Campaign Contribution

If Pennsylvania politicians - and the special interests that subsidize them - were to tell honestly what they think of the state's campaign-financing law, their words would sound like a Toyota commercial. They love what it does for them. So don't hold your breath waiting for them to put this money machine in the shop for repairs. It's a system that gives incumbents an unfair advantage in campaigns and interest groups a powerful influence on legislation. It also gives politicians a tin ear for the public interest, but voters (and nonvoters)

Controversy over Abington school board member Adele S. Block's acceptance of a campaign contribution from the Pennsylvania State Education Association bubbled to the surface again Tuesday when she accused member Richard McGrath of running a "smear campaign" against her. McGrath has tried to "sully my reputation and impugn my integrity with reference to a campaign contribution I received from the PSEA PAC," Block said during Tuesday night's board...

Under tense cross-examination yesterday, suspended lawyer Joseph Caruso insisted that Camden Mayor Milton Milan was behind a scheme to extort a $5,000 campaign contribution from a city job holder. "The decision to ask for the $5,000 was not my decision, it was the mayor's," Caruso told the jury, during his second day in the witness box at Milan's corruption trial in federal court in Camden. Milan, 38, the city's first Hispanic mayor, is accused in a 19-count indictment with various crimes, including taking more than $30,000 in bribes from the Philadelphia mob. In two of the 19 counts, prosecutors allege that Milan conspired with Caruso in 1997 and 1998 to solicit a "political bribe," and attempted to extort a $5,000 campaign contribution from attorney Elliot Stomel, Camden's longtime public defender.

Ten days after Camden's municipal public defender testified in federal court that he was told Mayor Milton Milan had guaranteed his job in exchange for a campaign contribution, the mayor signed a letter to fire him. On Wednesday, Elliot Stomel, who has been the city's public defender since 1982, received a brief letter dated last Friday and signed by Milan. In it, Milan wrote, "I have decided to appoint another lawyer. " To Stomel, it was "obvious after being there for 17 years that the timing is more than coincidental.

Democratic fund-raiser Joseph S. Caruso was secretly recorded on tape as he asked for a $5,000 campaign contribution from Cherry Hill lawyer Elliot S. Stomel and, in exchange, allegedly promised that Stomel could keep his job as a public defender for the city of Camden, according to people with knowledge of the case. Caruso, a municipal prosecutor for Camden City, was charged with extortion and official misconduct last week for allegedly telling Stomel that his campaign contribution would ensure his continued employment.

A former fund-raiser and member of Camden Mayor Milton Milan's transition team, accused of illegally muscling a $5,000 campaign contribution from a city employee, signed an agreement Wednesday to plead guilty to conspiracy rather than go to trial on extortion charges. Joseph S. Caruso, a former municipal prosecutor and Democratic fund-raiser, is expected to appear in U.S. District Court on Thursday to complete the agreement with federal prosecutors, authorities said yesterday. Caruso, 35, of Voorhees, stood trial last month on extortion and bribery charges for allegedly telling Elliot Stomel, Camden's municipal public defender, that he would lose his job if he did not make a $5,000 contribution that was later deposited in a fund that paid for Milan's mayoral-campaign events.

Late yesterday afternoon, a federal jury in Camden began deliberating the fate of Joseph S. Caruso, a former Democratic fund-raiser and member of Camden Mayor Milton Milan's transition team who is accused of extorting a campaign contribution from a public defender. After listening to legal instructions from U.S. District Judge Stephen M. Orlofsky and closing arguments, jurors deliberated less than two hours before retiring for the night. They are expected to resume deliberations this morning.

The state Attorney General's Office, which has been investigating a campaign contribution received by Washington Township Mayor John Robertson, has decided not to file criminal charges against him and ended the probe. In a brief letter written Wednesday by Robert E. Levy, deputy attorney general, the office notified Robertson's attorney, Michael Angelini, that the matter was closed. A panel of Washington Township Council members reported to the Attorney General's Office nearly a year ago that Robertson had failed to list a $1,000 campaign contribution on his election finance statement.

GREENSBORO, N.C. - Attorneys for John Edwards indicated Tuesday their case was winding down, but they were not yet saying whether they would call to the witness stand the former presidential candidate or his mistress. Defense attorneys said they would make a decision later Tuesday, but it was not immediately clear when they would make it public. After testimony ended for the day with the trial still focusing on financial records, Edwards' attorneys said they had not made a final decision on whether to call Edwards, his oldest daughter, Cate, or his mistress, Rielle Hunter.

A Philadelphia architect admitted in federal court yesterday that he conspired to illegally funnel $25,000 to Mayor Street's 2003 reelection campaign. Terry F. Crockett pleaded guilty to conspiracy and fraud, becoming the 16th person convicted in a case related to the FBI's pay-to-play investigation. Crockett agreed to testify against codefendants accused of using the campaign contribution in an attempt to curry favor with city officials on a Philadelphia International Airport advertising contract.

GREENSBORO, N.C. - Attorneys for John Edwards indicated Tuesday their case was winding down, but they were not yet saying whether they would call to the witness stand the former presidential candidate or his mistress. Defense attorneys said they would make a decision later Tuesday, but it was not immediately clear when they would make it public. After testimony ended for the day with the trial still focusing on financial records, Edwards' attorneys said they had not made a final decision on whether to call Edwards, his oldest daughter, Cate, or his mistress, Rielle Hunter.

A week that brought more embarrassing publicity for the Pennsylvania courts offered the perfect backdrop for Harrisburg lawmakers to tackle long-overdue reforms in how the state picks its top judges. In a Pittsburgh courtroom, a state senator faced retrial allegations that she ordered aides to work on the political campaigns of her sister, Joan Orie Melvin, who was elected to the state Supreme Court in 2009. While not charged with wrongdoing herself, Melvin has been notified that she's a target of a separate grand-jury probe.

The Philadelphia Board of Ethics announced Friday the once-every-four-years adjustments in the campaign contribution limits for individual and political action committees. The city code calls for the finance director to certify the adjustments, which are based on the Consumer Price Index. The limits are the maximum contributions that can be made to or accepted by candidates for city elective office and their political action committees. The new limits on what a person or organization can give have been increased to $2,900 for an individual and $11,500 for political action committees and other entities, such as partnerships and businesses.

When sending a check to a favorite politician, donors might envision the money being spent to print lawn signs, hire a Web designer, or gas up the campaign bus. It might surprise them to see where some money goes. U.S. Rep. John Doolittle (R., Calif.), who retired in 2008, spent more than $4,500 to pay for a babysitter. U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D., N.Y.) was fined in 2008 after he spent $6,200 on a personal trainer. Closer to home, pols in the Greater Philadelphia-South Jersey region have spent campaign money on everything from detectives and defense lawyers to cigars and transatlantic travel.

The city's limits on campaign contributions have gone up, based on inflation in the Consumer Price Index over the last four years, the city Board of Ethics announced Wednesday at its monthly meeting. Effective Jan. 1, the limit on contributions by individual donors went from $2,600 a year to $2,900. The ceiling on donations by political action committees and business partnerships was raised from $10,600 annually to $11,500. The limits apply to contributions made to candidates for any city elected office.

City Council and Mayor Nutter moved quickly Thursday to close a loophole that has allowed the city electricians' union to circumvent Philadelphia's limit on campaign contributions. Council abandoned plans to study the issue for another two weeks and unanimously passed a bill that bars political action committees, known as PACs, from evading the limit by funneling money through other PACs before it gets to candidates. Nutter signed the bill at 3:41 p.m., saying it was important to move "as quickly as possible" because "when you're in the middle of a municipal election cycle we should not have any activity that allows folks to do indirectly what we all know you can't do directly.

By Bob Edgar and Bill Goodfellow Last week, an unlikely coalition of government reformers and corporate lobbyists issued a plan that would go a long way toward eliminating the abuse of congressional earmarks. At a time when federal deficits are setting records, earmarks are hardly an efficient way of allocating scarce government resources. They fund programs that have not been requested by any executive-branch agency or subjected to any public review. The heart of the problem, however, is the link between earmarks and campaign contributions.

IT'S BECOMING increasingly clear how much of a toll that natural gas extraction from the state's Marcellus Shale formation is taking on the environment and potentially on human health. It's also increasingly clear why it's taking so long for state lawmakers to return the favor, and impose a tax on drillers. A new report from the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association found that Marcellus Shale drillers in the state have piled up 1,435 violations in the last 2 1/2 years . The great majority - 66 percent - have the potential for direct impact on the environment.

It may be years, if ever, before Pennsylvania reforms its no-holds-barred campaign-finance rules for legislative and statewide elected offices. For one brief shining moment, though, both Democratic and Republican lawmakers in Harrisburg stood up to be counted in favor of limits on political spending. That's when the House State Government Committee unanimously approved a measure by Rep. Babette Josephs (D., Phila.) that would for the first time ever set campaign contribution limits in the state.

Illinois, infamous for political corruption, enacted its first-ever campaign contribution limits last week, on the one-year anniversary of the arrest of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Pennsylvania should be next. Only 11 states, including Pennsylvania, have yet to limit how much money individuals or political action committees can donate to candidates for public office. It's a failure that erodes public confidence in the legislature and allows special interests to dictate public policy coming out of Harrisburg.