Morganelli links absence of charges, Corbett's campaign contributions

Democratic attorney general candidate John Morganelli on Monday told PolitickerPA.com that his incumbent opponent, Republican Tom Corbett, avoids indicting his campaign donors before Election Day after announcing his office will not present any additional "Bonusgate" charges before Nov. 4.

Citing a 2007 report by Capitolwire.com, the Northampton County district attorney said Corbett in 2004 received $2 million from GOP-men such as state Rep. John Perzel (R-Philadelphia) and former state Senate Majority Leader David Brightbill.

But although Morganelli linked the absence of indictments with campaign contributions, he declined to label Corbett's investigation "partisan."

"What (Corbett's) motives are, I don't know," Morganelli said.

Brian Nutt, Corbett's campaign manager, said four- and five-year-old contributions do not have any influence over the attorney general.

"Tom Corbett took an oath of office to uphold the laws of the commonwealth and root out corruption," Nutt said. "He has done exactly that. It doesn't matter who he came in contact with and may or may not have taken contributions from."

Contributions don't equal favors for Corbett, Nutt said. He asked if the same was true for Morganelli, who he said takes contributions from high-profile members of his party just like every other statewide candidate.

"Apparently John Morganelli takes contributions because there's a wink and a nod given," he said.

Morganelli has consistently criticized Corbett this year for "mishandling" Bonusgate, saying the attorney general helped the Republican House and Senate caucuses  "clean up their house" by initially investigating only the House Democratic caucus.

So he said he wasn't surprised Corbett won't have time to indict anybody else before Oct. 1, a pre-election deadline Corbett imposed to make sure his office's investigation doesn't have an "undue influence" on voters.

"Two weeks ago he decided to wake up and investigate the other caucuses," Morganelli said.

He also took issue with Corbett's concern that an October or early November indictment would cast "undue influence" on the election.

"That to me is ridiculous because he's already influenced the outcome of the election," Morganelli said.

"Why do Republicans get a free pass?" he asked. "Because he didn't do anything for 18 months on their end."

Nutt said Morganelli's criticism is another round is what has been a negative and misleading campaign.

"He says things that are ridiculously false," Nutt said.

Asked about Morganelli's criticism of the investigation's timeline, Nutt said the district attorney doesn't know any of the investigation's details.

"He should stick to things he knows, which aren't a lot, but he should stick to those," Nutt said.