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Monday, April 06, 2009

What did Bill DeWeese know and when did he know it?

Bill DeWeese has a problem.

Despite denials that he knew that his right-hand man and his chief of staff were using taxpayer money to fund political work done by state workers, DeWeese's fingerprints (actually incriminating e-mails) keep popping up in the Bonusgate corruption probe.

"Bonusgate records contradict DeWeese" is the headline on Page 1 of today's edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer.

From a story by staff writers Mario F. Cattabiani and Angela Couloumbis:
Documents show that in 2006, facing a stiff challenge in an election that DeWeese nearly lost, his campaign tapped a state-paid computer consultant - a key figure in the Bonusgate probe - to perform a long list of political tasks.

Among other duties, that consultant crafted fund-raising invitations and sent out blast e-mails to constituents in DeWeese's district in the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania.

The documents, provided to The Inquirer by a defendant, also indicate that the Greene County Democrat exchanged campaign-related messages with his legislative staffers on state e-mail accounts.

"I love it," DeWeese responded in September 2006 to a legislative aide of his who had just drafted a letter for a constituent to send to the local newspaper supporting the representative's campaign.

"Great work," DeWeese wrote with 44 exclamation points when told by campaign operatives in April that party canvassers had knocked on nearly 600 doors.

State law prohibits public money from being used for campaign-related purposes.
Read the full story at the newspaper's Web site.

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