Allegations from 'Bonusgate:' Opposition research pervaded caucus

Every morning this week, PolitickerPA.com will publish an allegation from the "Bonusgate" presentment released Thursday by Attorney General Tom Corbett. Although the indictments have received intense scrutiny, many interesting stories within the voluminous presentment have still gone unreported.

PolitickerPA.com reminds readers these are still only allegations, and each person implicated is still innocent until proven guilty.

Opposition research was such a major effort within the House Democratic Caucus that much of an entire legislative office was dedicated to it, Attorney General Tom Corbett alleges in his presentment.

In early 2005, Eric Webb, newly appointed director of Office of Member Services, sent a memo to Minority Whip Mike Veon (D-Beaver County) and former Bill DeWeese chief of staff Mike Manzo detailing his plan to centralize all opposition research in his new office, according to page 50 of the presentment.

Webb later testified his plan came to fruition under Manzo and Veon's leadership, and OMS staffers would later tell the grand jury they did almost no constituent services from 2005 to 2006, the presentment says.

The attorney general went into great length to describe how time consuming the operation was. The presentment says state workers would visit every courthouse that might contain public records of the opponent and could even discover what magazines the candidate purchased.

The presentment said one unidentified OMS staffer detailed what they would look for.

"To put it bluntly, you look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of each person, their voting history, whether they have any civil suits, whether they have any criminal suits, whether they pay their taxes, what news articles are out there, their work history, and their family history," page 51 of the presentment reads. "I mean, it has just about everything that you can find in them, and the person overall; what properties they own, their house, you know, their family, their kids, what college they went to, the whole nine yards. It has everything in it."