PA Gov: Corbett Distances Himself from Perry After Indictment

Governor-Tom-CorbettGovernor Rick Perry has been one of Tom Corbett’s staunchest supporters throughout the campaign season. Yet after being indicted by a grand jury on two felony charges for abuse of power, Perry is facing a lot of criticism across the nation, and Gov. Corbett is seeking to further himself from the Texan.

Governor Corbett appeared publicly in Pittsburgh with Perry earlier this summer on the campaign trail. The two governors hosted an “Energy For Families” event that concentrated on the Commonwealth’s job creation due to the action of private sector natural gas companies.

Also releasing an official endorsement video, Governor Perry stated that he “is excited to stand with Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett and support his re-election effort,” and that Governor Corbett “has created a Pennsylvania that is not only a leader among states, but also in the global economy.”

In the wake of Perry’s indictment, and facing several ethics scandals of his own, Governor Corbett has scrubbed his website of all mentions of the Texas Governor, according to Fresh Start, a PAC supporting challenger Tom Wolf.

“Tom Corbett is entangled in multiple ethical scandals after he put his former education secretary on payroll as a ghost employee, held campaign meetings in his government office with top campaign aides and state employees, and his acting education secretary admitted that Department of Education employees delete their emails each night,” stated Fresh Start campaign spokesman Mike Mikus. “On the heels of these scandals, one of Tom Corbett’s top allies, Texas Governor Rick Perry, has been indicted for abusing power. Immediately after Rick Perry’s indictment, Tom Corbett scrubbed his website, removing video of the two appearing together in May.”

Perry vetoed millions from a Rosemary Lehmberg’s public integrity unit as he deemed her unfit for public office after she was arrested, and plead guilty to, a drunk driving charge. He was officially indicted for “coercion of a public official,” as Perry would have not vetoed the money had Lehmberg resigned from her position.

The Corbett campaign declined to respond to Fresh Start’s allegations.

8 Responses

  1. Governor Rick Perry indicted over simply exercising his legal veto power is a joke. It won’t stand up to legal review. It’s a statement about desperate liberals (there in Travis County, but everywhere else, too) who use every lever and button of government to artificially control and damage their political opponents. If Corbett scrubbed Perry out of his campaign, then it shows how weak our establishment really is, because this is a bare knuckle fight. If Corbett and the inexperienced little children running his office and campaign cannot stand and fight over this, because Perry is guilty of nothing more than doing what all governors do, then indeed they’ll lose the Governor’s race.

  2. Fair weather? If my buddy was jammed up with “charges are examples of government overreach in what amounts to a political dispute,” I would proudly stand by him or her to the bitter end, if I believed that to be the case. If not, I would sever ties and say that is why. Not say it will “distract from the campaign.” What the heck does that even mean?

  3. Lotsa great comments already posted.

    Millionaire Governor Corbett has always been devoted to self interest. He did let Jerry Sandusky skate for an extra 8 months on Victim #1, until after the 2010 election.

    For a man who would do that, dumping an erstwhile supporter in their time of need is no problem, obviously.

    The only reason millionaire Governor Corbett has not dumped Chris Christie is that Gov. Christie controls the purse strings of the Republican Governor’s Association, who is considering dumping another $8 million into the fall campaign. Unless millionaire Governor Corbett is resurgent in the polls, they may focus the money on states they can actually win.

    Those two voluntary, out-of-state Republican internet polls do not count. This has been a rough month. You can add the budget debacle to the above scandals. Unlikely millionaire Governor Corbett closed the gap which has plagued him for over 2 1/2 years, with attack ads that have all been skewered as mostly false by the non-partisan fact checkers. He blew through $11 million in an uncontested primary with the same strategy. Did not help in the real polls one little bit.

  4. The charges against Perry will be laughed out the door at the preliminary hearing. Yet another misstep by the Corbett campaign.

  5. “any publicity is good publicity unless the words INDICTED or IMPEACHED appear next to your name”

    Or Sandusky

  6. I have always said any publicity is good publicity unless the words INDICTED or IMPEACHED appear next to your name

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