Attorney General race

Apparently, no allegation is too small in the increasingly heated battle to be Pennsylvania's attorney general.

The campaign for Republican Attorney General Tom Corbett on Tuesday criticized Democratic attorney general candidate John Morganelli for not paying $6 in quarters at a Harrisburg parking meter Monday. Morganelli, Northampton County's DA, was in the state's capitol to talk to the Pennsylvania Press Club at its monthly luncheon, an opportunity he used to criticize Corbett for how he has handled "Bonusgate."

But while Morganelli spoke, his car sat parked in downtown next to an expired parking meter. Brian Nutt, Corbett's campaign manager, said a passer-by noticed the car had an official parking pass from the Northampton County district attorney's office tucked inside the front windshield. He alerted Corbett's campaign, which took pictures of the car, the parking pass and the expired meter.

Nutt said Morganelli inappropriately used his parking pass to make sure he would not have to pay the meter or receive a parking ticket.

Republican Attorney General Tom Corbett's campaigns is questioning how Democratic opponent John Morganelli runs his candidacy while apparently not investing in staffers usually required to win statewide office.

Thirty-day post primary expenditure reports filed with the state show Morganelli's campaign did not make payments to any staffers since Jan. 1. It has paid two out-of-state consulting firms a total of nearly $12,000, its most significant investment.

Morganelli counters his campaign didn't need permanent staffers for his uncontested primary, and he's been able to raise money without them because of the contacts he's made as a district attorney in Northampton County for 16 years. 

Attorney General Tom Corbett is fending off questions raised about his own campaign and criticisms from Democratic opponent John Morganelli in the wake of the "Bonusgate" bombshell he dropped two weeks ago.

The criticisms could potentially slow momentum for the rumored GOP gubernatorial candidate after he earned praise immediately following the charges.

A story from the Lebanon Daily News on Sunday detailed how employees of the attorney general's office have taken leaves of absence to work on Corbett's re-election campaign. Although this kind of campaign work is common and far from the accusations leveled Corbett level at the House Democratic Caucus, it did raise the specter of hypocrisy and whether the attorney general should hold himself to a higher standard.