Sen. Orie Facing New Corruption Charges
Posted on Aug. 30 at 11:05 AM
News reports out of Pittsburgh indicate say that state Sen. Jane Orie (R-Allegheny) is facing new criminal charges. Sen. Orie, and he sister Janine, have already been tried once on charges of using taxpayer-funded resources for political campaigning purposes. Those charges were in connection with activities the Orie sisters undertook on behalf of the campaign of a third sister, Joan, in her successful run for the state Supreme Court in 2009.
The trial of Jane and Janine was declared a mistrial in March when it was discovered that at least one of the documents submitted by the defense was a forged letter. The new charges filed against Orie by the Allegheny County District Attorney's office include five felony counts of perjury and six counts of tampering with evidence, two counts of forgery and several other state election code violations, all misdemeanors, according to court papers. Prosecutors allege that Sen. Orie submitted the forged documents in an effort to be declared innocent in the first trial.
The Orie family, led by brother Jack, insist that the sisters are innocent, and have claimed that the prosecution submitted the forged documents in an attempt to avoid losing the first case.
There is no official word yet as to whether the new charges would be folded into the second trial on the original charges of misuse of public resources, or if the two sets of charges would be handled separately. There is also no date specified for the trial or trials.
Reapportionment Commission Opens Website
Posted on August 19, at 11:15 AM Last year ended in a zero and that made it a census year. This year is the year after a census year, and that makes it a reapportionment year. Under federal law, and as a direct result of the U. S. Supreme Court ruling in Baker v. Carr in the early 1960s, all states have to redraw the lines of their legislative districts every ten years to ensure that all the districts have equal population. In Pennsylvania, that means redoing 203 state House districts, 50 state Senate districts and 18 districts for Congress (down from 19 in 2001 due to slow population growth).
The Congressional lines are drawn by the state House and Senate through the mechanism of passing a law. That process is usually done behind the scenes and the public doesn’t get a chance to see any proposals until a bill is actually written and introduced. That is what will happen again this time.
The state legislative lines are done by a five-member Reapportionment Commission that also usually works in seclusion until a plan is ready. This year, however, looks to be different. The Commission has opened a website where anyone can follow the process and compare proposed 2011 district maps with the current districts from the 2001 reapportionment and also those from the 1991 reapportionment.
The Commission’s website was activated with a little fanfare on August 18. It can be found at www.redistricting.state.pa.us. It will be perfect for political junkies (like yours truly) and numbers geeks, but others should also find it to be interesting and informative. The Reapportionment Commission consists of the four floor leaders of the House and Senate: Sen. Dominic Pileggi (R-Delaware); Sen. Jay Costa (D-Allegheny); Rep. Mike Turzai (R-Allegheny); and Rep. Frank Dermody (D-Allegheny). Under terms of the state Constitution, they were to elect the fifth member, but as has happened in the past, they could not agree. So the state Supreme Court inherited the task, and they chose Stephen McEwen, Jr., former President Judge of the Pennsylvania Superior Court.
The Commission has started meeting, and at the same meeting where the members announced the new website, they officially accepted the census data that the reapportionment plan will be based on. They now have until mid-November to approve a proposed plan which will then be open for public comment. Watch www.tivelobbying.com for further updates, or bookmark the Commission site.
Q-Poll Shows Increase for Corbett
Posted on August 4, at 2:55 PM
A new poll by Quinnipiac University poll shows that forty-four percent of all voters approve of Corbett's job performance after almost seven months as Governor. The 44-43 split is an increase from the 39-38 approval rating he had in the Quinnipiac mid-June poll.
Much of the increase is among women, where the Governor's approval rating went from 30 percent in June to 37 percent now. While women still overall give him negative ratings, many of those who were undecided in June have moved to the favorable column. It is possible that much of that may be due to the approval of an on-time budget for the state on June 30.
Among male voters approval of Corbett is at 51-31 percent now, compared to 48-34 percent two months ago.
In contrast to the narrow performance approval ratings, Pennsylvanians like Corbett as a person, 48-15 percent. So while 43 percent of the voters say they don't approve of his policies, only 15 percent say they don't like him. It sounds like maybe some "press the flesh" type public appearances might work wonders for the overall numbers. Still, Gov. Corbett is doing better than his Republican neighbors. Ohio Gov. John Kasich had a negative 35 – 50 percent approval in Quinnipiac's July 20 poll, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie had a 44 – 47 percent score in the June 21.
The poll of 1,358 registered voters was conducted from July 25 to July 31. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.