Bonusgate fallout could hurt Democrats

HARRISBURG - The political consequences of the fast-spreading Bonusgate scandal could be enormous.

Will incumbents be threatened by a newly infuriated, throw-out-the-crooks electorate? Will Democrats surrender the state House, which they control by one vote, to Republicans? Will the legislature, scheduled to meet for as few as nine days this fall, be able to conduct business effectively amid the political fallout?

"If true, these allegations are what cause people to lose faith in government," said Rep. Daylin Leach (D., Montgomery), who is running for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Democrat Connie Williams.

Attorney General Tom Corbett on Thursday announced indictments of 12 people: Rep. Sean Ramaley (D., Beaver), former House Democratic Whip Michael Veon of Beaver County, and 10 current and former staff members.

The indictments allege that they ran a tightly organized political operation out of Veon's Capitol suite and his district office. Hundreds of legislative workers on the House Democrats' payroll are accused of doing everything from stuffing envelopes to running campaign phone banks from government offices.

The 12 were arraigned in District Court in Harrisburg.

Most observers agree that the case, which Corbett has said represents only the initial step of the investigation, casts a negative light on everyone in government.

"As someone who is trying to make the case that government can make a positive difference, it makes it more difficult," Leach said.

Tim Potts, founder of the reform group Democracy Rising, said he believed the crisis could create trouble for Democrats in a presidential election year that favors them.

"It's hard to see how Democrats keep control of the House," said Potts, "unless they decide to promote an integrity agenda."

Others say that while the reform movement that grew out of the pay-raise debacle of 2005 will likely be reinvigorated, the latest scandal will probably play a role only in the legislative districts directly connected to it, namely Beaver County, in southwestern Pennsylvania.

"I'm not convinced there will be a lot of anti-incumbent sentiment," said G. Terry Madonna, a political scientist and pollster at Franklin and Marshall College. "Candidates rise and fall on their own merits."

He said the indictments likely formed the largest single criminal case involving elected officials and their staffs in modern state government history.

While a number of investigations involved hundreds of government employees and elected officials during the administration of Gov. Milton J. Shapp in the 1970s, there were "never this many at one time involving one grand jury."

Some critics point to the indictments as reason enough for new Democratic leadership in the House.

Lehigh County Executive Don Cunningham, a Democrat who is considering running for governor in 2010, has called for House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese (D., Greene) to resign over the scandal.

He said it would be impossible for DeWeese, who was not named in the indictment, to oversee reforms in the caucus.

"Either he didn't have control of his operation and didn't know how money was being spent, or he knew and was complicit in it," Cunningham said Friday. "Either way, for the interest of the party, I think a clean break is needed."

In a news release Thursday, DeWeese expressed outrage at the allegations and touted the housecleaning and changes made in the House since revelation of the bonuses in early 2007. He did not respond to a request for an interview.

Some lawmakers and others say recent changes, including the new open-records law and measures on conduct and rules in both chambers, have not gone far enough.

"Given the outrage I detected yesterday, people may in fact demand real change, change in the structure of government," said Sen. Jeffrey Piccola (R., Dauphin), who as chair of the Senate State Government Committee moved a number of bills aimed at reform this spring.

Some of those bills approved by the Senate are stuck in the House State Government Committee, while others await passage in the Senate.

Sen. John Eichelberger (R., Blair), sponsor of a bill banning bonuses for virtually all state employees, issued a news release after the indictments urging swift House passage of the legislation.

"The people of Pennsylvania expect to have this issue addressed in law, not by the often unkept promises of lawmakers who claim that it will never happen again," said Eichelberger, who ousted Senate President Pro Tempore Robert Jubelirer in 2006 after the legislative pay-raise controversy. "Their lack of action under the current circumstances is truly unbelievable."

Rep. Babette Josephs (D., Phila.), chairwoman of the House State Government Committee, issued a statement late Friday defending her commitment to reform and saying the attorney general did not support the Eichelberger bill as it was drafted.

Some say they are concerned the indictments might bring a distracting chill to the Capitol this fall, forcing lawmakers to spend more time campaigning when they should be focused on legislative business.

Others view the news as the prelude to a cleansing breeze.

"There's clearly a chill," said Piccola. "But, personally, I like air-conditioning. . . . It's a refreshing opportunity to do some good."