Friday, June 19, 2009

Ex-Leader of PA House Democratic Campaign Committee Rejected Plan To Remove State Workers From Campaign Assistance

Dem ex-leader nixed removing state workers from campaigns

According to Tracie Mauriello and Dennis B. Roddy of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette former State Representative Steve Stetler rejceted a plan to remove state workers from campaign business. His reward- he is now the Secretary of Revenue for Pennsylvania.

Thursday, June 18, 2009 HARRISBURG -- At the time he chaired the state House Democratic campaign committee, then State Rep. Steve Stetler rejected a plan that would have shifted the job of opposition research from state employees to private firms, a onetime top campaign aide told a state grand jury.

Mr. Stetler is now the state Secretary of Revenue.

"It was more or less shot down," Dan Wiedemer, now an aide to another House member, told grand jurors in July, just days after a dozen former House members and their staff were charged with diverting tax dollars to pay for political campaign work. He said Mr. Stetler, who at that time chaired the House Democratic Campaign Committee, suggested "we have a perfectly good system in place already."

Mr. Stetler left the House after 2006, opting not to run again in the wake of voter backlash over a pay increase legislators voted themselves the preceding year.

The testimony regarding Mr. Stetler took place during a still-ongoing investigation by Attorney General Tom Corbett into allegations that millions of taxpayer dollars were used for bogus performance bonuses for state employees who worked on the 2006 and 2004 election campaigns of Democratic candidates for the state House. A partial transcript, obtained by the Post-Gazette, places Mr. Wiedemer's testimony on July 29 of last year -- more than two weeks after a statewide grand jury returned a presentment charging 12 current and former House members, including former Minority Whip Mike Veon, D-Beaver, with multiple counts of fraud in the scheme.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dirty as the day is long

Rick Schenker said...

There is a culture of corruption that is strangling our state government in Harrisburg. There is an aura of arrogance among some of the state’s top elected officials. And, there are three simple words that best describe many of the politicians in Harrisburg: out of touch.

Even the birth of reform-oriented groups seems to have done little to dissuade the Harrisburg power brokers from practicing the dark arts of corruption. It’s easy to understand why many Pennsylvania voters could feel angry, disappointed and discouraged.

It seems as though our voice is loud outside the Capitol, but it gets muffled inside the halls of power. Sure, there are reform-oriented lawmakers in the state Legislature, but they seem to be few in a body of many. Yes, there are reform groups that challenge the system from the outside, but their message seems to land on deaf ears on the inside.

I am running for lieutenant governor because it is time we had a voice where it cannot be ignored – in the highest levels of the executive branch of our state government.

If you want to know more, you can find out about my campaign at my website.

Rick Schenker
www.ChallengeCorruption.com