Campaign Manager

JOHN McDANIEL, former campaign manager for City Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown, was sentenced yesterday to one year in federal prison for stealing more than $100,000 from her campaign account. McDaniel, according to documents filed in the case, has cooperated in local and federal investigations since his indictment in February. The question left unanswered: What did that cooperation entail? Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Gray declined to comment after the hearing about a letter he filed under seal with the judge.

"My center is giving way, my right is pushed back, situation excellent, I am attacking. " Those famous words from a French marshal during World War I could easily have come from Republican mayoral candidate Joe Egan yesterday. In an effort to revive his flagging campaign less than a month before the Nov. 5 election, Egan has fired his out-of-town campaign manager and brought in two Philadelphia veterans to try to salvage what looks increasing like a losing effort. Out is John Denny, 28, of the Washington, D.C.-based Eddie Mahe Company.

The former campaign manager for City Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown pleaded guilty Thursday to stealing more than $103,000 from Brown's reelection campaign and another political committee. John D. McDaniel, 39, signed a "noncooperation" plea agreement with the federal government that does not require him to help prosecutors with other cases but provides for consideration at sentencing if he does. U.S. District Judge Mary A. McLaughlin accepted McDaniel's plea to one count of wire fraud, and set sentencing for May 14. Federal sentencing guidelines call for 15 to 21 months in prison, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul L. Gray.

Mary Ellen Leonard Weinberg, 62, of Haverford, a political activist who helped run campaigns for former Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo and her husband, Martin Weinberg, died of ovarian cancer Sunday at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. Mrs. Weinberg managed her brother Thomas Leonard's successful campaigns for register of wills in Philadelphia in 1975, and city controller in 1979 and 1981. She was his press secretary when he lost his bid for lieutenant governor in 1978. His older sister could boss him around, he said, and pushed him to run for public office.

John D. McDaniel, former campaign manager for City Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown, was charged Wednesday with wire fraud, accused of stealing about $100,000 from Brown's 2011 reelection campaign. U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger brought the charges in an information - a sign that McDaniel has waived his right to have the charges considered by a federal grand jury and expects to plead guilty, possibly cooperating with the government as its investigation proceeds. McDaniel's attorney, Charles M. Gibbs, declined comment, and McDaniel did not return calls.

John McDaniel, the former campaign manager for Blondell Reynolds Brown, who recently pleaded guilty to stealing $103,000 from her campaign and from another political action committee, reached a settlement agreement Monday with the Philadelphia Board of Ethics for violations of the city's election-finance laws. McDaniel agreed to pay $12,450 over the ethics charges, but his fine will be waived if he is sent to federal prison for his guilty plea. His sentencing is scheduled for May 14. The Ethics Board settlement says McDaniel contributed $4,600 to Reynolds Brown in 2011, $2,000 more than allowed.

Tricia Enright, a veteran of several political campaigns, has been hired to manage Democrat Michael Nutter's bid for mayor in November. "She fits into the quirky personalities we have here," Nutter campaign spokeswoman Melanie Johnson said. She added, "Tricia understands we are running an election and are in competition with another candidate. " Enright served in the fall as Gov. Rendell's campaign manager. Among her previous jobs, she was campaign communications director for former presidential candidate Howard Dean.

Gov.-elect Christie Whitman's brother, a top official in her campaign, testified yesterday that Republicans worked hard at "keeping the vote light" in New Jersey's urban areas on Election Day. Webster B. "Dan" Todd Jr. said he advised Whitman on how to curtail support for Gov. Florio in Newark and Camden. He said the campaign devoted "a fair amount of planning and effort" to keeping a referendum on legalized sports betting off the Nov. 2 ballot, fearing the casinos would spend money in heavily Democratic areas to get out the vote.

Before the phone banks are plugged in, the advertising is bought, the literature is distributed and the money is raised, a soft-spoken man recuperating from a knee operation in a converted Chester County farmhouse has a job decision to make. To help Mike Burke decide, U.S. Rep. Peter H. Kostmayer (D., Pa.) recently trekked to his hospital bed to cheer on his recovery. But David Landau, a Seventh District Democrat, interrupted his congressional campaign to drive to Burke's Thornbury Township home.

JOHN McDANIEL, former campaign manager for City Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown, was sentenced yesterday to one year in federal prison for stealing more than $100,000 from her campaign account. McDaniel, according to documents filed in the case, has cooperated in local and federal investigations since his indictment in February. The question left unanswered: What did that cooperation entail? Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Gray declined to comment after the hearing about a letter he filed under seal with the judge.

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela's government-friendly electoral council quickly certified the razor-thin presidential victory of Hugo Chavez's handpicked successor Monday, apparently ignoring opposition demands for a recount as antigovernment protests broke out in the bitterly polarized nation. People stood on their balconies in Caracas apartment buildings banging pots and pans in protest as the electoral council's president proclaimed Nicolas Maduro president for the next six years. Across town, thousands of students clashed with National Guard troops in riot gear who fired tear gas and plastic bullets to turn the protesters back from marching on the city center.

Isaac Meyer "Mike" Sletson, 86, an antiwar activist in Philadelphia in the 1960s and 1970s, died Monday, March 18, at a nursing home in Bellefonte, Pa., of complications after a fall. Mr. Sletson was a member of Americans for Democratic Action and the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy, a nonprofit focused on ending the arms race. After moving to Philadelphia in the early 1960s, he began his activism by lobbying government officials to place a traffic light at a dangerous intersection in Lower Northeast Philadelphia.

JOHN McDANIEL, the former campaign manager for City Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown, has admitted he violated the city's campaign-finance law. McDaniel signed a settlement agreement with the city's Board of Ethics on Feb. 14, the same day he pleaded guilty in federal court to stealing from Brown's campaign account and the Progressive Agenda PAC, a political-action committee funded by the Laborer's District Counsel. The agreement was approved Monday by Board of Ethics Chairman Michael Reed.

John McDaniel, the former campaign manager for Blondell Reynolds Brown, who recently pleaded guilty to stealing $103,000 from her campaign and from another political action committee, reached a settlement agreement Monday with the Philadelphia Board of Ethics for violations of the city's election-finance laws. McDaniel agreed to pay $12,450 over the ethics charges, but his fine will be waived if he is sent to federal prison for his guilty plea. His sentencing is scheduled for May 14. The Ethics Board settlement says McDaniel contributed $4,600 to Reynolds Brown in 2011, $2,000 more than allowed.

The former campaign manager for City Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown pleaded guilty Thursday to stealing more than $103,000 from Brown's reelection campaign and another political committee. John D. McDaniel, 39, signed a "noncooperation" plea agreement with the federal government that does not require him to help prosecutors with other cases but provides for consideration at sentencing if he does. U.S. District Judge Mary A. McLaughlin accepted McDaniel's plea to one count of wire fraud, and set sentencing for May 14. Federal sentencing guidelines call for 15 to 21 months in prison, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul L. Gray.

John D. McDaniel, former campaign manager for City Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown, was charged Wednesday with wire fraud, accused of stealing about $100,000 from Brown's 2011 reelection campaign. U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger brought the charges in an information - a sign that McDaniel has waived his right to have the charges considered by a federal grand jury and expects to plead guilty, possibly cooperating with the government as its investigation proceeds. McDaniel's attorney, Charles M. Gibbs, declined comment, and McDaniel did not return calls.

JOHN McDANIEL, the man ensnared in a campaign-finance controversy with City Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown, was charged Wednesday by federal prosecutors with stealing from her political coffers. McDaniel, who was Brown's campaign manager when she sought a fourth term for her at-large seat in 2011, is accused of stealing about $100,000 from her political-action committee. McDaniel waived his right to have his case presented to a grand jury, typically a sign that a defendant will negotiate a plea deal with prosecutors.

John D. McDaniel, who was Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown's campaign manager while her organization flouted city campaign finance rules, received $126,000 from two political action committees last year while working at Philadelphia International Airport - an apparent violation of the restrictions on political activity by city employees. McDaniel himself signed a campaign finance report last week as treasurer of the Progressive Agenda PAC, a committee heavily funded by the Laborers' Union.