Former House speaker and defanged Philadelphia powerbroker John Perzel appeared on the edge of tears last week as he left the Dauphin County courthouse after pleading guilty to eight counts stemming from the wide-ranging legislative corruption probe best known by the somewhat inaccurate moniker Bonusgate.
Outside of family members, few were likely moved by Perzel’s demise. Prosecutors say he was the mastermind of a long-running House Republican scheme that frittered away $10 million in taxpayer funds on sophisticated election analysis software that gave Perzel’s favored candidates a leg up. The evidence against Perzel was damning, and he deserves the prison time he’s likely to get.
But it is worth remembering, as we observe his political passing, that Perzel is arguably something of a fall guy for a statehouse culture where, until very recently, mixing politics with official business was standard operating procedure.
As a former legislative staffer for both Republicans and Democrats put it to me recently, prior to Bonusgate, “there was absolutely no distinction between the public business and the political business.”
And until Tom Corbett came around, nobody considered it all that big a deal.
“I was doing this right there in the open. Everybody knew what was going on. Those of us doing the political work mingled with everybody else. It was never hushed up. At no point was there any reluctance to mesh the public and the political,” said the former staffer, who stopped working for state legislators years ago.
One of this former staffer’s bosses paid him out of campaign funds. Another boss, though, put him on the state payroll, even though his work was almost entirely political in nature.
“Everybody behaved like this was on the up and up, and so I figured that it was,” said the former staffer, who was just out of college at the time. “It seemed like it was just the way it was done.”
And so it was, particularly in the leadership offices, where budgets are bigger. Perzel was obviously no exception. Indeed, he showed a knack for obliterating the line between politics and official business early in his career, and that tendency only grew as he climbed the legislative ranks.
Gov. Corbett, who as attorney general launched the sweeping corruption probe that toppled Perzel, told the Patriot News last week that “there are many elected officials that do a wonderful job that have not done anything wrong and should not be tarred with a brush by the actions of a few.”
It’s a nice sentiment, and a politic thing for a new governor to say now that he has to work with the legislature instead of indicting it. But “few” is perhaps not an entirely accurate word in this context. For instance, Corbett’s probe on the Democratic side of the aisle found that 80 of 100 Democratic house staffers who got taxpayer-funded bonuses in 2006 had worked on the campaigns of either then-House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese and/or his whip, Rep. Mike Veon.
Those who defend DeWeese, Veon, Perzel and others have cast Bonusgate as instances of politically motivated selective prosecution. But there’s nothing unusual or suspect about a prosecutor picking and choosing his battles. Resources are limited, after all, and the point of a justice system is not just to punish the guilty, but also to deter crime in the first place. Going after high-profile targets, like Perzel, is a good deterrent to bad behavior.
And on that count, Bonusgate seems to be working. There is considerable anecdotal evidence that state legislators have gotten less cavalier about using public resources for their own political advantage. At minimum, they are being less obvious about it.
Granted, forcing state lawmakers to make political calls on personal cell phones instead of taxpayer-funded office lines isn’t going to drive down unemployment or restore higher education funding. But it is if nothing else a daily reminder to elected officials that they are supposed to be working on behalf of the public, not just their re-elect campaigns.
So let Perzel cry for himself.
Follow Patrick Kerkstra on Twitter at @pkerkstra.
September 6th, 2011 at 5:11 pm
A former Republican legislative staffer said her old boss routinely ran his House campaigns out of his district office.
A change in the Republican computer systems coincided with word that an investigation was under way.
All allowed by Attorney General Tom Corbett while hiring Republican Aides to work on his campaign that were suppose to under investigation?
These actually are some of the facts that have surfaced over the last year out of the House and Senate Republican caucuses groups that Corbett, a Republican, has insisted will receive the same scrutiny as Democrats.
For over 5 years, no investigation nor charges have been filed.
The investigation of the Democrats intensified after concerns were raised about possible destruction of evidence, Corbett said.
Corbett’s investigators were given an electronic trail of e-mails and other evidence only after Bill DeWeese on his own had his the Demovratic Caucus investigated by Former Assistant District Attorney Bill Chadwicke hired by DeWesse.
DeWeese got to the bottom of what happen and cooperated with the OAG at all times.
But to be fair, the onus was always on Corbett and his staff to prove that he has looked just as hard
at Republicans in the Legislature even those 2004-era decision-makers who supported and steered
dollars into his campaign for attorney general.
Why not look at some of the questions that have been raised about Republicans at the Capitol.
Just like the House Democrats, the Republican caucuses had bonus programs, and some of the largest bonuses in any caucus were awarded to GOP staffers Mike Long and Drew Crompton .
No publicly documented evidence has surfaced tying their bonuses to campaign work nor where they brought before any Grand Jury or even investigated by Corbett.
Yet, they ran Corbett’s Campain when they were suppose to be investigated by Corbett Public Corruption Unit?
This wrong and now Corbett appointted a new Attorney General aproved by the senators that Drew Crompton represents?
Sounds like a professional cover up to me!
September 6th, 2011 at 5:16 pm
He served as deputy campaign manager for policy for Lynn Swann’s 2006 campaign for Governor of Pennsylvania.
Prior to that, he was general counsel for Scarnati’s predecessor as Pennsylvania Senate Pro-Tempore, Robert Jubelirer.
Crompton’s Role in the 2005 pay raise controversy was not so small and needs a Federal Investigation since PA AG Linda Kelly is sitting on the investigation after appoitted by Corbett and approved by the senate .
On November 21, 2005, Crompton wrote an internal senate memo suggesting that pay raise activists, including Russ Diamond, Tim Potts and Chris Lilik, were required to register as lobbyists with the Pennsylvania Senate.
“They appeared at numerous press conferences, directly communicated with individual members and staff of the Senate, spoken at rallies in Harrisburg and across the state, set up web sites, spoken on many radio and television talk shows, purchased billboards, as well as other activities. [None of them] have registered with the Senate under Senate Resolution 2.
They have been clearly engaging in ‘direct or indirect communications’ in an attempt to secure the repeal of Act 44 (the pay raise).
The $2,500 threshold for reporting in any quarter includes all expenses associated with direct or indirect communications as well as salaries, benefits, cost of office space, and other related expenditures.”
In June 2006 the Pittsburgh Tribune Review called the memo (which Crompton sent to members of the media) part of “an orchestrated plan of attempted intimidation that, to this day, we believe is worthy of a Justice Department investigation.”
In 2006, Crompton took 3 months of unpaid leave from his position with Robert Jubelirer to work on the Swann campaign.
Upon his return to the senate, he received a $19,467 bonus[6] above his salary of $101,523.
Critics, including Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, called the bonus inappropriate.
“He should get a bonus from the Swann campaign maybe,” Rendell said. “That’s the only place he should have gotten a bonus.”
Brett Cott Took A Leave Of Absence And Is Sitting In Jail On Just 3 Count Conviction That Jurors Thought Would Amount To A Slap On The Wrist By Judge Lewis.
Yet, Judge Lewis Put Cott In Jail Longer Than Corbett Campaign Architect And Master Planner Republican State Committee Convicted Felon Bob Asher One-Year Prison Sentence Conviction For Of Perjury, Racketeering, Conspiracy, And Bribery In Connection With A State Contract Award.
FEDERAL INVESTIGATION INTO CORBETT’S MIXING CAMPAIGN WORK WITH ATTORNEY GENERAL SCHEMES IS NEEDED NOW!
Reformed Republican Senators are calling for it!
“Sen. John Eichelberger, who five years ago requested an investigation into $919,000 in Senate bonuses paid to Republican staffers, says he’s disappointed the state attorney general hasn’t charged anyone. He blames “politics” as the likely reason.
“You don’t know if they really worked it or dropped it,” said Eichelberger, an Altoona Republican.
Eichelberger said he hears scuttlebutt that the FBI has overtaken any Senate investigation.
But So Far Republican Senate Aides That Gave Themselves Biggest Bonuses Have Been Working On Republican Campaigns Instead Of Being Investigated As Approved By Corbett!