Scandal doesn't shake lawmakers to reform

December 20, 2009
By Brad Bumsted
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

HARRISBURG -- Six of the eight legislative leaders who presided over the July 2005 middle-of-the night legislative pay raise have been stripped of power, but substantive reform in the General Assembly remains elusive.

There have been changes around the edges such as eliminating all-night voting sessions and providing more time for consideration of bills. Structural changes, such as term limits, reducing the size of the Legislature and rotating leaders and committee chairs, have barely seen the light of day.

The lack of major reform may seem all the more glaring amid a public corruption investigation by Attorney General Tom Corbett that shines a bright light on legislative practices. The investigation has resulted in charges against 25 former and current legislators and staffers with ties to the House Democratic and Republican caucuses for allegedly using public resources for political campaigns.

"It's absolutely one thing to change the faces, and it's another thing to change the institution," said Bryn Mawr lawyer Mark Schwartz, a former top aide to late House Speaker K. Leroy Irvis, D-Oakland.

Schwartz is convinced a constitutional convention -- a gathering of delegates charged with making changes to the state Constitution -- is the only way to change the way government works.

"The institution right now is in almost complete paralysis," said Larry Ceisler, a public relations consultant based in Philadelphia. "It's a perfect storm that's created an impotent institution."

Pennsylvania has the largest full-time Legislature in the nation with 253 members. It has historically been a leadership-driven system in which seniority counts more than ideas and campaigning at taxpayers' expense has been viewed as the norm.

Corbett has called it a "culture of corruption."

"I do think there have been substantial changes and improvements in the Senate," said Sen. John Eichelberger, R-Altoona, elected as a reformer in 2006. Leaders can no longer wield pressure on members through all-night sessions; there's a moment to take a breath, thanks to the Senate's rule that a final vote on legislation cannot be taken until six hours after the previous vote.

But Eichelberger, who defeated one of the pay raise architects, former Senate President Pro Tempore Robert Jubelirer, wants to see more reform.

"I've got a term limits bill. We're going to introduce it again. It probably won't get a committee vote," he said.

Eichelberger and former Rep. Lisa Bennington of Morningside expressed frustration about how much -- or how little -- gets done in Harrisburg.

"Until people change their ideas on putting so much emphasis on seniority, it's not going to change," said Bennington, who quit after one term and is a divorce lawyer with Pollock Begg Komar Glasser, Downtown. "Senior dinosaur members are beholden to the job. When you're a career politician ... you have to vote the line."

As for reforms such as shrinking the size of the Legislature, Bennington said, "Those guys who have been there 30 years are never going to do that."

Gerald Shuster, a professor of political communications at the University of Pittsburgh, sees change on the horizon, however. "The signs are out there that it won't be business as usual. Citizens won't be satisfied until there's a constitutional convention."

A referendum for a constitutional convention can only be placed on the ballot by the Legislature.

Former Rep. John Kennedy of Camp Hill posed a scenario under which a convention could materialize: If 128 supporters run for the Legislature and win seats, that would be enough in the House (102 votes) and in the Senate (26 votes) to call for a convention.

The root of the issue is that members don't want to give up power, Eichelberger said. "Once they get a position, they like to keep it."

Reform is in the eye of the beholder. While Tim Potts, co-founder of Democracy Rising PA, wants campaign finance to be addressed, conservative Bob Guzzardi of Montgomery County wants to see a "forensic audit" of the General Assembly with the results posted online along with full transparency of legislative discretionary grants.

Democracy Rising is gathering signatures from across the state to pressure lawmakers into voting on a constitutional convention.

Shuster said he believes major changes won't come overnight or even next year. But since the pay raise, and with the criminal investigations under way, lawmakers "can't play the games they once did," he said.

Said Kennedy: "It all comes down to 'Can we take it back to a citizens' Legislature?'"

According to Chaz's attorney Mark Schwartz, a letter has been sent to Sorkin demanding a correction and an apology for the allegedly erroneous story. Schwartz told us the apology should be printed in Vanity Fair, which ran an excerpt of the book in its November issue, along with "other mediums to which Sorkin has access." So let's just say ARS, fearing his life, agrees. How else should he make good with Chaz? On-air apology? Mea culpa via sky writing plane? Errand boy for a year, and all that that entails?