Guilty pleas raise Bonusgate to new level
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share thisGuilty pleas entered Wednesday by seven former state House Democratic staff members were important beyond their individual cases, and beyond the resolution of criminal charges against others involved in the ongoing "Bonusgate" scandal.
The pleas, including by Scott Brubaker, former House caucus administrator; and Mike Manzo, former chief of staff for former House Majority Leader William DeWeese (who also has been charged), moved the Bonusgate scheme from the realm of allegation to acknowledged fact. Within that transition lies a call for transformation of the Pennsylvania Legislature.
The question is not simply whether the guilty pleas will lead to the convictions of 17 other former staffers and elected representatives who are awaiting trial. The bigger issue is whether revelation of the scheme finally will lead to badly need reforms of the Legislature.
Several of those who pleaded guilty, including Brubaker and Manzo, have been cooperating with investigators from the state attorney general's office. They are likely to testify in the trial of former House Democratic Whip Michael Veon, which is scheduled to begin Jan. 19. Prosecutors allege that Veon is the mastermind of the scheme by which public money was used to reward legislative staffers who "volunteered" to work on House Democratic political campaigns, sometimes during their legislative staff time.
Attorney General Tom Corbett has emphasized that the Bonsugate investigation remains open, and has said several times that it is of all four legislative caucuses - the Senate Republican and Democratic caucuses, rather than just those in the House.
It is truly remarkable that the charges in the current cases stem from conduct that occurred after the legislative pay raise fiasco of 2005, which was supposed to create a new era of legislative reform.
That conduct also occurred well after the attorney general's office prosecuted former Rep. Jeffrey Habay for misusing his publicly paid staff for political purposes, in 2004.
For the most part, the Legislature's response to these abuses has not been sweeping reform, but reform around the edges and a resolve to ride out the storm.
The scope of the charges in the Bonusgate scandal, now buttressed by seven guilty pleas, should change that posture. The list of needed reforms is long, ranging from an honest legislative districting mechanism to a smaller Legislature. The first convictions should accelerate momentum for a state constitutional convention to finally resolve the Legislature's structural and operational deficiencies in favor of the public interest.
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