DA Morganelli Should Take His Own Advice Concerning Campaign Finance Laws, and Enforce Them in Northampton County

Maureen Lally-Green is a Republican superior court judge seeking one of two open seats on the state supreme court. She's getting a little outside help from Virgina-based Center for Individual Freedom (CFI). That group recently launched what it calls a "public education effort" that thanks Maureen for being tough on violent criminals and adhering to established law and precedent. Lally-Green's camp views these ads as a "gift." An expensive one, too! Estimates about the cost of this advertising are at $750,000.

In an agreement with Republican Attorney General Tom Corbett, CFI may run ads except for those that "expressly advocate" the election or defeat of candidates.

Enter Attorney General hopeful John Morganelli.

In a news release issued this afternoon, he demands immediate action. "[W]e need the attorney general to immediately seek an injunction against the Center to stop this blatant violation of the law that can only do irreparable harm in the closing days before the election. It is clear that the only remedy that will stop this in the future and obligate political committees who want to influence Pennsylvania elections to comply with our law is a remedy that will stop this end run around the law in its tracks."

I'd like John Morganelli, AG hopeful, to meet John Morganelli, Northampton County District Attorney.

For weeks, Ron Angle and Peg Ferraro, candidates for county council, have been besieged by slimy and anonymous robo calls and negative mailers. Their opponents, John Maher and Tony Branco, have both acknowledged this is the work of political consultant Tom Severson. And yesterday, Maher amended his campaign finance report to reflect a $4,888.35 in-kind contribution from the Northampton County Democratic Committee for "design mailing" and robo calls. Yet this is reflected nowhere in the party's latest finance report.

Obviously, the slime campaign against Angle and Ferraro is flying under the radar.

In his news release, Morganelli notes that (1) CFI is a politcal committee; (2) is attempting to influence the election; (3) is subject to campaign finance reporting laws; and (4) should be required to list its contributors and expenditures.

Well, The Northampton County Democratic Committee is a political committee, too. It's trying to influence the election just as much as CFI, and must list its contributors and expenditures.

Like CFI, the local Dem party is violating election laws. There has been no accounting for the money raised or spent in the smear campaign being orchestrated against Angle and Ferraro. So I urge John to take his own advice and seek an immediate injunction against the Northampton County Democratic Committee. "[W]e need the [district attorney] to immediately seek an injunction against the [Norco Democratic Committee] to stop this blatant violation of the law that can only do irreparable harm in the closing days before the election. It is clear that the only remedy that will stop this in the future and obligate political committees who want to influence Pennsylvania elections to comply with our law is a remedy that will stop this end run around the law in its tracks."

Update: In fairness to John, he may have a conflict of interest investigating the local Democratic committee, and is a friend of political consultant Tom Severson. But for years now, there has been no oversight of political shenanigans, and this should be referred to the state AG with the same urgency as John's concerns about CIF.