For the last month, a couple of Democrats a week have peaked their heads above the foxhole and come forward to ask DeWeese to resign as House majority leader or as a candidate for re-election candidate. So far, he has stubbornly refused.

The Chinese water torture of trickling leaks in DeWeese’s defense has been occurring ever since the Bonusgate indictments of former House Minority Whip Mike Veon, D-Beaver; Rep. Sean Ramaley, D-Beaver, and 10 top or former House staffers.

All 12 were charged with misusing taxpayer-paid legislative personnel or taxpayer funds for personal or campaign purposes. The total, Attorney General Tom Corbett said, mounts into the millions of dollars.

This then led to the group of folks who publicly called for DeWeese to resign. The first group was mostly long-time DeWeese critics and victims whose districts he rewrote to make life more difficult for them. In fact, one such critic, Rep. Tom Tangretti, D-Westmoreland, who is retiring was the first to publicly call for DeWeese’s resignation as leader, back in May, before the July 10 indictments.

Then after the charges were filed, Reps. Bill Keller, D-Philadelphia, John Yudichak, D-Luzerne and Dan Frankel, D-Allegheny, confirmed that back in January, they called for DeWeese to step down at a House Democratic retreat in Harrisburg.

Their argument was simple: either DeWeese knew what his top allies and staffers were doing that led to the charges, and therefore had to go, or he was willfully and blissfully ignorant of it, despite being leader, and also had to go.

The question being asked is what did not one staffer forced to do political work on taxpayer time feel he could blow the whistle to DeWeese? Because DeWeese had delegated his authority to Veon and chief of staff, Mike Manzo, and all were likely afraid.

Reps. Harry Readshaw and Matt Smith, both of Allegheny, were next to step forward.

One senior House Democrat dismissed this group as “enemies and a scared freshman” and then things changed: Deputy House Speaker Josh Shapiro, who helped DeWeese keep his post and his majority when DeWeese’s long-earned House Democratic enemies almost elected former House Speaker John Perzel, with Democratic votes, also turned on DeWeese. The Montgomery County sophomore legislator was the first powerful House Democratic DeWeese ally to call for him to resign or be ousted. Shapiro, who has worked closely, if not always smoothly, with DeWeese, said the House could not reform itself and earn the public trust as long “as Bill DeWeese is its public face.” And, he said, the caucus could easily lose its majority if DeWeese remained leader.

Bill DeWeese

After that, Reps. David Levdansky, D-Allegheny, Gene DePasquale, D-York, Jarret Gibbons, D-Lawrence, Jesse White, D-Washington, Rick Taylor, D-Montgomery and Mark Longietti, D-Mercer, all joined the call for DeWeese to resign either as candidate or as leader.

And at least two-dozen of those not calling for DeWeese’s head publicly have told the Harrisburg-based Internet news service Capitolwire that they don’t see him surviving a mid-September House return to session, because several members want to call for DeWeese’s resignation at that time.

And House Democratic leaders were scandalized by DeWeese telling them on the day the 12 were charged that because he, DeWeese, wasn’t charged; he regarded it as being “one of the best days in my life” because he saw that as a sign of exoneration.

And pressure has mounted from rank-and-file members on House Majority Whip Keith McCall, D-Carbon, and House Appropriations Chairman Dwight Evans, D-Philadelphia, to resolve this somehow without the bloody feud many fear will result from a reorganization/oust DeWeese vote in September.

But Evans continues to support DeWeese, saying this will all blow over and DeWeese will remain leader next year, while McCall keeps quiet, although privately McCall has kept the pressure up. McCall asked DeWeese to step down as a candidate for re-election, and made sure the caucus saw that DeWeese refused to do that -- after a poll showed him with only 36 percent support of the voters in his rural Greene and Fayette counties House district. Even after that poll threw everything it could to pump up DeWeese’s numbers and knock down those of his GOP opponent, Greg Hopkins, DeWeese never got above 48 percent after all of the pushing by the pollster. So why doesn’t McCall become the public face of the anti-DeWeese movement? Because McCall has nothing to gain by doing so. He believes DeWeese will lose re-election and even if DeWeese survives, McCall thinks he will lose a straight match-up against McCall for top Democratic leader in December anyway. And McCall knows that he can also defeat Evans by about 65-35, give or take a few votes, for the top Democratic leadership spot. So by moving quietly against DeWeese and letting DeWeese stay if he wishes, McCall loses no friends or supporters, is seen by the “DeWeese Must Go” crowd as their closest supporter in leadership, and doesn’t lose any of his guys, who are uncomfortable with lawmakers talking about this in public. And that group is probably two-thirds of the caucus. For Evans, the math is even simpler: there is no gain to him in this. If DeWeese goes, McCall becomes leader and eventually, if the House Democrats retain the majority, Speaker.

Keith McCall Dwight Evans

Evans has nothing to gain from severing the 16-year leaders bond with DeWeese that made him one of the most powerful policy forces in the Capitol, especially under Democratic governors.

And he and DeWeese have had a long and fruitful partnership. And unlike in western Pennsylvania, where DeWeese and the Bonusgate scandal could be an issue, polls show, that is not true in Philadelphia, where Evans rules the roost, and may not even be true in the Philadelphia suburbs.

DeWeese maintains he will stay forever, and some late-breaking news may help him: Hopkins, his opponent, is no longer calling himself a “Specter Republican,” as he did in 2006, to appeal to the Democratic-favoring district. He is now calling himself a pro-gun, pro-life Republican who will vote against taxes. In other words, he is changing his brand to Santorum-style Republicanism just as that conservative GOP brand is at what DeWeese would call “its dizzying nadir” (for those without a dictionary, that means its absolute bottom of popularity).

So while things look bad for DeWeese overall, this flip-flop by his opponent could mean his Nine Lives are not yet spent.

Go back to Insider Info

Off the hook
Former State Rep. Linda Bebko-Jones, top aide plead guilty and get probation, fines in 2006 case where they forged signatures on her election petition

Former state Rep. Linda Bebko-Jones and her one-time chief of staff Mary B. Fiolek “were not thinking clearly” when they forged signatures on the Erie County Democrat’s nominating petition in 2006.

Those were the words of David Ridge, one of Bebko-Jones’ attorneys, in an interview with the Erie-Times News last week. He and other lawyers made the case that the two women regretted their actions but weren’t bad people.

Both pleaded guilty in a Dauphin County court on Aug. 5 to forging signatures on the nominating petition.

Prosecutors agreed to a deal where they would be sentenced to 12 months’ probation and fined $1,500. Each was also ordered to perform community service – 200 hours for Bebko-Jones and 100 hours for Fiolek.

The plea deal allows them to not only avoid jail time but also preserves their state pensions, since the election law violations they pleaded guilty to are not among the offenses set forth in the state’s pension law that would result in the forfeiture of a state pension.

Bebko-Jones, who left office in November 2006 after 14 years of representing the east side of Erie, took a lump sum payment of about $65,000 in 2007 and gets a monthly pension of $2,581, or $30,972 a year, the Erie Times-News reported.

Keeping their pensions intact was a key goal in negotiations with Attorney General Tom Corbett’s office, their lawyers said.

Bebko-Jones, 62, and Fiolek, 60, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of forging and submitting false signatures and criminal conspiracy. Prosecutors agreed to drop all other charges, including forgery and tampering with public records, which would have cost them their pensions.

The forgery case actually propelled Bebko-Jones to exit the 2006 race after a challenger questioned the validity of her petition signatures. The seat is now held by freshman Democratic Rep. Patrick Harkins, the candidate who filed the challenge.

According to various news reports, the two women forged signatures when they found themselves up against a deadline to turn in 300 valid signatures for Bebko-Jones to run for re-election after the representative vacillated on whether to seek a new term.

The Associated Press reported that the women admitted to forging signatures on at least three different nomination petitions filed with election officials. A witness had testified before a grand jury that the names were taken from an Erie phone book and from Bebko-Jones’ personal address book.

Some of those whose names were signed told the grand jury they hadn’t signed the petition. One of the supposed signers had been dead for six years, the AP reported.

Bryan Jones, Bebko-Jones’ son, was listed as a petition circulator, but he testified before the grand jury in exchange for immunity from criminal charges that he allowed Fiolek to forge his name as the petition circulator.

Ridge, the Erie lawyer who represented Bebko-Jones (yes, his older brother is former Gov. Tom Ridge), told the Times-News:

“We believe probation was the appropriate resolution of the charges. She accepted responsibility. She remains remorseful. She will continue to dedicate herself to the community, now as a private citizen.”

Harrisburg attorney Joe Metz, who represented Fiolek, told the Times-News: “I think the prosecution was fair, and the judge was fair. Our clients are not the worst people in the world, but they definitely did something they should not have done.”

Kevin Harley, a spokesman for Corbett, told the newspaper: "We believe it is an appropriate disposition of the case. They obviously admitted their guilt, and given the circumstances with the defendants, we believe the sentences were appropriate.”

When asked to elaborate on those circumstances, Harley cited Bebko-Jones’ and Fiolek’s ages and unspecified health problem affecting Bebko-Jones.