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Bonusgate puts pressure on incumbents
Just when voters were starting to forget about the infamous 2005 Legislative pay raise, the Bonusgate scandal has put a bulls-eye on incumbent members of the Pennsylvania Legislature.
Is there any reason to give incumbent members of the Pennsylvania Legislature the benefit of the doubt? Haven't we seen enough corruption, fraud and waste of public tax dollars?
From an Associated Press story by Mark Scolforo:
Incumbents running this fall should expect questions about how they manage their campaign volunteers and whether their state-paid staff meticulously avoids the practices described in the attorney general's criminal allegations.
"I think it's probably one of the smartest campaign moves that any challenger makes this year," said Russ Diamond, who founded the PACleanSweep group that helped organize the anti-incumbent effort in the 2006 elections.
"In this kind of situation, Average Joe paints these legislators with a very, very broad brush, and in some part of their mind is going to consider them guilty — until proven innocent — by association," Diamond said.
The pay raise backlash helped lead to some reforms in which the General Assembly changed some of its internal rules and passed a new open-records law. A number of other reform measures — including a ban on bonuses — have passed the Senate but have stalled in the House.
"I thought the reform movement was, I won't say moribund, but certainly on close to life support," said Terry Madonna, a Franklin & Marshall College political scientist and longtime observer of Pennsylvania politics. "I think that everybody is going to be a reformer again."
The potential list of reform topics is long, including new rules for campaign donations and lobbying; a less partisan system of drawing up legislative districts; a ban on gifts to lawmakers; and a cutback on taxpayer-paid mailings and broadcast advertisements.
"Think about this: Incumbency wasn't enough," Diamond said. "Cardboard checks weren't enough. Newsletters and taxpayer funded PSAs weren't enough. Constituent services weren't enough. None of that was enough — these people had to actually break the law to the extent that they did to win."
Is there any reason to give incumbent members of the Pennsylvania Legislature the benefit of the doubt? Haven't we seen enough corruption, fraud and waste of public tax dollars?
From an Associated Press story by Mark Scolforo:
Incumbents running this fall should expect questions about how they manage their campaign volunteers and whether their state-paid staff meticulously avoids the practices described in the attorney general's criminal allegations.
"I think it's probably one of the smartest campaign moves that any challenger makes this year," said Russ Diamond, who founded the PACleanSweep group that helped organize the anti-incumbent effort in the 2006 elections.
"In this kind of situation, Average Joe paints these legislators with a very, very broad brush, and in some part of their mind is going to consider them guilty — until proven innocent — by association," Diamond said.
The pay raise backlash helped lead to some reforms in which the General Assembly changed some of its internal rules and passed a new open-records law. A number of other reform measures — including a ban on bonuses — have passed the Senate but have stalled in the House.
"I thought the reform movement was, I won't say moribund, but certainly on close to life support," said Terry Madonna, a Franklin & Marshall College political scientist and longtime observer of Pennsylvania politics. "I think that everybody is going to be a reformer again."
The potential list of reform topics is long, including new rules for campaign donations and lobbying; a less partisan system of drawing up legislative districts; a ban on gifts to lawmakers; and a cutback on taxpayer-paid mailings and broadcast advertisements.
"Think about this: Incumbency wasn't enough," Diamond said. "Cardboard checks weren't enough. Newsletters and taxpayer funded PSAs weren't enough. Constituent services weren't enough. None of that was enough — these people had to actually break the law to the extent that they did to win."
Labels: Bonusgate, Corruption, Pennsylvania Legislature, Pennsylvania Politics
posted by Tony Phyrillas at
2:07 PM
2 Comments:
You have to be a fool or on a politicians' payroll to vote any incumbent back into office. Throw all the bums out!
I am voting against every incumbent on the ballot in November just out of principle. Don't care if they're Democrats or Republicans. They're out.
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