Is Montco's Ex-DA DOA?

A little story from our neighbor to the north, Montgomery County.

Just like Delco has it's crybabies and sore losers, like Gil Spencer, Montco has former DA Bruce Castor.

Some background and comparison: Delco's GOP solidified their political power 30 years ago when they changed the county charter to remove the guarantee of minority party participation. Since then, the 5-member Delco County Council has been all-GOP and votes almost exclusively in 5-0 decisions that seem to have been made behind closed doors (and likely by GOP party bosses pulling the strings). The nepotism and corruption in Delco are infamous throughout the state.

In Montco, their County board has 3 members, with minority representation (often 2-Rep and 1-Dem). In 2007, something interesting happened...
Bruce Castor left his popular DA position to run for County Council. The result was Castor getting the most votes, then Chris Matthews' brother (Rep) and then Joe Hoeffel getting the most Dem votes.
But here's where it got interesting: it turned out that Matthews and Castor hated each other, and Hoeffel was able to work with Matthews, so Castor wound up being the odd-man out. After crying publicly about what a traitor Matthews was, Castor found himself on the perpetual losing end of 2-1 votes and the loss of whatever power he hoped to have, and basically left pouting in his office with nothing to do.
Matthews' decision to work in a bi-partisan manner with Hoeffel (rather than ignore the Democrats) makes sense because the Dems actually became the majority party in Montco.

Now, ex-DA Castor finds himself in some legal hot water. Testifying in the Vince Fumo trial, the tables got turned on him when he admitted conducting political campaign activities from his taxpayer funded government job/office and work email. (This was Castor's losing 2004 campaign against Tom Corbett.) There also seems to be some funny business with Christian Marrone, a former assistant district attorney who had worked on Castor's campaign and some timing on when he got hired/fired based on what was happening in the campaign.

Joe Hoeffel asked the current Montco DA to investigate Castor's admissions under oath. However, the current DA appears to be a protege of Castor, and will likely drag her heels on this. Given the court testimony, the State could step in if the DA doesn't.

I think the coroner should be able to sign the death certificate for Castor's political future.

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Here in Delco for 2009, we have two of the five Council seats up for election. This is an opportunity to get some Dems on the Council since Obama won 60% of the county, and the GOP opposed him and are out-of-touch with the majority Delco voters.

Putting Another GOP Lie to Rest

David Landau, Ann O'Keefe and John Innelli have made their case (very effectively) against the patronage at the Court House. In response, the Delco GOP has tried to twist the work David Landau did for Nether Providence as patronage. While I have related the basic facts as I understood them, Sara Petrosky, (a Nether Providence commissioner from 1994 to 2006) tells the full story and sets the record straight in a Delco Times letter to the editor.

The courthouse political machine repeatedly attacks David Landau for his role in the Nether Providence Township. As usual they have the facts wrong.

I served as a Nether Providence Township commissioner from 1994 until 2006 and was president of the board in 1996 when the Democrats took over.

Under my direction, the board requested proposals for various professional services such as solicitors and engineers. We interviewed candidates, both Republican and Democrat, and had a competitive process for choosing the candidates.

David was not part of the hiring process and neither he nor his firm was selected for these jobs. The board strongly believed that good government involves having a competitive process to hire the best-qualified person with the most favorable rate package. We did that.

The township board later hired David to defend the township against a Republican developer who tried to block the preservation of open space. That was also the result of a competitive process.

David spent countless hours, many of them without pay, to help us achieve our goal. The insurance carrier covered the fees, other than the deductible. Through David’s work, the township won the case at trial and on appeal, and now there are two parcels of open space and a Field of Dreams in Nether Providence.

Money Magazine recently named our community the ninth best in the United States, partly due to this parkland. We would not have received that honor without David’s help.

For decades, David has played a positive role in our community. As a lawyer hired by the township to work on this issue of open space, he delivered positive results. He recognized the need to be efficient and cost-effective. I can think of no one who can better serve our county.

The whole time the Democratic Candidates, particularly Landau, have pointed out the rampant and wide-spread cronyism, patronage and nepotism, the ONLY thing the Delco GOP candidates handlers could come up with is David's work on this one job in Nether Providence that preserved open space.

It was bad enough that Delco GOP's only argument against charges of corruption was that Dems were doing it too at a much smaller scale. Of course, it turns out, that the Dems were awarding contracts in a open bipartisan manner (exactly like the Dems have been advocating) and not engaging in patronage on any scale.

The Delco GOP had one bullet in the chamber and it was a blank. The rest of chambers are empty, like their ideas and their message.

Not So Sage Advice

In today's Delco Times, Gina "not so" Sage's Letter to the Editor repeats various Delco GOP talking points, many of which have been debunked here and elsewhere.

However, a little deconstruction should show how desperate they are becoming and how little they have to offer.

• Gina Sage's letter lacked the disclaimer than she is a Republican on the ALL REPUBLICAN Springfield Planning Commission. Springfield is the home base of Charlie Sexton and GOP Council Candidate Stooge Tom McGarrigle. Gee, no bias there folks!
  
• Gina falsely tries to imply that Ann O'Keefe doesn't either live here or pay her taxes by claiming there is no record.... This is a classic political deception. First of all, any of the thousands of Delco residents living in an apartment or renting a house would not have a record of paying property taxes (even though it is part of their rent). Ann O'Keefe lives in a house and shares in the taxes/bills/etc., however the deed to the house is not in her name. So, of course Ann would not be listed in the County records that Gina Sage is misusing to mislead the voters. (Can anyone explain how/why a Springfield Planning Commission can supposedly "search" every property tax record looking for a name, particularly for a Haverford resident? Is this information freely available to the public?)
  
• The attacks on David Landau are trite. Landau did some work for the ACLU when he was just out of school. Gina says that Landau opposed mandatory sentencing guidelines. Considering that GOP shills like Gina want to impose a life-sentence on people that support civil rights, Delco voters should be wary of GOP candidates opposed to civil rights, due process and Judges actually using their judgment. The point of a guideline is that is it not mandatory (otherwise it would be called a rule, not a guideline).
  
• Landau must really have the GOP worried, because Gina repeats the already debunked claim that: Landau has also received no bid legal work from Nether Providence, where he is a Democrat leader, and the Democrats control the government. The fact of the matter is that Landau won the legal work from a 3-Dem + 3-GOP board, did the work at half his standard rate at the time, the work was paid for by Insurance (not the township) and it was a case on behalf of the township against a GOP developer. Gina deceptively tries to confuse Landau's and the Democrats' current leadership in Nether Providence, with their role in the 1990's.
  
• Gina (through the Republican dis-information machine) keeps referring to John Innelli as solicitor in Darby Township. John is NOT the solicitor but rather the "assistant" solicitor (a position specifically recognized and permitted in the Borough Code).
  Gina disengenuously claims that John Innelli has received extensive legal work as a result of a no bid contract. Well, not only did John work at only 1/5 his normal rate, but his bills to Darby Borough averaged $3,000/year, which is less than the minimum dollar amount for any contract bid process in the county. Seems like the only extensive thing here is Gina's exaggerated claims.
  
• Finally, Gina claims that The candidates being put forth by the Democratic Party simply do not match the ideals and priorities of Delaware County voters.
  This is simply absurd, because 3 of 5 Delco voters picked Clinton, Gore, Kerry, Rendell, Casey and Sestak. Voters can rest assured that Ann O'Keefe, David Landau and John Innelli support those same candidates and beliefs. Those 3 out of 5 voters deserve 3 out of 5 Council members that will look out for the voters' values and priorities, for a change.
  

Nowhere is Gina's letter does she actually list a single specific Democratic proposal, but rather makes false/misleading attacks on the Dem Candidates' background or character. As far as the GOP, the attitude seems to be "stay the course", "all is well" and "nothing to see here folks".
Gina did make one statement with which I do agree: an examination of the facts will not allow voters to be misled [misled by the GOP that is]

BTW, a note to my GOP mortal enemies adversaries friends: This is some pretty weak tea you are brewing. You guys are putting me to sleep with these lame/same attacks. I guess if you have no record to run on, it must be hard to come up with topics.