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PA-Gov: Wolf Includes Pornographic Actor in Campaign Ad

Ad-GuyThis is why you have to vet every single person.

Last week, the Wolf campaign released an ad focusing on Tom Wolf’s past that was centered around the famous Jeep he drives. The concept was that other Jeep drivers would describe Wolf’s record in the Peace Corps, as Revenue Secretary and as a businessman.

Buzzfeed’s Andrew Kaczynski, however, found one rather embarrassing problem.

One of the actors in the video, Alan Benyak, previously starred in a pornographic film (you can click the Buzzfeed link if you want more details, we’ll keep things PG here). Benyak is a former Army lawyer who actually ran for a seat on the Washington County Common Pleas Court.

Suffice it to say, the Wolf campaign can’t be happy about this development. After a good week they could very well find themselves the butt of national jokes in the next few days.

Overall, I think Rick Perry says it better than any of us can:

Update: The Wolf campaign tweeted out the following response:

Update 2: As if this story couldn’t get weirder, according to horrorsociety.com, SD-46 GOP nominee Camera Bartolotta was a producer on the same film. We’ve written about Bartolotta’s film career before and the fact that she has produced films such as 2014’s Pro Wrestlers vs. Zombies and 2012’s Lucifer’s Unholy Desire. It really is a small world after all.

40 Responses

  1. Well, it’s been a couple days and the silence from the women’s rights groups has been deafening. Hypocrites.

  2. this is still BS. Offering a name is no different than naming an act with the specificity you did. Go peddle your BS elsewhere.

  3. Robbie,
    I’m not making anything up. I just know the kind of trouble it got a lot of people in, and I need my job. If you know anyone in Revenue, just ask who was in the executive office that left to OA in the last 6 months. A very attractive female employee… It shouldn’t be too hard to figure out if you really wanted to. That’s all I am willing to say. I might be paranoid, but I’m not losing my job over something I really don’t care that much about. It just came to mind when I saw this article.

  4. Matt-
    Maybe you should watch the trailer for it and get back to us before you rely on BuzzFeed as you primary source of information. PoliticsPA doesn’t post the link, most likely due to it BEING PORN.

  5. Nick Field: great job on the title and article, but I suggest you actually read your own links before labeling it “porn.” I spent a grand total of 30 seconds reading buzzfeed and learned it had some frontal nudity…by those standards, half of Hollywood movies are porn? Journalistic integrity at its best here on PoliticsPA. As long as you bring in readers with a headline, who cares about the accuracy of the content?
    If this is the greatest threat to the Wolf Campaign, he’ll win by 40% in November.

  6. Good Corbett “I didn’t know moments.
    Some of them are ad-libbed, but they capture the essence of his position.

    I didn’t know Ron Tomlinson was a ghost employee.

    I did not know it was illegal to have campaign staffers in on policy meetings since 2011 even though I put people in jail for that.

    I did not know all these people that gave me trips and gifts had business before the commonwealth.

    I did not know 20,000 teachers lost their jobs. That was on the local districts. I did not fire them.

    I did not know schools had a billion less to spend, just because I did not replace the stimulus funding.

    I did not know the Marcellus gas is pegged at $352 billion and that the gas companies would not leave it they paid us $17 billion of that in a severance tax.

    I did not know $49 million for 500 state attorneys would not be enough to pursue my agendas. That is why I spent another $100 million on private attorneys – who underscored my failures in Voter ID, NCAA, and banning gay marriage and battling the Affordable Care Act.

    I did not know one grand jury vetted victim would be enough to imprison Jerry Sandusky. That is why I waited until one day after the 2010 election to go after him.

    I did not know PA was even FARTHER under the national unemployment average back in 2011 that it is today.

    I did not know gays are adults, capable of love and life commitment.

    I did not know Voter ID would be a burden to typically Democratic demographics.

    I did not know all the unemployed are not drug users.

    I did not know Hispanics live in Pennsylvania.

    I did not know that men cook supper.

    I did not know a woman might be sensative to a child in her womb.

    I could go on for hours.

  7. Hypocrisy – I call BS. You accuse somebody of something and you offer no proof. You don’t mention a name, part of a name, and you don’t even mention initials. I don’t know anybody who was promoted from Revenue to the Office of Administration recently.

    I don’t like Corbett either, but why do you need to make something up without proof just because you or people you know don’t like or are jealous of that person?

  8. HERE IS A JON DELANO REPORT: ONLY THE CORBETT BULLY HITMEN COULD DO A HIT JOB; HIT ONE OF THEIR OWN (SENATE CANDIDATE CAMERA BARTOLOTTA, WHO HAS BEEN LESS THEN TRANSPARENT ABOUT HER SWPA FILM CAREER) AND MAKE THE PUBLIC FEEL SORRY FOR THE GUY IN THE AD, THE VETERAN, THE LAWYER, ECT. THESE BULLY BOYS AND WOMEN OF CORBETT BRABENDER NEED TO GO! : Man In Wolf Ad Accused Of Appearing In Porn Speaks Out « CBS Pittsburgh

    pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2014/09/09/man-in-wolf-ad-accused-of-appearing-in-porn-speaks-out

  10. Breitbart article put this fake issue to rest. It isn’t a pornographic movie. Makes me wonder what’s in the personal background of reporters on this stuff, however, if private citizens are now fair game for nasty, misleading, slanderous reporting. Do any of the PoliticsPA staff have some embarrassing facts they’d like to share, before we dig them up and trot them out in front of the public? And no, I’m neither defending the wolf in sheep’s clothing, nor am I endorsing stupid horror movies. I’m asking for higher standards in political reporting.

  11. At the PA Dept. of Revenue it was discovered that one of our executives was nude modeling on a website. Employees were sending the pics around. Corbett’s office promoted her. She’s now over in the Office of Administration.

  13. He’s an actor. He has acted in other things. Who cares?

    People need to work. Are we saying that no one who has ever acted in something that induces pearl-clutching should ever work again? Seems unfair. Kudos to the Wolf campaign for giving this man a job!

  15. Happy to see Tom Wolf stand up for this innocent actor and not hang him out to dry as his his proclivity when blindsided…his hallmark campaign theme.

  16. THE CORBETT POLITICAL HIT MEN ARE UNRELENTING. I AM SURE GROMIS-BAKER HAS SKULLS PINNED UP ON HER CORK BOARD. 1. FORMER ED SECRETARY WILLIAM HARNER WAS HIT WITH A POLITICAL HIT JOB OVER SPEEDOS. 2. REP. JIMMY CHRISTIANA WAS A VICTIM OF NEGATIVE MAILERS BECAUSE CHRISTIANA WANTS QUALITY HEALTH CARE FOR HIS CONSTITUENTS, NOT WHAT CORBETT, THE BAKERS AND JEFF ROMOFF ARE SERVING UP! 3. NOW, THE GOP’S OWN SENATE CANDIDATE CAMERA BARTOLOTTA BECOMES A VICTIM OF BLOWBACK FROM THEIR LATEST HIT JOB!

  18. THANK YOU MR. KNOTTS FOR CLEARING THE AIR ON THE FINE FILM CAREER OF GOP SENATE CANDIDATE CAMERA BARTOLOTTA! IT SEEMS LIKE BOTH OF YOU HAVE HAD VERY DISTINGUISHED FILM CAREERS. WHO WAS THE GENIUS WHO RECRUITED MS. BARTOLOTTA TO RUN RUN FOR SENATE? WOULD IT BE COMMISSIONER IREY?

  19. Any porno star could run against Corbett and be ahead by 25 points. It doesn’t matter at this point in the race. I just wonder how much more is left in the silly season until November? :-/

  21. Mrs. Bartolotta was not and is not a producer on Breeding Farm (Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2317412/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast). We have asked for months that horror society take down the erroneous listing of her as a Producer.
    The Producers were myself, Matthew Deering and Vincent Ruffalo along with some Associate Producers of which she was not one. While I have worked on films with Mrs. Bartolotta, including Pro Wrestlers vs. Zombies and Lucifer’s Unholy Desire, she has not worked on every project that I have done, nor have I worked on some of her other projects.
    Mr. Benyak was also in Lucifer’s Unholy Desire and has acted in numerous Pittsburgh Productions as an extra. He is a well regarded attorney who regards acting as a hobby.
    The film is available for viewing online at vimeo.com and for purchase at bestbuy.com and amazon.com. You can watch the end credits and see who was and was not involved, rather than speculate based on a singular internet report, which is provably false.

  22. HERE’S AN IDEA FOR THE DGA: EXPLORE WHY CORBETT’S CHIEF OF STAFF GROMIS-BAKER HELPED HER BOSS SELL OUT THE INTERESTS OF VOTERS SEEKING HEALTHCARE IN WESTERN PA! WESTERN PA IS SUPPOSED TO BE CORBETT’S BASE AND HE SOLD US OUT TO JEFF ROMOFF’S UPMC WITH THE VERY CYNICAL DEAL CALLED PATIENTS FIRST! THE STORY OF THE CORBETT BETRAYAL OF WESTERN PA REALLY NEEDS TO GET TOLD! DOESN’T THE RIGGED PATIENTS FIRST DEAL REALLY QUALIFY AS TORTURE PORN?

  23. This site has gone down hill since Keegan Gibson left. They can’t even cover a legitimate Democrat story without including a hit on Rick Perry? Where does that come from? This guy isn’t a writer he’s a democrat activist. I used to come here for journalism now all I read is this crap

  25. This is too fun for me not to comment on:

    ChuckBronson:
    I agree that this was more likely picked up upon by Corbett staffers who recognized his work. 🙂

    Veteran & Patriot:
    “I didn’t know” is a much better answer than: “Yeah, I knew he did porn, but thought it would be a good idea to put him in my political ad anyway”.
    This is one case where “I don’t know” makes more sense.

    Tom Wolf staff- In response to your tweet:
    “We were unaware of Mr. Benyak’s involvement in the film, and we are making changes to the ad now. – staff”
    The changes being:
    1) to remove the chicka-bow-wow music
    2) to have Mr. Benyak wear pants.
    🙂

    Just be glad that Wolf is 25-points up.

  27. So every actor is damned by the quality of every film he has appeared in (all of which are legal, and what is “porn” to you may be “porn” to just a small % of people)? I guess every lawyer is damned by every client he has represented, or even spoken with. That is what we call “guilt by association” rather than “guilt by action.”

    The two most desperate things you can do in an argument is to smear your opponent through guilt by association and name-calling. Gov. Corbett and his supporters seem to have nothing to offer but both of those desperate acts. How sad.

  28. Wow! First off, Cody Knotts is not running for Governor. Tom Wolf is. Second, this isn’t the first mistake his campaign has made unless you want to forget all the others like plagiarizing Johnson Controls website for material copied to his as his “energy plan” for starts. Unfortunately Tom Wolf’s response of “I didn’t know” is a pretty common one lately. He didn’t know enough to step away from his co-chairmanship of Charlie Robertson’s campaign, He didn’t know they were plagiarizing material to put on his website. He told Colin McNickle of the Tribune -Review “He didn’t know enough to comment” on numerous issues pressing PA today and now today, he didn’t know he put this guy in his commercials! Just what does Tom Wolf know?

  29. Wow Paindy1. You’re really pulling out ALL the stops with your 2013 article on Cody Knotts who is, or at least was, a Republican. He was going to run for office but, perhaps because of redistricting, did not. Oh the scandal. Talk about desperate. I mean would your guy Wolf vet his taxpayer funded staff, policy makers, advisors the same way? #gotjudgment?

  32. The only oops to this story is the fact that Wolf and his staff apparently don’t watch these types of movies. It also begs the question, does Corbett or staff rank themselves as fans of this genre.

  33. LOL! That is a real stretch. Not sure what type of scenes were in the film but it can’t equal the screwing that Corbett has given Pennsylvanians.

  35. So why is this an issue? An actor in a political ad used to do porn, big deal. From the above comments it doesn’t even seem to be a pornographic film. I’m sure there were lots of Jeep Wranglers featured in porn either in the background or featured in the scene. Candidates would beg to have former president Clinton in their ads who is equally sexual in nature to Alan Benyak. This is a silly thing to get worked up about.

  36. I know Alan and this is a bunch of BS! I went to Buzzfeed and what I saw was not porn. If you want porn, release the emails from the Attorney General’s office when our current Governor was in charge. This is sad when you drag an innocent man through the mud. Someone is desperate – very desperate.

  37. If this is the worst mistake the Wolf campaign makes, and this hardly is a clumsy error, it will be impressive unlike the less than impressive Corbett campaign.

  38. Ummm…well maybe because that’s nonsense? State Reps don’t run for office “with the Governor” or anyone else for that matter??? You want to connect Knotts to the Gov because he’s a Republican? Wow. That’s pretty bad. You really are NEW.

  39. This was a Troma film, not porn. While Troma films are known for it’s B-movie shock value but they’re definitely not porn.

  40. Why does the article not include the fact that the producer/director is uber-Republican Cody Knotts who ran for state representative in 2010 with Tom Corbett?

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