April 6, 2009

Bonusgate records contradict DeWeese

By Mario F. Cattabiani and Angela Couloumbis
Inquirer Staff Writers

HARRISBURG - Since the Bonusgate corruption probe was launched two years ago,
Rep. Bill DeWeese has adamantly and repeatedly denied knowing that taxpayer money
secretly had been used to underwrite political campaigns.

But records turned over to defendants in the case by Attorney General Tom Corbett
appear to paint a different picture of the onetime House Democratic leader, who has not
been charged in the ongoing investigation.

Documents show that in 2006, facing a stiff challenge in an election that DeWeese
nearly lost, his campaign tapped a state-paid computer consultant - a key figure in the
Bonusgate probe - to perform a long list of political tasks.

Among other duties, that consultant crafted fund-raising invitations and sent out blast e-
mails to constituents in DeWeese's district in the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania.

The documents, provided to The Inquirer by a defendant, also indicate that the Greene
County Democrat exchanged campaign-related messages with his legislative staffers
on state e-mail accounts.

"I love it," DeWeese responded in September 2006 to a legislative aide of his who had
just drafted a letter for a constituent to send to the local newspaper supporting the
representative's campaign.

"Great work," DeWeese wrote with 44 exclamation points when told by campaign
operatives in April that party canvassers had knocked on nearly 600 doors.

State law prohibits public money from being used for campaign-related purposes.

DeWeese, who has served in the House for three decades and is now majority whip,
declined to be interviewed. In a statement, he said it would be inappropriate to comment
on individual documents.
He called the e-mails "a desperate attempt by the criminal defendants to try their case in
the media by cherry-picking documents they received in discovery and leaking them."

The documents - more than 100 in all - were given to The Inquirer by Brett Cott, a
former top aide to House Democrats who faces 42 corruption counts. As required by
law, state prosecutors provided the documents to Cott and the other defendants as part
of the discovery phase of the case.

Cott was among a dozen caucus insiders charged in July in the first wave of Bonusgate
indictments. The 12 are accused of carrying out a conspiracy to use millions in state
resources and staff to further the campaigns of House Democrats.

His attorney, Bryan Walk, said the documents "speak for themselves."

Asked to elaborate, Walk said: "We're disappointed that Brett is charged for allegedly
doing political work on state time when it appears that there were other people who did
the same - or more things - on state time who weren't charged."

DeWeese, in his prepared statement, said prosecutors had decided not to charge him
"based on the totality of the evidence over a two-year period, which included thousands
of e-mails and other documents that we turned over to them and the sworn testimony of
hundreds of witnesses whom we urged to cooperate."

Corbett has said that the fact that DeWeese was not charged does not indicate he is in
the clear and that the investigation continues. Corbett spokesman Kevin Harley
reiterated that last week, but declined to comment further.

Democratic push

Fall 2006 was a critical period for Democrats who had been toiling for a decade to
reclaim the majority in the state House.

The Bonusgate indictment alleges that they pulled out all the stops, even paying a
computer consultant, Eric Buxton and his Harrisburg company, Govercom Strategies,
hundreds of thousands in taxpayer dollars for political work.

Prosecutors have argued that Buxton, son of a longtime state representative from
Harrisburg, was paid with tax dollars for government services while in reality he only
worked on campaigns.

Cott and three others were charged with theft stemming from the Govercom
arrangement.

DeWeese was mentioned in the indictment, but only in passing. It noted that virtually all
dealings with Buxton among House Democrats were done through the state e-mail
system. DeWeese was one of the few exceptions, because he used his campaign
account to correspond with Buxton.

But his legislative aides who worked on his campaign did not.

The documents Cott provided show that several of those aides were in regular contact
with Buxton, using their state e-mail accounts to task the consultant with campaign
work.

Staffers Tom Andrews and Kevin Sidella had Buxton send fund-raising e-mails and
news releases, update the campaign Web site, and help solve computer glitches.

On Oct. 31, 2006, Andrews sent Buxton an e-mail telling him to drop everything and
create a document with a photo of DeWeese receiving the NRA's defender of freedom
award.

"It will go to all 50th District MALES," Andrews, DeWeese's legislative press secretary,
instructed Buxton.

In some cases, such blast campaign e-mails backfired.

"Do not send any more e-mails," constituent Karen Zgela wrote DeWeese, demanding a
month before the November 2006 election that he take her off the e-mail list. "It is just a
waste of taxpayers money."

Sidella and Buxton are cooperating with prosecutors under grants of immunity.

Sidella left the state House to open a private consulting business in 2007 and was
immediately hired to help guide DeWeese's campaign.

In an interview last week, Andrews said he took time off from his state job to help
DeWeese's campaign. Asked to provide documentation, however, Andrews did not
respond.

He also said he didn't know how Buxton was being paid.

State records show the DeWeese reelection campaign paid Buxton's firm only $530 in
2006 - $500 to buy a database and $30 for a domain name - even though the e-mails
suggest he did a lot more work than that.

For most of 2006, Buxton was paid $16,875 monthly under a state contract with House
Democrats.

Buxton's attorney, Ed Spreha, declined to comment.

Nick Rodriguez-Cayro, Sidella's attorney, said his client had cooperated fully with the
probe.

"Let me make it clear: He was an employee - not a manager - who followed the
directions he was given by his supervisors," he said of Sidella. Asked who those
supervisors were, Rodriguez-Cayro said DeWeese and his former chief of staff.

Campaign matters

Other documents in the case that are now part of discovery show that DeWeese at
times used his state e-mail account to respond directly to campaign-related matters.

Unlike his penchant for loquacious floor speeches, DeWeese's e-mails are almost
always pithy and to the point.

In a December 2004 e-mail exchange, caucus research analyst Karen E. Steiner wrote
DeWeese, "I can't thank you enough for the bonus for campaigning." To that, DeWeese
replied, "UR welcome."

Steiner received a $1,600 bonus that year. DeWeese has previously told reporters he
did not recall writing that e-mail to Steiner and that other staffers sometimes responded
for him using his e-mail account.

DeWeese has said he didn't know of the government bonuses, with the exception of
smaller ones given each Christmas.

In another case, Mike Manzo, DeWeese's former chief of staff, asked his boss for
approval to extend a state employment contract for an aide to a state representative
from Allentown.

Manzo, whom DeWeese fired and who is among the dozen charged, wrote in summer
2005 that the aide was "knocking on doors for our candidate" and that the state
representative had donated $3,500 to the campaign arm of the caucus.

DeWeese responded, simply: "OK."