John Perzel: Abuse of Power

John Perzel, the Speaker of the House in Harrisburg, has been exposed by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review as a lover of the high life, at the expense of his campaign contributors and his Republican colleagues. The legislative leader from Philadelphia, who has a serious challenger in Tim Kearney, has re-imbursed his staffers (state employees) over $700,000 for campaign expenses he says they incurred on their own time.

This is an extraordinary amount of money. Most campaigns only fantasize about having that amount of cash available for their entire election efforts. To burn through it for Super Bowl trips, Las Vegas vacations (let's face it, any trip to Vegas must be classified as a vacation), fancy dinners at upscale restaurants, the list goes on and on. You really must read the full article to grasp the extent of Perzel's love of the high life.

Here's a choice quote:

Perzel, who helped orchestrate last year's later-repealed legislative pay raise, escaped a primary election challenge May 16, when voters defeated 11 of his House Republican colleagues.

To John Kennedy, a former Republican House member from Cumberland County who served with Perzel, the campaign's spending is "mind-boggling" and "an abuse of power."

The imperial hubris represented by this disclosure is magnified by the fact that many of Perzel's fellow GOP House and Senate members went down to defeat on election day. The GOP state party borrowed hundreds of thousands of dollars in their futile attempt to save Jubilerer and Brightbill from their inevitable defeats. I bet they wish John Perzel had thought of them first.

I especially liked this tidbit:

One of those expenses occurred just 16 hours after the 2 a.m. legislative pay raise vote in July -- when Perzel's campaign paid the tab at a Philadelphia riverfront restaurant.

The bill for dinner at LaVeranda: $955 -- of which $400 went for liquor and wine, including two $150 bottles of wine. Records reviewed by the Trib don't reveal who celebrated at La Veranda. Preski's credit card charges indicate four guests were served.

The dinner followed a marathon legislative session during which lawmakers worked through the July 4th weekend. Campaign vouchers show Preski also picked up the tab for a retreat at LaBorgata, an upscale Atlantic City casino hotel that weekend. Perzel's spokesman, Robert Philbin, said Perzel and Preski couldn't attend the New Jersey trip, which was planned to form a finance committee for Friends of John Perzel. So the room at LaBorgata was for Preski's wife, Kelly, who went on campaign business, Philbin said.

Heinlen questioned whether all of Preski's reimbursements met the standard of influencing the outcome of an election.