This doesn't sound super fucking shady:
http://www.pennlive.com/...
The Corbett Administration went to Commonwealth Court Friday to appeal a state Office of Open Records ruling that, if left stand, would grant the release of hundreds of additional Sandusky-related emails from Penn State.
Penn State alumnus Ryan Bagwell seeks some 644 pages of email exchanges between former state Education Secretary Ron Tomalis, Penn State officials and top aides to Gov. Tom Corbett in the aftermath of former coach Jerry Sandusky's November 2011 arrest on child sex abuse charges.
It is one of a series of requests designed to shed more light on the university's responses to the firestorm over the Sandusky child sex abuse scandal, including development of the controversial Freeh Report.
During the immediate confusion after Sandusky's arrest, Tomalis - who resigned as secretary of education last May - was a central figure in the getting the Freeh investigation under way.
Bagwell has been using Tomalis' automatic seat on the board of trustees as state education secretary - a public office subject to the open records law - as his window into traditionally closed Penn State board communications.
The latest appeal marks the third time State Department of Education officials have fought Bagwell's requests in appellate courts, though the first appeal was eventually settled. - The Patriot-News, 9/15/14
Here's a little more info:
http://triblive.com/...
Tomalis resigned last month following 15 months as Corbett's higher education adviser, making the $139,000 salary he earned as secretary through May of last year. Democrats opposing Corbett's re-election bid in November criticized Tomalis as a “ghost employee.”
Corbett's campaign called the Tomalis matter a “manufactured scandal.”
Tomalis has not responded to numerous requests for an interview.
The email issue flared up in the governor's race on Monday when Fresh Start spokesman Mike Mikus claimed Corbett “is stonewalling the people of Pennsylvania to keep the public from learning the truth” about actions that Corbett, Tomalis and other administration officials took. Fresh Start is an adjunct of the campaign for Democrat Tom Wolf, Corbett's November opponent.
Chris Pack, communications director for the Corbett campaign, shot back: “Tom Wolf and his political cronies should be the last people in the world talking about stonewalling. Tom Wolf refuses to be straight with the voters on his plan to raise the income tax on middle-class families, or his use of the ‘Delaware loophole' to avoid paying his fair share of Pennsylvania taxes.”
The Delaware loophole is the use of legal but questionable deductions companies take to avoid paying corporate income taxes. A store operating in Pennsylvania, for example, can claim expenses paid to its parent or affiliate, usually based in tax-friendly Delaware, for using the corporate trademark.
Sandusky, 70, a former assistant football coach, was arrested for child molestation in November 2011 and convicted of 10 counts in June 2012. Corbett was attorney general when the Sandusky investigation began.
Sandusky's arrest and the subsequent firing of legendary Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno drew national attention, as did a university-commissioned report by former FBI Director Louis Freeh that followed.
Bagwell is seeking emails during the period after Sandusky's arrest and through Freeh's investigation of how the university handled the matter.
Penn State Trustee Anthony Lubrano of Chester County, who switched his voter registration from Republican to Democrat this year, said the appeal “makes me wonder: ‘What do they have to hide?' ” - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 9/15/14
The last thing Corbett wants is another piece of evidence connecting him to Sandusky. That's why he's been campaigning on issue voters don't really care about:
http://readingeagle.com/...
In Gov. Tom Corbett's eyes, nearly every step to improving Pennsylvania begins with tackling the “80,000-pound gorilla” in the room: Overhauling public pensions.
That's what's going to free up spending money for schools and for state programs, he said. That's what's going to stop property taxes from soaring. That's what's going to give Reading and other distressed cities the resources they need to reinvent themselves.
“It drives back to the pension almost every time,” Corbett said, in an interview at the Reading Eagle Tuesday.
Corbett discussed his bid for a second term and his thoughts on issues facing the state and the Berks County area during a wide-ranging 90-minute interview. He also held public campaign events in Berks later in the day. - Reading Eagle, 9/16/14
Meanwhile, Tom Wolf (D. PA) is campaigning on an issue voters care about:
http://www.post-gazette.com/...
On a tour of a Washington County middle school, Democrat Tom Wolf reaffirmed his criticisms of the education funding policies of Gov. Tom Corbett.
Their differing interpretations of the fiscal record have been a staple of the campaign, one renewed in a series of dueling commercials over the past week.
The Corbett campaign insists that the Democrat’s charge that the governor’s administration cut $1 billion in school funding is deceptive, arguing that school districts lost revenue because of the expiration of the federal stimulus program, not because of a cut in state dollars. Mr. Corbett has repeatedly pointed out that purely state funding to education has increased during his tenure.
Mr. Wolf dismissed the GOP rebuttal as semantics and said that by allowing the overall funding level to fall his opponent showed that education was not a priority for his administration.
“I don’t want to get into the weeds on the details,” Mr. Wolf said. “If schools aren’t getting the money, it’s a cut.” - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 9/15/14
So what's Corbett's big plan to try and save himself? Campaign on Wolf's territory:
http://www.pennlive.com/...
If Gov. Tom Corbett's ride into York County afforded an opportunity to survey the political yard signs, he knew he was riding into a place that literally has his opponent's name written all over it.
And as the Republican governor looked around the audience during his speech at the Rotary Club of York, he was seeing people who've known Democrat Tom Wolf since he was a kid, people who've served on boards or were employed by Wolf, and people whose organizations have benefited from Wolf's philanthropic efforts.
If Corbett looked far enough back to his right, he saw the civically active Bobby Simpson, who's featured in a Wolf campaign ad, choking up a little as he talks about Wolf's character.
Tough crowd, as it were.
But York County's Rotarians welcomed Corbett with a standing ovation Wednesday, and they gave hearty laughs at his jokes.
There may be a native Yorker on the ballot, but that's perhaps one of the only circumstances under which there would be such uncertainty about how this Republican-leaning county will vote this fall.
In the 2010 general election, Corbett's ticket took 70 percent of York County's vote.
But York's elections office noted a sizeable shift from GOP to Democratic leading up to last May primary, which the current generation of local politicos said was the first time they could recall a Democratic gubernatorial candidate taking more votes than the Republican.
This is Tom Wolf's backyard, but Corbett campaign spokesman Billy Pitman said the campaign is hoping local general election voters cast ballot for policies, not the local person. - The Patriot-News, 9/17/14
The fact that Corbett has to campaign in a central PA area like York shows how bad of shape he's in. We can and will win this race but we need to get a big voter turnout to also win the State Senate. Click here to donate and get involved with Wolf's campaign, State Senator Mike Stack's (D. PA) Lt. Governor campaign and the Pennsylvania Democratic Party:
http://www.wolfforpa.com/
http://www.stackforpa.com/
http://www.padems.com/