Politicians react to Bonusgate indictments

The Times Herald in Norristown covered a bill signing ceremony on the same day that the Pennsylvania Attorney General announced the indictment of 12 people connected to the House Democratic Caucus on a variety of corruption charges.

The newspaper asked some of the politicians at the ceremony for their reaction.

Here's a sampling of the comments:

"There have been so many rumors for so many months. It makes your stomach turn," said state Rep. Michael Gerber, D-128th Dist.

State Rep. David Kessler, D-130th, pleaded ignorance, saying he didn't have an opinion on the coming charges. "I'm not familiar with that," Kessler said. "I'm a 51-year-old freshman representative."

Gov. Ed Rendell said the indictments show there's a need to reform the Legislature. "This speaks to the need for future reform," Rendell said. "We have to have campaign finance reform. The whole bonus-gate cloud has not prevented the legislature from doing good work. We had a very productive legislative session."

State Rep. Kate Harper, R-61st Dist., said she hoped Corbett's indictments "(don't) damage the reputation of the legislative institution. We're anxious to find out what goes on."

"I used to be a prosecutor and this is a sad day when anybody gets indicted. I hope it doesn't prevent us from continuing on," said state Rep. Bryan R. Lentz, D-161st Dist.

And the well-informed state Sen. Robert Tomlinson, R-6th Dist., said he "had no idea what the charges are and who they are against. The legislature will continue to go on."

Read the full story in today's edition of The Times Herald.