Money, power, spoils of office tempt state lawmakers

03/16/2014

HARRISBURG — Former FBI Agent James J. Wedick Jr. knows legislative corruption like few others.

The 35-year bureau veteran went undercover to investigate and convict a California legislative leader and more than a dozen other public officials in the 1980s and '90s. He was one of the agents on the Abscam sting operation on Congress, which began in the 1970s and is portrayed in the movie “American Hustle.” Members of Congress were videotaped taking would-be bribes from a phony sheik.

Wedick does not hesitate when asked to explain what might foster the “culture of corruption” that analysts identify in Pennsylvania's General Assembly, marked by the arrest of a state senator last week as the 15th current or former lawmaker accused of corruption since 2007.

“It's money,” said Wedick, who retired from the bureau and owns a consulting firm in Sacramento. “There's a lot of money to go around in professional (full-time) legislatures,” such as those in Pennsylvania, California, New York and Michigan. “It's a way for (legislators) to bleed assets from the state without anyone really knowing.”

With 253 members, Pennsylvania's is the largest full-time assembly in the nation. Salaries range from $84,012 for rank-and-file members to $131,149 for the two chambers' top leaders. Its budget: $277 million annually. Lawmakers get lucrative pensions, health care, a state-paid car if they choose, a $157 per diem for working in Harrisburg, and a staff of about 2,700 people.

Such incentives might make people more willing to do whatever they think they need to do to keep their jobs, even if that crosses the line, Wedick said.

He doesn't use a broad brush: Most legislators in large and small states follow the law, and maybe “2 to 3 percent” don't play by the rules.

‘TEMPTATION AND OPPORTUNITY'

Rep. Tim Krieger, R-Hempfield, has fought an uphill battle for three sessions to enact legislation to scale back the assembly to a part-time citizens legislature. He agrees with Wedick. In a professional legislature, “there's temptation and opportunity,” Krieger said.

A part-time assembly “would change the kind of people who serve, and they wouldn't depend on it for a job,” Krieger said.

“Is it the institution or the individual” responsible for corruption, asked Rep. Dwight Evans, D-Philadelphia, who worries about the legislature's reputation. A former House leader, Evans agrees with the late Democratic Gov. George Leader, who said: “We cannot hope to improve the standards of performance in government until we improve the standards of modern society.”

Philadelphia-area Sen. LeAnna Washington, a Democrat, last week became the latest lawmaker charged with crimes. She is accused of theft of services and conflict of interest for using her state staff for personal and political benefit. Through her attorney, she denied wrongdoing.

In January, another Philadelphia Democrat, Jose P. Miranda, was charged with allegedly having a “ghost” employee on his payroll to kick back money to Miranda's sister. Miranda maintains his innocence.

“The culture of corruption goes on,” said Christopher Borick, a political science professor at Muhlenberg College in Allentown.

By mid-2012, eight legislative leaders were in prison at the same time on corruption charges. Former House Speakers John Perzel, R-Philadelphia, and Bill DeWeese, D-Waynesburg, briefly shared a cell in Camp Hill State Correctional Institute.

Of the 15 current or former legislators charged, 11 pleaded guilty or were convicted by juries. In addition to Washington and Miranda, whose cases are not resolved, a former House member was acquitted and another lawmaker was declared incompetent to stand trial but faces charges.

‘BROAD BELIEF'

Other, complex factors contribute to the corruption, which ebbs and flows at the Capitol.

The building where lawmakers and the governor work is a monument to graft. Not long after its dedication in 1906, Treasurer William Berry, a Democrat, began an investigation in a state otherwise controlled by Republicans. Berry uncovered hefty overcharges: The building slated to cost $9 million with furnishings actually cost $13 million. Fourteen people were indicted. In 1908, five people — including architect Joseph Huston, whose likeness is over the keyhole in the Capitol's main brass door — were convicted.

Pennsylvania's part-time legislature gradually shifted to full time as part of an effort to “modernize” the chamber in the 1960s and 1970s. Lawmakers hired more staff, opened district offices and got offices in the Capitol. Former House Speaker Herb Fineman, a Philadelphia Democrat who led that effort, later was convicted of a felony and resigned in 1977 when charged with obstruction of justice.

Voters never approved moving to a year-round legislature, but in 1959 approved a constitutional change from a two-year to an annual state budget, requiring legislators to spend more time in Harrisburg, starting in 1961.

Pennsylvania's history of strong political parties, patronage and ward politics helped foster the culture that continues today, political and legal analysts said.

The backdrop of “machine politics” through the 20th century makes the state's voters more tolerant of political crimes and may help explain why so many legislators were charged with offenses ranging from abuse of the public payroll to use of staff for campaigns, experts said.

“It's very much part of the fabric of the state,” Borick said. In states such as Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, there's “broad belief” among citizens that “this is how politics works,” he said.

Since the 1970s, political crime evolved from personal enrichment to using state money for campaigns, sometimes on a large scale, said former Acting U.S. Attorney James West, who was a federal prosecutor in central Pennsylvania. He notes that a Superior Court decision holds that using state money for campaigns is a political and personal benefit for a lawmaker.

‘CROSSING SOME LINES'

State political bosses ruled Pennsylvania in the early 1900s. There's a statue of a powerful boss, Boise Penrose, on state grounds adjacent to the Capitol. That power shifted to county political organizations and, with their decline, went to the General Assembly's partisan caucuses in the 1970s and '80s, said G. Terry Madonna, a political science professor at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster.

Another theory explaining corruption-prone states is politicians who “compete not over ideas but for the spoils of office,” said J. Wesley Leckrone, a Widener University political science professor.

Politics is viewed as a profession, and “if that means crossing some lines, that's not seen as a problem,” Leckrone said. “It doesn't help we have a professional state legislature.”

The bill for a part-time legislature would mean loss of full-time income and benefits for legislators.

“It will never move until the public says, ‘We want it,' and the public hasn't said that yet,” Krieger said.

source