Southwestern Pennsylvania politics are extremely fragmented with multiple overlapping bounds of authority and plenty of opportunities for people to continually test the Peter Principal as well as any ethical principal to which one can subscribe to. These flaws and attributes are bipartisan. For instance, my buddy, the Angry Drunk Bureaucrat noted that the previous incarnation of the Pittsburgh City Council contained:
"a gas thief, a book thief, a frame thief, a college graduate, a ditch digger, a felon, an old school hack, a guy who can't shut-up and the my councilman, Shadyside's "Otis"
One of the thieve just got indicted on fourteen counts of abusing power. And yeah, they are all [unfortunately] Democrats. City politics --- they are wonderful and a reason why we moved to a house 200 yards outside of the city line.
However stupidity in action is not a Democratic monopoly in SW PA. Former Republican State Rep, and currently convicted felon Jeff Habay is an exemplar example of pure stupidity and venality in corruption. He was originally convicted for using his office staff for political purposes and then he went crazy. Witness intimidation, sending fake anthrax letters to political opponents, and destroying evidence. From a personal conversation I had with his father when I was canvassing last election cycle, Mr. Habay was the victim of a grand conspiracy led by former Senator Rick Santorum and former Congresswoman Melissa Hart [R-4th District].
Both the Pittsburgh City Council and Rep. Habay's convictions are the type of stupidity that I expect, but a creative form of abuse looks like it is occurring, again from the Post Gazette article:
" The single largest donor to Allegheny County candidates this year is a 90-year-old Upper St. Clair widow who hasn't voted for seven years and says she never agreed to give $10,000 each to four Republican candidates, including one for Superior Court and three for Allegheny County Council....Shirley H. Jordan,...is on record with contributions of $10,000 each to Cheryl Allen, who is seeking the GOP nomination for Superior Court, and County Council candidates Vince Gastgeb, Jan Rea and Susan Caldwell.....
In an interview this week, Mrs. Jordan insisted she never approved any political donations and only learned of one when she received a telephone call thanking her for her support. She said she had no idea the donation had been given and expressed shock when a reporter told her the amount.
"My God, that's terrible. I would never give $10,000 to politics. I can tell you that," she said.
She blamed the donation on her attorney, Charles McCullough, himself a [Republican] candidate for County Council. Mr. McCullough took control of Mrs. Jordan's affairs following a court dispute that began after she was taken in 2005 to St. Clair Hospital, where a doctor diagnosed her with moderate dementia. A Common Pleas Court judge later declared her incapacitated....
There is more information in the article and you should read it just to get a feel for the background.
I decided to do a little more digging and did a search for all federal donors from Jan. 1, 2000 to April 1, 2007 on the FEC for the last name Jordan, first initial of S and saw no donations for anyone by the name of Shirley Jordan in this time period. I also ran the same search for her husband, Jordan, F and found no donations by anyone who resided in Pennsylvania during this time period.
This could get really interesting, really fast as there is no demonstrated history of any political spending by this individual who suddenly drops $40,000 on second, and third tier candidates who happen to be political allies of her trustee.
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