In 2007, Pennsylvania

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

Republican Tom Corbett began investigating $3.8 million in public bonuses which were paid to state legislative staffers in the

Pennsylvania General Assembly The Pennsylvania General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The legislature convenes in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. In colonial times (1682–1776), the legislature was known as the Pennsylvania ...

to work on party politics and campaigns. While the bonuses themselves are not illegal, state law forbids state employees from performing campaign work while on the job and forbids payment for campaign work out of taxpayer funds.DeWeese: 7 aides ousted over e-mail , Philadelphia Inquirer , 12/18/2007
/ref> Pennsylvania media referred to this scandal as "bonusgate." Originally the investigation centered on Democratic and Republican Caucuses (top state committees of each party) in each of the state's two chambers, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Democrats dominated the investigate in the highly (at that time) Democratic state. As the investigation continued other areas of concern arose, including findings of judicial corruption, nepotism,

conflict of interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations i ...

and Republican corruption in a subsidiary investigation dubbed "Computergate" by the press, in which Republicans used state monies to pay state employees to develop computer programs to find and target Republican voters. Still later investigations discovered the Kids for cash scandal in 2008 which judges in Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas in Wilkes-Barre, were paid kickbacks to ensure juveniles were sent to for-profit facilities. There was also a skimming operation in which two not-for-profit organizations in Beaver County, PA called Beaver Investment for Growth (BIG), had funds skimmed to fund political campaigns. This was followed by disciplinary action against politicians who sent or received raunchy, racist and misogynistic emails called "Porngate". In 2014 still more bribery was discovered in the Pennsylvania Attorney General Sting.

Attorney General's investigation

Bonuses to staffers were awarded by the four legislative caucuses in the

with House Democrats handing out $2.3 million, House Republicans - $919,000, Senate Democrats - $41,000 and Senate Republicans $366,000. The investigation's early focus on the House Democratic caucus and Attorney General Corbett's 2010 gubernatorial aspirations have led to charges from that the investigation may be politically motivated.

House Democratic Caucus

Eighty of the 100 Democratic House staffers who were awarded bonuses in 2006 either donated money to or worked on the campaigns of Leader

Bill DeWeese H. William DeWeese (born April 18, 1950) is an American politician who is a former member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. A member of the Democratic Party, DeWeese served as the 135th Speaker of the Pennsylvania House from 1993 to ...

or his Whip, former Rep. Mike Veon. DeWeese initially attempted to block

Pennsylvania Attorney General The Pennsylvania Attorney General is the chief law enforcement officer of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It became an elected office in 1980. The current Attorney General is Democrat Josh Shapiro. On August 15, 2016, then-Attorney General Kath ...

Tom Corbett's investigation into whether the House Democratic caucus made illegal payments to staffers with motions to quash subpoenas and exclude evidence seized. However, months later he abruptly fired several staffers after turning over to Corbett self-selected documents and e-mails, and dropped his legal challenges. The documents DeWeese turned over to the Attorney General revealed that DeWeese acknowledged awarding bonuses for campaign work and used a state-paid consultant to perform political tasks. DeWeese has not been charged in connection with bonuses or the state-paid consultant. Grand jury testimony in the case revealed that DeWeese made bizarre personal demands of his staff, such as a small coffee in a big cup, a small salad in a big bowl, or "12 M&Ms." His state-paid aides balanced his checkbook, bought condoms and arranged his dinner dates. At least fourteen staffers from the House Democratic caucus have been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury in Harrisburg. Agents for the state Attorney General's office have also seized 20 boxes of records from the House Democratic caucus's Legislative Research Office in August. The director of that office, Jennifer Brubaker, is married to Scott Brubaker, former director of Staffing and Administration, who was among those fired in November 2007.Bonusgate probe spreads to Republicans , Philadelphia Inquirer , 10/23/2007
/ref>

House Republican Caucus

On October 22, 2007 House Republicans received subpoenas seeking personnel records. House Republican Leader

Sam Smith Samuel Frederick Smith (born 19 May 1992) is an English singer and songwriter. After rising to prominence in October 2012 by featuring on Disclosure's breakthrough single "Latch", which peaked at number eleven on the UK Singles Chart, they ...

said some House Republican staffers worked for campaigns, but also said they were not paid with taxpayers' money.

Senate Republican Caucus

On January 31, 2007, the Senate Republican became the first caucus to release a list of their staffers who received bonuses. The next day, Senate Republicans ended the practice of giving bonuses altogether. Out of sixteen Senate Republican staffers receiving bonuses, only three had worked on campaigns. Mike Long, a former aide to Senate Pro Tempore

Robert Jubelirer Robert C. Jubelirer (born February 9, 1937, Altoona, Pennsylvania) is a Republican political leader in Pennsylvania. He served as a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate from 1975 to 2006. He served as President pro tempore of the Pennsylva ...

, received a $22,500 bonus in 2006 despite taking several weeks off to work on his boss's unsuccessful re-election bid.
Senate legal counsel Drew Crompton received a bonus of $19,647 despite working for Republican gubernatorial candidate

Lynn Swann Lynn Curtis Swann (born March 7, 1952) is an American former football player, broadcaster, politician, and athletic director, best known for his association with the University of Southern California and the Pittsburgh Steelers. He served on the ...

from July through October.Tracie Mauriello and Dennis B. Roddy, ''Bonus pay spread over party lines in state Legislature'', Pittsburgh Post Gazette, 12/17/07
/ref> Erik Arneson, chief of staff to Senator

Chip Brightbill David J. "Chip" Brightbill (born November 3, 1943) is a former member and Majority Leader of the Pennsylvania State Senate. He is a member of the Republican Party. He was born in Lebanon, Pennsylvania to Jonathan and Verda (McGill) Brightbill an ...

was paid $15,000 in bonus payments. None were found guilty. On February 13, 2008, Attorney General's office officially extended its investigation to the Senate Republican caucus. The Senate Republicans have retained two Philadelphia law firms as legal advisers.

Computergate

Computergate was discovered as the Bonusgate investigation continued and found that the Republican Caucus was guilty of using public money to develop computer programs that would identify and specifically target Republican voters. (2007) Brett O. Feese (R) State Representative was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to 4-12 months in prison and fined. Jill Seaman (R) Staff to Freese was found guilty of corruption, sentenced to 9–23 months in prison, nine months of probation and fined.

John M. Perzel John Michael Perzel (born January 7, 1950) is an American politician and member of the Republican Party. Perzel represented 172nd Legislative District (Northeast Philadelphia) in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1978 until 2010. ...

(R) State Representative, as part of Computergate, pleaded guilty to conflict of interest, theft, and conspiracy, in a scheme to spend millions of taxpayer dollars on computer technology from

Aristotle, Inc. Aristotle, Inc. is a U.S. company founded and led by brothers John Aristotle Phillips John Aristotle Phillips (born August 23, 1955) is a U.S. entrepreneur specializing in political campaigns, who became famous for attempting to design a nuclear ...

for the benefit of Republican political campaigns. (2011) Brian Preski (R) Chief of Staff to Perzel was convicted of corruption, and sentenced to 2 years. < Paul Towhey Jr. (R) also CoS to John Perzel, pled guilty to conflict of interest and conspiracy and was given 5 years probation and fined. Samuel Stokes (R) GOP Staff and brother-in-law to Perzel (R) pled guilty to conflict of interest and conspiracy and was sentenced to 5 yrs probation and fined. Don McClintock (R) staff to John Perzel was found guilty of conflict of interest and conspiracy and also sentenced to five yrs probation and fined.

LaGrotta guilty plea

Former State Representative

Whip A whip is a tool or weapon designed to strike humans or other animals to exert control through pain compliance or fear of pain. They can also be used without inflicting pain, for audiovisual cues, such as in equestrianism. They are generally e ...

Mike Veon Michael R. Veon (born January 19, 1957) is a former member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, representing the 14th District from 1985 through 2006. Personal life Veon is a 1975 graduate of Beaver Falls High School. Veon attended Al ...

guilty on 14 counts related to using taxpayer-paid bonuses to reward state workers for campaign efforts, illegal campaign fundraising, other campaign efforts and a single count of conflict-of-interest for having aides drive two motorcycles to a

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...

rally. On June 18, 2010, Veon was sentenced to six to fourteen years imprisonment by

Common Pleas A court of common pleas is a common kind of court structure found in various common law jurisdictions. The form originated with the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster, which was created to permit individuals to press civil grievances against one ...

Judge Richard A. Lewis. On appeal, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania cited errors in the trial judges' instructions to the jury and called Veon's original conviction a "criminalization of politics" and a new trial on all counts was ordered(2016) Also convicted were two former aides, Brett Cott, found guilty on three counts, and Annamarie Perretta-Rosepink, found guilty on five counts. A third aide, Stephen Keefer, was acquitted of all charges against him.The Associated Press March 23, 2010, 9:29AM ET text size: TTEx-Pa. rep guilty of 14 counts in corruption case

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2006 Pennsylvania General Assembly Bonus Controversy Pennsylvania General Assembly bonus controversy

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

Pennsylvania General Assembly Bonus Controversy, 2006 2006 controversies in the United States