By Al Neri
Editor

The gory details are likely splashed all over the front page of your newspaper so I won’t repeat them all here.

But yesterday, July 10, I watched Attorney General Tom Corbett’s news conference from the Camp Hill studio of the Pennsylvania Cable Network and then got to comment on what I had heard for an hour and 10 minutes on live TV.

And, oh, what I heard was shocking and disturbing.

I listened to Corbett outline the alleged misuses: Mike Manzo, the chief of staff to House Democratic Leader Bill DeWeese, kept an intern who had evolved into his mistress on the payroll for three years bankrolling her through college and then law school with little-work jobs paying up to $29,000 a year and then a $7,000 bonus on top of that. His potential penalty? A maximum sentence of more than 300 years in jail if he is convicted of all charges and a $660,000-plus fine. House Minority Whip Veon had staffers drive his and his then-wife’s motorcycles out to Sturgis, S.D., so Veon and the Mrs. could use them on a 2004 vacation. While reportedly serving as Veon’s “chief of staff,” Jeff Foreman, a lawyer, allegedly did no state work but collecting a $126,000 salary while operating his private law practice out of his state Capitol office and charging private clients $200 an hour for the legal work he did for them there. Oh yes, he got a state-paid bonus on top of all that too, sort of like triple dipping.

Tom Corbett Mike Veon

Apparently, my animated response to the news and viewers’ comments made for good television. I’ll see for myself when they replay it on PCN. In most of my other appearances I have been more sedate and mostly non-opinionated on most PCN call-in programs.

This time, I jostled with callers – whether I thought they were right or wrong. I interjected on the conversations of my fellow guests, PR man Charlie Gerow and state Sen. Jeff Piccola, R-Dauphin, one of the better government types.

Much of the talk revolved around House Democratic Leader Bill DeWeese. Was he really ignorant of what was going on under his nose as he claims?

“DeWeese,” I said, “enjoys the drama of being floor leader, of leading the debate” and trying to impress everyone with his million-dollar vocabulary. I waved my arms as if to demonstrate DeWeese-like exuberance.

I said I could see where DeWeese would take the title and its goodies – big car, big staff, access to the state plane to travel -- and leave the details of being leader to others.

Yes, maybe it’s true. Maybe he was ignorant that a 21st Century version of Sodom and Gomorrah was going on all around him. Either he knew or he didn’t know – it’s the $64,000 question in Harrisburg.

I, along with my fellow guests, defended Corbett against callers complaining that Corbett was being partisan in targeting Democrats first. We all emphasized that Corbett emphasized that this was an “ongoing investigation” that could lead to more charges against members and staffers in other caucuses or even more charges against other House Democrats as revelations unfold.

Mostly, though, it seems the House Democrats were so sloppy and arrogant in what they did that Corbett would have to be a prosecutorial fool not to go after the low-hanging fruit first.

Mostly, though, by the end of the two hours I was sad – the same sentiment that Corbett made in his response to one of the first question from the press about how he felt about his own office’s 100-page presentation -- “This is a sad day for Pennsylvania.”

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Yes, Virginia
There will surely be a GOP gubernatorial primary in 2010. A Democratic one too. Bet your Christmas booty on it!

This story is going to start out differently than most Insider stories. It’s based on a conversation I had this week with a good Republican friend who asked me an obvious question to which I thought there was an obvious answer. But maybe everyone doesn’t realize it.

It was prompted by this week’s news that Republican Pat Meehan, the U.S. attorney in Eastern Pennsylvania, is resigning even though he could have stayed in his job through the rest of the year and several months into 2009, even if Democrat Barack Obama is elected president. “Is there going to be a Republican primary in 2010,” my friend asked me. My reply: “You bet there is!” There is always a wild scramble among Republicans to run for governor after a Democratic incumbent finishes his eight-year limit.

Pat Meehan

“Why,” she asked. My reply: “Because the best chance a Republican has of being elected governor only comes around every 16 years after a Democrat is leaving the governor’s office and 2010 is the next time that’s true since 1994 when Tom Ridge was elected.”

It’s a truism that holds going back to 1970 when Democrat Milton Shapp was elected. Eight years later, in 1978, several Republicans ran in that year’s primary and Dick Thornburgh, who won regional fame as the U.S. attorney in Western Pennsylvania, won because all the other candidates were from southeastern Pennsylvania.

And even though post-primary polls had Thornburgh losing to Democrat Pete Flaherty, the former Pittsburgh mayor, by 30 points, the Republican camped out for the general election in Philadelphia and its suburbs and the strategy and superior GOP fund-raising worked. He beat the popular Flaherty by a quarter million votes statewide.

(Editor’s Note: a little political history is in order here. Four years later, in 1982, Thornburgh would become the first sitting governor eligible for a second term who nearly lost. This was despite his being widely acclaimed for some reforms in state government plus his handling of the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear crisis just two months into his first term.

The reason: a recession had gripped the nation and hit hard especially in Western Pennsylvania. A little remembered political fact, in 1982, the Democratic Party came to popular Philadelphia District Attorney Ed Rendell, then easily re-elected to his second term in 1981, and offered him the endorsement/nomination to run against Thornburgh. But Rendell turned down the offer choosing instead to wait until 1986 for the open seat. The party instead turned to little-known central Pennsylvania Congressman Allen Ertel whose district had been redrawn making it difficult for his re-election there. Ertel was the Democratic candidate against Thornburgh and came within 100,431 votes of toppling Thornburgh despite having little money and resources. It is widely held that if Rendell had run with his Philadelphia metro base and fund-raising ability he would have defeated Thornburgh and become governor in his mid-30s. In 1986, he did run for governor and was trounced by former auditor general Bob Casey Sr. in the primary. Casey won the general election by a squeaker. Rendell was in his late 50s and had served two terms as mayor before finally becoming governor in 2002, this time after he beat Casey’s son in the primary.)

The 16-year Republican gubernatorial scramble is based on another Pennsylvania political axiom – that the voters of Pennsylvania change the party in power every eight years. This has been true since 1954 when Democrat George Leader, a York County state senator and chicken farmer, won his gubernatorial term to be followed by Pittsburgh Mayor David Lawrence, a Democratic icon in 1958. (Governors were only permitted to serve a single four-year term until 1970. That’s when a revised state constitution took effect allowing two terms.) Since 1954, like clockwork, executive power has transferred every eight years.

That means that every 16 years, after a Democrat finish two terms, the state GOP scrambles like crazy to elect one of its own.

But the problem is, by that point, lots of ambitious Republicans have set their sights on the top state job. They are not about to be denied for the sake of ‘party unity.’ A sharp, Republican-on-Republican hand-to-hand combative primary will develop and take place in 2010 just as it did 16 years earlier in 1994 after Bob Casey Sr. finished his two terms in office.

In that year, Ernie Preate, a media hound as the state attorney general, was the acknowledged GOP front-runner since he was best known statewide but Preate was challenged by a little-known congressman from Erie named Tom Ridge. Ridge had astutely courted party leaders in southeastern Pennsylvania and top GOP donors from 1990 onward. As a result, Ridge won the state party endorsement but four other Republicans, including Preate, stayed in the primary and fought hard.

But Ridge had a strategy. He was strong in his small regional base in northwestern Pennsylvania and he mounted a drive there to re-register Democrats as Republicans to vote for him. (His younger brother, David, a Democrat, led the drive).

He used his superior war chest to run corny 60-second ads introducing himself and his family, including his elderly mom telling him to put on his hat on a cold Erie winter day. In all, Ridge raised $4 million for the primary, a new statewide record at the time. Despite negative attacks for coddling a ‘convicted felon’, Ridge embraced popular former Republican state chairman Bob Asher who had gone to jail in the 1980s for nearly a year in a bribery trial where many Republicans still dispute the jury verdict and whether Asher actually was guilty of any crime. Asher gave Ridge access and credibility with other Republican leaders in the region. His mild support for abortion rights while in Congress was the right fit for the moderate Republicans in suburban Philadelphia Finally, Ridge got a little luck too. Two weeks before the primary, a state House committee held a hearing that gave credence to rumors and media reports that that Preate might have serious legal troubles with federal authorities from illegal contributions he took when he was a district attorney in Scranton. (Those troubles ultimately, a year later, led to Preate’s downfall and guilty plea and a one-year sentence for mail fraud.)

On primary election night, Ridge won with 344,798 votes (35 percent) to Preate’s 287,400 (29 percent) – a mere six point and 57,400 vote difference between the two top vote-getters. Trailing were former Philadelphia mayoral candidate Sam Katz with 16 percent, then-state Sen. Mike Fisher with 14 percent and anti-abortion activist John Perry with 6 percent. Ridge’s 57,400 vote difference is only the size of a small Pennsylvania city. He had spent more than $11 for each of his votes.

He too faced post-primary polling that showed him trailing Democratic primary winner, Mark Singel, the incumbent lieutenant governor. But Ridge increasingly narrowed the gap in the polls, hammering Singel with a tough-on-crime platform. Ridge caught more luck two weeks before the general election when a Pennsylvania convict for whom Singel had voted for parole, raped and killed a woman in Long Island, N.Y. Ridge is convinced he was starting to overtake Singel anyway; Singel thinks the timing of the incident cost him the election. Ridge took office in 1995 and was handily re-elected in 1998 (as most sitting governors are; Thornburgh’s being the anomaly).

So back to the present and future – now and 2010, a mere 18 months from now.

Meehan’s decision to leave office now is no surprise. Others are gearing up to run and Meehan needs time to organize and raise money. Also, the trial in the landmark case of his tenure, Vincent Fumo vs. the United States, will begin Sept. 8 and may take months to conclude. Meehan will be long gone and its result will rest with his staff prosecutors rather than himself, although a victory against the powerful Democrat would greatly enhance Meehan’s candidacy.

The other Republicans in the wings:

• State Attorney General Tom Corbett who is up for re-election this year and has his own landmark case in the Bonusgate scandal involving legislative bonuses handed out in 2006, a campaign year. On Thursday, he announced the first indictments tied to his office’s 17-month probe. See the first story in this issue for details.

• Glen Meakem, a Pittsburgh area gazillionaire and conservative activist, who has made rumbling he might run.

• Lynn Swann, the former Pittsburgh Steelers great, who lost badly to Ed Rendell in the 2006 gubernatorial race but earns points for putting up the effort.

• Montgomery County Commissioner Bruce Castor, the former flamboyant district attorney who has been ostracized by his fellow Republican, Jim Matthews, who teamed with Democrat Joe Hoeffel to run county government. Castor is known for his large professional and political ego. He ran unsuccessfully for attorney general in 2004 and he would be Meehan’s biggest challenger, both being from the southeast if he ran in 2010.

• Former Lehigh Valley Congressman Pat Toomey, an arch conservative, who ran in 2004 against long-term Republican moderate Arlen Specter in the primary and came within several thousand votes of beating Specter. Toomey is now the national leader of the pro-business Club for Growth and is being urged to consider running for the open governor’s seat but many say his heart is still committed to ousting Specter and sitting in the Senate.