Senior Deputy Attorney General E. Marc Costanzo is conducting a grand jury investigation of Northampton County's deceptive campaign practices as a result of sleaze campaigns against county council incumbents and magisterial candidates. Political consultant Tom "Scissorhands" Severson faces 55 counts of what The Express Times appropriately refers to as "fraud and deception." After a preliminary hearing in July, all charges were bound over for disposition by a Dauphin County judge.During the preliminary hearing, it became very clear that all sorts of questions linger about the involvement of Northampton County Council members Charles Dertinger, Lamont McClure and Dem Party Boss Joe Long.
Costanzo has listed some elected officials as "unwitting" co-conspirators because they unknowingly and innocently deceived the public. But what about those candidates who knew all about Severson's scheme to keep the public in the dark? What about those who actually participated in that scheme?
I've already told you that Northampton County council member Charles Dertinger appeared before the statewide grand jury on Tuesday. I've since learned this was his second trip and that Northampton County Council member Lamont McClure was summoned as well.During Wednesday night's "Debate at the Slate," I asked Dertinger to explain his appearance to voters. Dertinger actually defended the sleaze campaign, and then refused to answer my question. "I know why you're here, Bernie."
Let me explain why I was there. Voters have a right to know about candidates who try to hide dirty campaigning from the public. It's about fair elections. As The Express Times notes, "[T]hat is why we should pay attention. One of the hallmarks of our election reporting laws is that we get to see, in standardized public filings, who's paying what to whom in a campaign, and who the big contributors are. And in the case of advertising, which candidate or party or special-interest group is behind the message. That's particularly important when it comes to attack ads."
Rather than defend the practice, as Dertinger vainly attempted to do last night, I expected that he would at least condemn the notion of filing false campaign finance reports.
Early yesterday afternoon, I sent a copy of this post to McClure, along with this email request: "Before I run with this, will you confirm or deny your appearance? Will you confirm or deny Dertinger's appearance? Will you condemn the deceptive campaign practices engaged in by Severson? Will you ask party boss Joe Long to declare Severson bill invalid and refuse to pay it?"
If McClure responds, I'll let you know.
35 comments:
You were there to attack the people you hate and praise the ones you love. You probably sat with Angle.
Dertinger handled you appropriately, your only concern here is smearing decent people while protecting the campaign tactics of Stoffa and Atiyh.
Au contraire. Voters havea right to know why someone seeking office is in front of a grand jury investigating deceptive campaign practices. If that happened to Stoffa, they'd have a right to question him, too. But it has happened to Lamont McClure and Charles Dertinger. Looks to me like youre the one making an attack, except in your case it is baseless.
Grand Jury proceedings are secret for a reason. It is so people like you don't rush to judgment. Your boy Controller Steve Barron testified in front of the grand jury. Is he being indicted? He wrote the checks to pay Severson.
Mr. O'hare from the original indictment against Severson it appears that Precision Marketing, Inc., and Political Strategies, Inc., were at least nominally Severson companies. These are the companies that Republican State Committee and the Northampton County Democratic Party used. The other company at issue, MJR Services, Inc., does not appear to even have obstensibly been a Severson company. The records at the Department of State indicated that Judge Jack Panella paid MJR Services:
4/23/03 $2,499
5/12/03 $2499
5/16/03 $13,310
5/20/03 $10,000
5/21/03 $10,000
5/23/03 $837
5/23/03 $714
9/29/03 $647
Do you know if Judge Panella was called to the grand jury to ask about this payments to a company that had almost no relationship to the indicted Severson ?
To be fair, Bernie, you SHOULD list all of the witnesses subpoenaed before the grand jury. Therefore, your readers can link who they want to Severson based upon the facts. Do we know who are all of the witnesses?
Anon 7:08 & 7:21,
As you know, most of the people who are called before a grand jury are innocent. And I have listed many of these people in previous posts. They have been described as unwitting co-conspirators who were duped into believing that Severson was legitimately using an outfit like Political Strategies. Judge Panella's campaign manager vokluntarily appeared. He needed no subpoena. He also spoke freely abouit being deceived into believing that Severson was MJtr and PS. He was specidfically exonerated during the Preliminary hearing by the AG, as were several other politicians.
But there is also a class of people who knew damn well that Severson was hiding his identity and who helped him in that coverup.
My question is whether Dertinger and MCCure is part of the first class or second.
And if they are part of this first grou, why the hell are the local Dems still paying what appears to be an invalid bill?
If McClure or Dertinger ever answer these questions, I'll let you know.
Anon 6:53 The proceedinds are secret, but the people who appear there are not and are free to discuss why they were there. My question is what Dertinger, who is u for reelection, was doing there. Why twice? Is he one of the unwitting or witting co-conspitrators?
This is a horrible picture of Charles. He looks like he's in the SS.
let the grand jury procedings take their course and allow the grand jury to tell us if they are guilty or not. Why should you trust a politician to give you a spun explanation? Seriously bernie. Unless of course you are looking to convict them before the grand jury actually does its job. Let guilt or innocence be determined in the court room, not on your blog or on the campaign trail.
What I'm looking for is an explanation, especially from someone who is asking people to vote for hims in the next month. People are not so foolish as you seem to think. They want and deserve honesty from their elected officials.
I agree. I'm a NorCo voter and I'd like answers. Keep up the pressure. There's just too much stink on this whole thing.
bernie, you are seriously looking for an explanation from a polititian? why even bother? His response is going to be the best spun story that confirms nothing. just wait for the grand jury and then tee off. it sucks that it might be after the general election, but at least it will be an explanation that merits credibility. until then, you are likely to get a politicians lie.
I'll continue to push. I think voters have a right to know whether they're voting for a crook. I'd also like to know why the local Dem party is continuing to pay Severson's phony bill when it is the basis of a criminal prosecution. It's going to be difficult for him to spin anything.
"What I'm looking for is an explanation, especially from someone who is asking people to vote for hims in the next month."
Bullsh!t Bernie you have been trying to spin stories about Dertinger for over 4 years. You don't like him so you use this forum you have to try to harass him.
Dertinger has been a good member of county council and has accomplished a lot since you started to cyberstalk him and he deserves re-election.
If you are surprised he doesn't answer your questions after all of the lies you have told about him for the past 4 years, you sir are much more dim-witted than we may have imagined.
I don't like Dertinger, that is certainly true. I tend not to like council members who think they have no obligation to listen to people who own no real estate. I tend not to like council members who have tried to waste the county's money, as Dertinger did w/ the IT bid.
But regardless of my personal feelings, he owes voters an explanation. Barron give one. Panella give one Donchez gave one. Dertinger should give one, too. Instead, he actually tied to justify the smear campaign under investigation.
Is he, McClure or Long a subject or target of the grand jury's investigation? What were they doing there? Twice?
Why are local Dems paying a bill that is clearly illegal?
I see no reason why voters should re-elect someone over whom a cloud is hanging, when he does nothing to cast those clouds away. There are enough other qualified people running from both parties.
The people deserve an answer.
I think the more interesting question is: has Judge Jack Panella been before the grand jury ? Specifically, Panella has paid MJR Services tens of thousands of dollars in campaign cash according to the PA Dept. of State. Yet, we know that Judge Panella has been to Precision Marketing in Wilson Boro numerous times. But, he has never been to MJR Services. And, he has never been to MJR Services because it was not a Tom Severson company - unlike say Precision Marketing or Political Strategies, Inc. So, has the form Common Pleas Court Judge, current Superior Court Judge, President of the Judicial Board of Conduct, and one breath away from the Supreme Court candidate been before the grand jury to answer the question how someone so obviously distinguished and intelligent can be duped by Severson when mariginal characters like Dertinger and Long are criminal masterminds ?
These questions have already been answered, and by Judge Panella. His campaign treasurer actually testified at the Prelimnary Hearing. They had no idea that Severson was running a sham compnay.
But the evidence of McClure's knowledge is far more significant. I'll be curious to see what McClure says. I've been noting this problem for a long time and he reads this blog, and was doing so before he hired Severson.
If McClure and Dertinger had no idea what Severson was doing, then they should say so and Joe Long should stop paying off an illegal bill.
What evidence. You are liar. There is no evidence.
Then come out and say so publicly. The AG has listed a number of "unwitting" co-conspirators, but McClure and Dertinger played an integral part in the sleaze campaign being run by Severson. Why is it that McClure refused to say anything about the bill to Barron? Why did McClure hand deliver that bill to Barron? Why is that bill dated the same day it was handed to Barron for payment? All of this was already established, in sworn testimony, at the preliminary hearing.
It appears very much to me that there is evidence. And I really think that Dertinger owes the public an explanation.
What did he know and when did he know it?
On December 24, 2006, Sen. Lisa Boscola pay Political Strategies, Inc., of Santa Monica, CA $16,085.00. She has never been to Political Strategies Inc., in CA, but she has been to PMI in Easton, Pennsylvania. But, at least Political Strategies was Tom Severson's company.
Absolutely. And if she knwoingly conspired to deceive the public, she's as guilty as Severson. The public has a right to know how candidates spend campaign money.
What's the deal with the Villas? I am tired of reading their accusations about you BO. I am sure that you are tired of responding to their charges but what red poker is up their butts to attack you in this manner? You have admitted to having a troubled past so why are they regurgitating these charges??
They post as many as 50 identical comments here on a near daily purpose. Their purpose is to ruin comment threads and eter people from commenting. That is the most valuable feature on this blog. Villa has already been convicted once from criminal harassment. He has been charged a second time by another blogger.
He wants me to enable comment moderation, as so many other bloggers have done. I know how annoying it can be to delete their useless and inflammatory comments, so I don't blame them. But after asking my readers, I don't want to do that bc it destroys spontaneity. I get valuable information from people, but once comments are moderated, people become hesitant.
There are just a few of us left who do not moderate, so he focuses on us.
Please do me a favor and ignore him. I will always take out the trash, although it will sometimes be several hours.
You really seem to whitewash your boytoys. Barron was the Treasurer of the Northampton County Dem's when this all went down. He, like Dertinger and McClure, is a product of the Boss Long machine. Part of Longs new kiddie corps.
They all were at the Preliminary but you decide who was truthful and who was not.
Your assertioon that a top Democratic official, the Treasurer no less, is somehow totally surpised and shocked by what the Party was paying for is hillarious.
You have been called a hypocrite and I can see why. I don't know if Barron or anyone else knew more. One thing is for sure they are as much Democratic political insiders as Dertinger and McClure.
On March 27, 2008, Rep. Jenn Mann running for State Treasuer paid Political Strategies $37,672.00.
I hear that Stoffa and Atiyh will be called.
This is a deliberate lie from someone who is trying to divert attention away from the fact that somoen up for re-election has appeared before a state grand jury investigating deceptive campaign practices in Nortahmpton County twice, and refuses to tell voters what he was doing there.
Charles and Lamont are the only thing between the taxpayers and the runaway budgets of the Stoffa Administration.
They will testify to the Stoffa-Atiyh connection.
Charles Deringer is the most knowledgable, honest and intelligent County official we have.
Anon 2:41, well said!!
This comment posted 10/9, and here you are, ansswering yourself three days later like crazy Villa.
Dertinger is a proven liar, something I illustrated today (10/12).
Charles and LaMont, keep fighting the good fight. The employees are with you. At on time we trusted ohare and angle and we learned we were used for their chum Stoffa.
Now, four days later, and in the middle of the night, you're posting here. McClure & Dertinger owe the public an explanation. They work for the public, not county unions.
McClure, Dertinger and Barron are all in the middle of this as top Democrats in the organizatrion when all this occured.
They all owe an honest explanation.
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