Newspaper: Thorns to Rendell

From the editorial page of The Pottstown Mercury:

THORNS to Gov. Ed Rendell for violating his own hiring freeze for the third time in the past six months to give a high-paying state job to a politically-connected Democrat. Rendell has made another exception to the hiring freeze he imposed last fall, offering a $102,000-a-year state job to ex-state Rep. Mike Veon's lobbying partner, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Her name is Colleen Kopp and she is Rendell's new senior deputy secretary for legislative affairs. Veon, the former No. 2 ranking Democrat in the state House, is right smack in the middle of two of the biggest corruption scandals in Pennsylvania political history. He is facing charges involving the Bonusgate scheme in which millions of dollars were awarded to state workers for allegedly conducting political work on taxpayers' time. Veon has also been charged in a scheme involving misuse of state money to fund a nonprofit organization that received $10 million from the state. Kopp has not been charged with any wrongdoing. She does, however, have a long association with Veon, including stints as executive director and chief of staff of Veon's legislative staff. Kopp is the third prominent Democrat hired by Rendell since the hiring freeze was imposed.