Following the money and the robo-calls.

OFF THE FLOOR

A Capitolwire Column

By Peter L. DeCoursey
Bureau Chief
Capitolwire

HARRISBURG (Dec. 22) – When everybody quiets up and won’t give answer to questions that
demand explanation, it makes you wonder what else is going on?

That is the point I have reached in continuing to try to track down who paid for the anonymous
robo-attack-calls that went out in mid-April against Rep. Brad Roae, R-Crawford, and
Cumberland County attorney Lowell Gates.

Roae complained about the calls and told his friends quietly that he thought former House
Speaker John Perzel, R-Philadelphia, was behind them. Roae said they were revenge calls
against him for voting for House Speaker Denny O’Brien, R-Philadelphia, not Perzel, for
Speaker in January of 2007. The defection of Roae and five other Republicans stunned and
shocked Perzel, and cost him the Speakership, even after Democrats claimed a 102-101 victory
at the polls.

Publicly, all Roae would say is “I don't think the calls were organized by anyone from Crawford
County. The responsible person was not man enough to admit to paying for the calls. The calls
were coming from a Harrisburg phone number. The best I can determine is a coward who works
in Harrisburg who engages in negative campaigns was behind the calls. I do not know
specifically who it was.”

That same week, Gates, waging what turned out to be a losing campaign against Sheryl Delozier
for Rep. Jerry Nailor’s Cumberland County district, was the target of anonymous robo-calls
attacking his record and ethics as an attorney.

Then and later, Delozier told allies she thought Perzel was behind the calls, but also said she did
not know, since no one told her, then or since, that he had paid for them.

Because the anonymous, apparently unclaimed calls break the law – someone has to say they
paid for them under state campaign law – Cumberland County District Attorney David J. Freed
launched a probe.

Freed said last week only that “I’ll confirm there is an active investigation going on.”

Then Gates filed a lawsuit against Perzel and some Perzel allies, alleging they conspired to make
the robo-calls which Gates said were knowingly false and damaged his reputation.
That is where we have been since last summer when Gates announced his lawsuit.

Then the campaign finance reports from last spring were turned in, and they had some
fascinating information about Perzel, his campaign consultant, Don Raymond of Raymond,
Cliggett and Raymond, and his co-consultant and wife, Pat Cliggett, also of RCR. Not that it
matters to our story, but the third partner in RCR is just-retired Rep. Ron Raymond, R-Delaware,
who listed the firm on his financial disclosure forms, where you have to detail your sources of
income. So you had a sitting state lawmaker making some money, at least, through a firm Perzel
hired, recommended to other members, and had others hire.

But hey, let’s stick to the controversy at hand.

OK, on April 10 of this year, Perzel gave $100,000 to the 1776 Committee PAC. That is a
political action committee whose treasurer is Pat Cliggett. When you call the number she lists on
the form she signed as treasurer of that PAC, the voice answering you says “RCR Inc., may I
help you?”

The $100,000 was described in the campaign report and that of the PAC as a “contribution.”

That same day, the 1776 Committee PAC gave the Better Government Committee, another
Perzel-controlled-entity, $75,000. The next day, the Better Government Committee then gave
Spring Hill Group $52,148 for "political advertising."

Anyone who guessed Pat Cliggett, yeah, her again, was listed on the corporation documents as
the president of Spring Hill Group, goes to the head of the class. Righto.

Just a few days later, the anti-Gates robo-calls started. A few days later, four days before the
primary, the anti-Roae calls kicked in, Roae says.

So I called the 1776 Committee, at “RCR Inc.” and Cliggett didn’t call back for the last week-
plus, to answer my question about what the “political advertising” was and who it was for.

Perzel did not return e-mails and calls requesting comment, even after telling me 9 days ago at a
Pennsylvania Society event that he would do so. Neither did his private spokesman Marty
O’Rourke, although I am told that may have something to do with the House GOP cutting off the
taxpayer-paid staff and consultants Perzel has piled up over the years.

Nor did his chief of staff or anyone else I asked.

Why not say what he paid $100,000 and passed money through two PACs to accomplish?

Perzel told me last May that “I don’t know anything about it” when I asked about the Gates robo-
calls.
They’re not alone in their silence. Roae would only answer a question about it when the calls
against him began. Other questions he declined to answer. Gates did not return six calls and an e-
mail over weeks.

The cat hasn’t gotten everyone’s tongue though.

Roae’s partner in the anti-Perzel coup, Rep. Curt Schroder, R-Chester, says Perzel’s RCR
consultant, Don Raymond, looked for someone to run against him in the 2006 primary, and sent
robo-calls into his district telling people not to sign his nominating petitions.

And as Schroder says, even House Majority Leader Sam Smith, R-Punxsutawney, Perzel’s
former protégé and top leadership ally, says be thinks it’s possible that Perzel hired attack dog
Joe Carduff to dig up dirt on Smith and a bunch of other Republicans so he could seize back the
House GOP leadership.

Except that that plan, just like Perzel’s 2007 speakership plan, and most of the other stuff he has
tried in the last two years, blew up when Carduff went public, right before the leadership
elections when Smith defeated Perzel, one-on-one.

Schroder said of Perzel and his RCR allies: “It is apparent that he used RCR to run his dirty
tricks through and keep certain activities under cover. This looks like one example and hiring Joe
Carduff to oppo-research us is another example.”

Unlike Schroder, I still have an open mind, and some open questions: why did Perzel move all
that money and what did he want or expect 1776 Committee PAC to do with it? Why go through
all those machinations to get Pat Cliggett, a partner at your consulting firm, to spend money?

And for Ms. Cliggett, what political advertising did you buy for the Better Government PAC?
For whom? When? What medium?

Now these folks have been ducking my questions, and may continue to do so. I’m not a DA. But
David Freed is. I’m not an attorney able to depose people. Lowell Gates is, though, and although
Perzel is already feeling deposed from the Speakership and GOP leadership, the third time might
not be the charm for him in depositions.

It will be interesting to see what happens now.