Well, it looks like the Republican primary is starting to go negative, if not dramatically so.
I got an e-mail from the campaign of Jim Gerlach, congressman from Chester County, who is taking on Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett for the right to run as next year's Republican gubernatorial candidate.
Gerlach's campaign seems to be implying that Corbett is hypocritical for not stepping down as attorney general while he's running for governor, despite stating in a 1996 interview that he believes state attorney general should be an appointed office to eliminate any appearance of impropriety.
I have no problem with attack ads, as long as they're relevant and accurate. If your opponent's done something wrong and the electorate ought to know it, hey, go nuts.
But frankly, I think this particular criticism is kind of a reach. Absent any indications that Corbett has demonstrated conflict of interest, I'm not too worried about him keeping his job for now.
That bieng said, I was pretty impressed with Gerlach when he spoke at the York County Republican Victory Dinner at the Holiday Inn in West Manchester the Thursday before last.
Gerlach's not a flashy speaker. After a rather lame joke and the obligatory reference to his difficult upbringing, much of his discussion involved minute detailing of his policy proposals.
And that's exactly what impressed me. When it comes to political candidates, I tend to gravitate toward the one who'd look more at home in a back office going over reports and accounting sheets than in front of a podium, stirring up the crowd with his lofty rhetoric.
"Hey, if you elect me, here's what I want to do ..." Now that's my kind of campaign speech!
Anyway, here's the press release:
Tom Corbett Recognized Need to Keep Attorney General's Office and Politics Separate -- in 1996!
Before his current practice of investigating political corruption by day and campaigning by night, he saw need to avoid "even the appearance" that deep-pocketed contributors were influencing decisions
EXTON (PA) -- Even though his office continues investigating lawmakers and political operatives at the same time he is running for governor, Attorney General Tom Corbett seems less concerned today about avoiding conflicts of interest than he was a few years ago, the campaign of Republican Jim Gerlach said today.
Corbett told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in a December 1996 interview that the Pennsylvania Attorney General should be an appointed position "to eliminate any chance that deep-pocketed campaign contributors might create even the appearance that they have won easier access and influence."
Fast forward to 2009.
Corbett now appears to be ignoring this same principle as he seeks political support and campaign contributions for his campaign for governor while the Attorney General's office is reportedly investigating political corruption in both houses of the Pennsylvania Legislature. Corbett has even gone so far as to promise that this investigation, which has dragged on for more than two years, would yield charges that "shock the conscience."
"Mr. Corbett obviously is not practicing now what he preached in 1996," said Scott Migli, Gerlach campaign manager. "He has created the kind of double-standard that Pennsylvania residents know all too well about politicians in Harrisburg, and that has contributed to historic levels of cynicism about state government.
"Mr. Corbett had a great opportunity to demonstrate how to keep politics out of the Attorney General's office. He could have resigned as Attorney General when he declared his candidacy for governor several weeks ago or declined to enter the race in order to finish an investigation that has cost taxpayers millions of dollars. And we think there will be a growing chorus of questions if he maintains this conflicting duality of the state's top prosecutor and political candidate."
Last week, Corbett actually came face-to-face with another Attorney General who got it right when confronted with the exact same issue of whether to stay in office while running for governor.
Corbett was a special guest during a Philadelphia fundraiser for Bob McDonnell, who immediately left his Attorney General's post when he formally declared he was running for governor in Virginia.
McDonnell said in February that he was resigning so that "taxpayers have a full-time Attorney General running the Commonwealth's law firm, and that the Office is free from politics during a campaign year."
And McDonnell, unlike Corbett, was not in the middle of a political corruption investigation lasting more than two years and costing taxpayers millions of dollars.
For months, Corbett has seemingly ignored what editorial boards across the Commonwealth have recognized as a major conflict of interest.
In August, Jim Gerlach, the only Republican candidate with proven results creating jobs, cutting taxes and cutting government waste, called on Corbett to either suspend his gubernatorial campaign or resign his position as Attorney General. Despite raising money and political support for his gubernatorial effort since March from within the same political circles as those he is supposed to be investigating, Corbett officially announced his candidacy September 14th and has refused calls to step down as Attorney General.
Last month, the Patriot News, which first discovered the illegal bonuses that led to Corbett's investigation, raised further concerns about Corbett's political ambitions while trying to run a full-time investigation. The editorial board called on Corbett to make a decision by October, stating that "too much is at stake for taxpayers and good governance to see this critical investigation be called into question by election politics."
And while other editorial boards around the state have called on Corbett to drop his bid for Governor, the Chambersburg Public Opinion wrote that "it doesn't bode well for the state's highest office when a leading candidate seems to mix the pursuit of justice with his own ambitions."
Former US Attorney David Marston agreed. In an editorial he penned back in April, Marston said Corbett "does us all a disservice" by trying to campaign and prosecute at the same time, and that he needs to choose one over the other. He added that it raises too many questions: "if you were a state legislator under prosecutor Corbett's microscope, would it not seem prudent to support Corbett for governor?" "Is he advancing the public interest in honest government, or his personal interest in becoming governor?" "Worse, the trials of cases brought in Bonusgate could very well take place during the heat of the gubernatorial race, presenting defense attorneys with a potent argument that it really is all about politics."
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