John Baer: Should Corbett run investigations & run for guv, too?
THE QUESTION I get most often these days (actually, for a long time now) is: When does Tom Corbett drop the other shoe?
The state attorney general and Republican candidate for governor - he announced Sept. 14 that he was offering "leadership that says no to corruption" - shook the roots of state politics in July 2008.
He charged a dozen House Democrats with theft, abuse and sleaze, including trading jobs and taxpayer-financed bonuses for sex and political-campaign work.
Ah, Pennsylvania.
Corbett insists that more is coming, stuff to stun and shock the world, including, he hints, charges against members of his own party.
Democrats howl that Corbett's crusade is a one-sided deal designed to drive his campaign and those of other GOP candidates.
There was speculation that he wouldn't announce anything during the protracted budget impasse since, supposedly, his targets include folks in all four legislative caucuses. There's speculation that he won't announce anything close to an election, and there's an important state Supreme Court election less than two weeks away.
But I doubt anyone present for the first dropped shoe in summer '08 ever thought that we'd be waiting for the other during fall '09. Yet here we are.
So, yesterday, Harrisburg activist/gadfly Gene Stilp held a Capitol rotunda party celebrating the 1,000th day (which is today) since the Harrisburg Patriot-News reported bonuses going to legislative staff.
There was cake, which Stilp used as a prop to argue that Corbett "can't have his cake and eat it, too." And Stilp said that Corbett should resign to avoid the appearance of a politically driven probe. Stilp also asked where the new indictments are, and actually dropped a shoe.
Corbett's press secretary, Kevin Harley, tells me: "We don't respond to Gene Stilp. We have professional prosecutors investigating . . . when the grand jury makes a recommendation, that's when the announcement will be."
Still, many call it running the clock once you have a lead.
The most recent Quinnipiac University poll shows Corbett well ahead of all other likely candidates for governor in 2010.
It should be a Republican year. Corbett won re-election in '08 with 61 of 67 counties and more votes than any other Republican (including Ronald Reagan) running for anything in Pennsylvania.
And even though Corbett's announced GOP primary opponent, U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach, also has called on Corbett to resign, Corbett clearly has an edge.
Not that there isn't precedent. Pat Meehan, while thinking of running for governor, resigned as U.S. attorney - before Vince Fumo's trial; and Virginia's GOP attorney general, Bob McDonnell, resigned to run for governor this year, saying that the state demands a full-time AG. (McDonnell leads Democrat R. Creigh Deeds in two new polls.)
Corbett has no intention of resigning. So be it. But even if he plays this right down the middle, he faces some political risk: All he does will be viewed through the prism of politics. And the longer it takes, the more he'll be tagged for timing his investigation with his run for governor, allowing likely subsequent trials to play out during his campaign.
Given his name ID and lead in the polls, it's unclear why he announced in September before announcing new indictments. Maybe he was looking to scare off Gerlach. Maybe all races now start early. Maybe all candidates and campaigns sometimes do the darnedest things.
When I ask Corbett campaign manager Brian Nutt if there's concern about blowback from running investigations while running for governor, he says, "It's the same criticism his opponent [Northampton County D.A. John Morganelli] offered in last year's election . . . but the attorney general was elected to uphold the laws of Pennsylvania."
And, one hopes, to drop the other shoe or, you know, have some cake. *
Send e-mail to baerj@phillynews.com.
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