, “telling everyone what they want to hear. He wants everyone to be his friend.”

So Lieberman asked the governor if the Hoeffel/Knoll situation showed Rendell had trouble delivering bad news to people.

Rendell suddenly exploded. He called the questions “political B.S.” and then he grabbed Lieberman’s tape recorder. First he put it in his suit pocket, then he held it aloft in his hand.

The governor refused to give it back for two to five minutes, while lecturing Lieberman about his newspaper’s failings and biases. As a very embarrassed state trooper stood by, Rendell finally, after several requests, gave Lieberman back his tape recorder. He later telephoned Lieberman to apologize.

That was Rendell’s first physical confrontation with a reporter in his nearly four years as governor. But it was his sixth confrontation counting his mayoral years, according to Gar Joseph of the Philadelphia Daily News who recounted five other instances of Rendell shoving, arm-grabbing or otherwise manhandling journalists, both male and female, in the 1990s when he was Philadelphia’s mayor.

The episode raises several concerns. First, as with most adults in any workplace, there is an unwritten “no-hostile-touch” rule between reporters and people they interview. Even the Pennsylvania politician who publicly distrusts reporters the most, Rick Santorum, never touches reporters except for handshakes or other professional greetings.

Second, it was Rendell’s first breach of the “no-grabbing” rule as governor, despite the five episodes when he was mayor. And it showed his temper can flare up in inappropriate ways and at a moment’s notice.

Apart from reaction from the press, this story had almost no legs, although Capitolwire’s Pete DeCoursey wrote a column comparing the governor to his three-year-old son, Ben, in terms of tantrums and behavior.

But the episode could be recounted as a commercial from the Swann campaign during the fall re-election. The ad would go along these lines: When Ed Rendell was forced to answer questions about his record of not being truthful, he grabbed a reporter’s tape recorder and then used his state trooper entourage to defend him.

More likely, it will further hurt Rendell’s poor relations with the statewide press corps and the political writers around the state. This is a hard thing to quantify, but Rendell’s temper is an issue for reporters and when it comes time to profile the candidates, newspapers can make it an issue for voters.

In 2002, Rendell ran for governor as a “Happy Warrior” the Patriot-News wrote. Even in the west, his charm and record in Philadelphia kept the Democratic faithful voting for him despite suspicions about his Philadelphia roots.

One bad day in March won’t undo that. But it did expose some of Rendell’s vulnerabilities. He is weak in the west and he is furious at the press and voters for, he thinks, underrating his accomplishments. He believes that misperception about his record is why he is weak in the west and northeast, two regions he won in 2006, and trails in now, according to public opinion polls.

If Rendell stows his ugly side away from the public and press for the rest of the campaign, his eruption on Hoeffel’s withdrawal day will fade away. If not, expect it to play out as an issue in the fall campaign.

But those personal and political weaknesses are there, that day showed. Swann now has to raise his stature in voters’ eyes to gubernatorial level, if he is to exploit them in the fall campaign.

Go back to Insider Info

In and then out
Rendell takes last-minute hand in foiling Joe Hoeffel’s candidacy for lt. governor

Gov. Ed Rendell broke Pennsylvania’s campaign finance records in 2002, by raising $42 million, and expects to bust through that mark again in 2006.

On March 8, he broke a different kind of record: the one for most signatures on petitions to get a statewide candidate on the primary ballot.

He shattered Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Fisher’s 2002 gubernatorial record of 42,000 by more than 30 percent.

Rendell’s campaign collected and turned in more than 55,000 signatures from 66 counties. And he skunked former Gov. Tom Ridge’s mark of 37,000 in 1998.

In 2002, Rendell’s campaign turned in about 22,000 signatures, and still beat petition-kings Auditor General Bob Casey Jr. and Fisher by wide margins in the primary and general elections of that year. But unlike Ridge’s helping his running mate Mark Schweiker amass 26,000 signatures, Rendell left his running mate on her own to conduct her signature campaign. Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll, a veteran of numerous statewide campaigns, turned in 10,000-plus signatures from 59 counties. Ridge retains one distinction: he got petitions signed and turned in from all 67 counties in the state. Rendell had to be content with signatures from 66 counties.

Catherine Baker Knoll

Rendell’s general election rival, former football star and ABC sportscaster Lynn Swann, submitted 28,000 signatures from 65 counties. His running mate, Montgomery County Commissioner Jim Matthews, submitted 20,000 signatures, doubling the total submitted by Knoll.