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Guv's PAC fined for '07 violations

The chairman of the city's Board of Ethics, Richard Glazer, criticized Gov. Rendell yesterday for using an obscure political-action committee to funnel about $70,000 into the city's 2007 elections.

The chairman of the city's Board of Ethics, Richard Glazer, criticized Gov. Rendell yesterday for using an obscure political-action committee to funnel about $70,000 into the city's 2007 elections.

Although Rendell didn't endorse any of the Philadelphia mayoral candidates, the governor's campaign organization quietly gave $70,000 in April 2007 to a PAC called Pennsylvanians for Better Leadership.

Combining Rendell's money with that from another donor, the PAC distributed about $80,000 to candidates in the 2007 Democratic primary, including four of the five candidates for mayor and eight candidates for City Council.

Because of sloppy bookkeeping and a failure to file reports with the proper agencies, many of the PAC contributions were not disclosed until after the election, and some were not disclosed at all, until the Ethics Board opened an investigation in late 2007.

The PAC was run by Charles Breslin, a business consultant who served as Rendell's driver during his 2002 gubernatorial campaign.

Yesterday, the organization agreed to pay $15,750 in fines to the city for 20 violations of campaign-finance laws, all blamed on sloppy bookkeeping.

The PAC had failed to disclose $64,050 in political donations to various candidates, failed to report $30,000 it had received from a politically connected insurance executive, Andre Duggin, and falsely claimed to have donated $20,000 to candidates who never got the money.

But Glazer, the lawyer who has headed the Ethics Board since it became an independent agency in late 2006, aimed his strongest criticism at a higher target than the PAC.

"There is something not quite right about a system that essentially invites the well-financed and powerful, in this case Gov. Rendell, to direct contributions to city candidates through a PAC without public disclosure," Glazer said, as the Ethics Board announced the fines and agreed to drop a lawsuit against the PAC.

Glazer called the settlement "another chapter in the saga of business as usual, with no sincere effort at compliance with campaign-finance laws unless and until caught by the Board of Ethics."

Rendell spokesman Chuck Ardo said that the governor had expected the PAC's operators to follow all the legal reporting requirements. "He had no way of knowing that the PAC had not done so," Ardo said.

The PAC gave $10,000 to state Rep. Dwight Evans; $5,000 to U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, chairman of the city's Democratic Party; $2,000 to U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah - all candidates for mayor - and $3,500 to state Sen. Vincent Hughes.

Two donations totaling $5,500 went to Michael Nutter, the eventual winner.

Tom Knox, the multimillionaire businessman who spent more than $11 million of his own money in the campaign, was the only mayoral candidate whom the PAC ignored. *