The former Governor has made a decision in the Attorney General race.
A couple weeks after the Senate hearing in which he said impeaching current AG Kathleen Kane may be the best course of action, Ed Rendell has announced he will be supporting Montgomery County Commissioner Josh Shapiro as the Democratic candidate for Attorney General.
“Josh Shapiro has a record of reform, from passing the strongest ethics reform law in generations while I served as Governor to cleaning up a fiscal mess in Montgomery County,” Rendell said.
“I spent eight years as District Attorney of Philadelphia, and I know how important it is to have a strong, principled leader dealing with matters of law and order,” he continued. “To me, there is no better choice than Josh Shapiro.”
The Rendell endorsement helps two ways in that he is an ex-statewide and a well-known former Mayor of Philadelphia. At the moment, Shapiro is shoring up his Southeastern PA base, after sweeping most of the County Democratic endorsements this weekend.
It’s been an eventful week for Shapiro, as he revealed he has $1.3 million cash on hand, and took to Pittsburgh news station KDKA to criticize his chief rivals Kathleen Kane and Allegheny County DA Stephen Zappala. Shapiro is currently trailing both in the latest Harper’s poll, although 30% of those polled said they were undecided.
Zappala also took the time to respond to Rendell’s show of support for Shapiro.
“We will all have our share of endorsements and this one was fully expected based on their long political relationship, but no endorsements can obscure the fact that Josh Shapiro is fundamentally flawed for this particular office,” said Zappala Campaign Manager Marty Marks. “He is a full time politician and a part time lawyer who has never tried either a criminal or civil case in court. That is a glaring deficit for someone running to be the top legal representative and law enforcement officer in the state and we look forward to that debate.”
Loading ...
20 Responses
Thank you, I’ve just been looking for information about this subject for ages and yours is the best I’ve discovered till now. But, what about the conclusion? Are you sure about the source?
https://www.churchblaze.com/blogs/1626/3417/invaluable-article-on-this-subject-about-pest-control-company
Bravo, Gulag, Bravo.
Dick Miller: Going after some GOP political family, Orie, hardly qualifies a Democrat DA for Captain Courageous award. He never prosecuted the corrupt Democrat judges who populate his town.
“Mafia taint” in the underlying boards of the PA courts? Has taint now become a synonym for control?
Often heard the term Greek Mafia thrown around in PGH legal circles lightheartedly, but think it was more profound. Mob has run the DA Office since Dugan. Names and ethnicities may change, but not the control.
Gov. Rendell’s endorsement of Mr. Shapiro is no surprise. Among other traits these two share, the candidate is also from SE PA. Gov. Rendell only viewed Western PA Democrats as people he could put to his good use. I like DA Zappala because he had no hesitancy in prosecuting the Orie family, unlike so many other Democrat officeholders who shied from picking on Republicans. Zappala’s biggest problem in this race is that for 18 years he just quietly went about doing his job as Allegheny County DA rather than grabbing headlines or building a political base.
marshak – the person Rendell endorsed/supported 4 years ago is still ahead in the Polls. Let THAT sink in.
I am really starting to wonder why the PSU3 decision is not being reported locally. Is it because the Penn State pedophilia case is no longer news? That certainly is not the case. And it seems that everything Kane related is news (even her sister’s debt to her b/f). Why isn’t it news when the person behind the Kane witch-hunt is labeled as unethical? The court’s finding was that Fina’s conduct was “HIGHLY IMPROPER” — in a high profile case that mirrors the tactics used against Kane in the criminal case she is facing. To me – that is news.
And I still haven’t seen or heard anyone ask Seth Williams the tough questions about his new hire – the woman married to Frank Fina’s lawyer (who is suing the AG’s Office for money). The one who stands to gain from discrediting Kane.
Observer: your observation is correct. I work for the Supreme Court. While that doesn’t make me inherently a Shapiro fan, it helps to make me anti-Zappala because of the mafia taint throughout the underlying boards. And since you are so concerned about my emotional well being, I had my ego clinically tested. It graded on the Freudian slip-scale at G-7. In lay terms, that’s a little less than great. The clinic also recommended that you take a Zoloft.
Best qualified is Morganelli. So, Dems, choose at your own risk. Republicans will go after lack of experience. Morganelli is best qualified, Shapiro is worst. No wonder Dems lose these contests. Maybe Kathleen Kane will kick ass once again in this race. Politics PA readers voted big for her!!!
This is about riding the presumed coat tails of the democratic presidential candidate. No one with a straight face would tell you this guy is the most competitive candidate statewide on the ticket… outside Rollo who probably a campaign staffer with an ego as fragile and thin as Shapiros legal resume. The rest of the state will hopefully recognize this. If there isn’t a big turnout in the southeast this guy is toast.
I want to see some law and order in this state for a change.
Simply put, I want to ensure a Democrat is elected Attorney General. Steve Zappala gives Dems the best chance to win in November. Josh is a drag on the ticket outside the Philly Burbs.
@Observer: I think Zappala would need a map to find a courtroom too. He said this TODAY:
“Reached by phone while campaigning in Scranton, Zappala acknowledged that he has not tried a criminal case during his 18 years as district attorney.”
http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/9911466-74/attorney-kane-rendell
Rendell endorses a guy with zero experience to replace the gal he endorsed four years ago. Just let that sink in.
If Shapiro has never been in a courtroom as an attorney, then he has about the same experience in combat as Zappala. Junior has never personally prosecuted a case as D.A. and most days he doesn’t even come to work. As well, he never defended anyone as a lawyer in a courtroom scenario. His legal experience came from Daddy’s orders to hire him out of law school as a property tax master (read fixer) and as a municipal solicitor so the investment arm of the Bazzano-Zappala-Porter mafia could peddle bond issues and credit swaps.take away Daddy’s muscle and the dummy wouldn’t have graduated from Duquesne Law School.
Shapiro has to reserve a vacant courtroom to get a couple pictures taken for his mailers… even though he’s never been in one.
Below is a link to an article NOT BEING REPORTED on here in Pennsylvania. Note that it is on the national ABC website:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/charges-penn-state-administrators-thrown-36451776
Below is an article written before the Appeals court decided the case and threw out the charges against the people that Fina & The Corbett Pervs tried to rail-road. See # 9. It is exactly what is happening in the PSU3 case above (as reported by ABC news).
The PA Corruption Network’s Playbook
The cases of current Pennsylvania Attorney General (AG) Kathleen Kane and that of former Penn State University (PSU) officials (i.e., the PSU 3) are connected by a common thread.
A group of the Commonwealth’s attorneys, judges, political operatives, and their media accomplices — hereafter referred to as the “network” — used trumped up charges, purposely misinterpreted laws, and oversold highly dubious evidence to convict these individuals in the court of public opinion.
After examining the timelines and evidence of these cases, it appears that the network has a well defined playbook for taking out its targets and it works like this:
1. Individuals within the network fear their own heinous acts may be exposed and publicly accuse their opponents of crimes as a means of deflecting attention away from themselves.
2. The network next co-opts individuals close to the target(s) –insiders — to assist in setting up the target(s) to be charged with perjury and other crimes.
3. After the insiders have sufficiently undermined the targets (using various means of deception), the network’s attorneys and/or judges leak damaging information about the targets to the media.
4. The media arm of the network uses the information in an attempt to compromise the targets or to promote guilt by association in the press.
5. At the conclusion of this “framing,” that was mislabeled as a criminal investigation, attorneys go public with charging documents that allege crimes based on misinterpretations of the laws and that are chocked full of questionable testimony from unreliable witnesses, completely illogical scenarios, and dubious evidence. Perjury charges are standard in order to publicly smear the defendants as being dishonest individuals while attempting to pump up the veracity of the Commonwealth’s lousy witnesses (who would be eviscerated at an actual trial).
6. The media accomplices ignore the illegal application of relevant laws, that the charging documents are illogical, the lousy witnesses, and the highly questionable evidence in order to continue treating the allegations as facts and even go as far as to allege the target committed crimes for which he or she has not been charged.
7. The public falls for the deception and believes the targets are guilty of everything and are corrupt individuals — whether they have been charged with a crime or not. Citizen activists, public officials, and other groups and individuals — who are beneficiaries of the corrupt network — jump on the media bandwagon to publicly condemn the targets.
8. Witting and/or unwitting employers recommend the targets be relieved of their duties or actually do so through employment actions — before anything is proven and without conducting a legitimate legal review.
9. When legal proceedings in the cases reveal the false and questionable testimony put forth in the charging documents and the dubious evidence used in the case, the network’s media arm ignores the information and continues to slant the reports so the public continues to assume the targets are guilty.
10. The legal issues from the misapplications of the laws result in appeals to the network’s judges, who refused to rule on simple matters and keep the trials on permanent hold.
The network’s playbook achieves the goal of protecting its corrupt dealings and/or heinous crimes by never legally proving, but publicly scapegoating the targets in a media firestorm that is high in supposition and light on facts.
To wit: the grand jury and Montgomery County DA Risa Ferman did not find the evidence to charge AG Kane with directly leaking grand grand jury information in the Mondesire case, but you wouldn’t know that if you just read the news headlines.
Instead, they charged her with perjury (part of the playbook), lesser crimes, and for orchestrating the leaks, the latter of which Ferman and others know can’t be proven.
Then again, the network’s playbook doesn’t include actually prosecuting the case.
I’d be more inclined to take Rendell’s recommendation for a hoagie shop or cheese steak, than a candidate.
When Rendell endorses someone I know to vote for the other guy! Fresh Starts filled with old worn out no nothing Rendell hacks = patronage jobs and appointments and NO SKILL TO GET A BUDGET PASSED. Has Eakin resigned yet?
You know who else cannot be found on the campaign trail, or even in her own town? Kathleen Kane!
Capitolwire: Minor petition snafu one of many problems for Kane campaign.
By Kevin Zwick
Staff Reporter
Capitolwire
HARRISBURG (Feb. 3) – Attorney General Kathleen Kane appears to be running for re-election, but not with the well-oiled campaign machine that propelled her in 2012 from obscurity to the post of top law enforcement official.
For one, the Lackawanna County Federation of Democratic Women’s petition party last week would have been a good place to start collecting the 1,000 necessary signatures. But while two of Kane’s political opponents had petitions circulating at the event in her hometown of Scranton, none circulated for Kane.
She also had zero campaign representatives there, according to a source who attended the function.
To Kane’s credit, there was an effort to get a petition there. Sources said organizers were mistakenly sent a petition for Brian Nooney, a former aide to Jack Wagner, who is apparently mulling a run against incumbent Democrat Eugene DePasquale for auditor general. Top Kane aide Renee George Martin sent Nooney’s petition, the source said. The petition deadline is February 18. Efforts to reach Martin and Kane’s political consultant, Ken Smuckler, were unsuccessful.
Kane has been circulating petitions elsewhere as she’s reportedly running for re-election. But the minor, and potentially embarrassing, snafu is another revealing crack in the foundation of an already-shaky campaign that’s reportedly woefully underfunded.
When she entered the 2012 primary season, she had a $2 million campaign warchest.
Instead of raising the money needed to mount a viable statewide campaign, Kane spent more than $300,000 on law firms and public relations agencies in 2015, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, as she continued to fight criminal charges while waging war against the “good ole’ boys.” She now awaits a potential removal vote in the Senate and is pushing for a reinstatement of her currently-suspended law license.
Kane, who has only $246,000 on hand, according to the Trib, is behind compared to her potential primary opponents. One rival, Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr., reported having about $502,000 cash on hand, more than half of which was transferred from a different campaign account. Zappala hails from a powerful political family and he’s the only western Pennsylvania candidate running in what’s likely to be one of the most contested races in April. Yet, Zappala hasn’t had to face an opponent in a primary or general election in 18 years, his campaign said.
Zappala and Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli – the Democrats’ candidate for AG in 2008 who was crushed by Tom Corbett, and lost prior runs in 2002 and 2004, but has $512,000 on hand – are losing the money race to Montgomery County Commissioner Josh Shapiro, who reported a $1.3 million war chest.
Shapiro, who is close to Gov. Tom Wolf and state Democratic Party chairman Marcel Groen, and has former Gov. Ed Rendell’s endorsement, is a lawyer but has never been a prosecutor – a point likely to be emphasized by opponents from both parties. Republican Sen. John Rafferty and his potential GOP primary challenger, former Kane spokesman Joe Peters, both have experience in the OAG.
With all that in mind, a late January survey shows Kane still commands a decent chunk of support in a four-person field (31 percent) among Democratic primary voters.
The poll was conducted by GOP firm Harper Polling, and for disclosure the firm noted it conducts survey research for Rafferty. Given the current situation, he would probably love to run against Kane.
If Kane were to not run, the Harper Polling survey says the race is wide open with 49 percent undecided.
The primary is April 26.
-30-
Zappala’s “mouthpiece” calls someone else “fundamentally flawed.” HA! Meanwhile, Sonny Corleone still can’t speak for himself except to say “I won’t dignify that question with an answer.” why? Because the sissy has no answers, only what he is told by La Familia @ Bazzano-Zappala-porter mafia headquarters. Hey Junior! Ask Uncle Charlie…he will give you a whole list of answers. Just don’t screw them up or you will get on his list…like me.