Bruce Castor

I received an email from a prominent Montgomery County activist towards the end of last week saying County Commissioner Bruce Castor was at fault for the Jim Matthews/Joe Hoeffel bi-partisan coalition because Castor first went to Hoeffel and offered the same deal.  After talking to Commissioner Hoeffel we can confirm that rumor is just that, a rumor. 

So what was the story behind the deal that was struck to share power when there are two Republicans and one Democratic County Commissioner?

NORRISTOWN - While announcing a voter registration drive he hopes will bring recently departed Republicans back to the GOP, Montgomery County Republican Committee Chairman Robert Kerns took an opportunity to again invite back the party's most high-profile defector: County Commissioner Jim Matthews.

Ever since Matthews, a Republican, formed a power-sharing agreement with fellow commissioner Joe Hoeffel, a Democrat, Republican Commissioner Bruce Castor has been cut out of power, and the GOP has had trouble controlling the county agenda. The political battle has pained county Republicans.

Appearing at the county courthouse here Tuesday afternoon, Kerns said: "What Jim Matthews did is what he decided to do-we're working on bringing him back."

Asked to clarify following the brief news conference, Kerns did not point to specific efforts being made to court Matthews but said it was up to Matthews to "show that he wants to work with Bruce."

"What we're trying to show is the Republican Party is open," he said.

It's been a frustrating six months for Republican Bruce Castor. The former Montgomery County District Attorney was elected to a county commissioner's seat last year, but he had barely taken office when he found himself cut off from political power, the victim of a bipartisan power-sharing agreement between his two colleagues.

Still, even as Republican Joe Hoeffel and Democrat Jim Matthews have left Castor as the odd man out on the three-member county board, Castor has kept talking, and kept pushing his agenda, even if he lacks the power to carry it out.

His latest salvo: an appearance on the Norristown courthouse steps Tuesday where he again lambasted his fellow commissioners while presenting his own policy agenda.

"I am disappointed to say that I don't believe that we can point to any accomplishments whatsoever of any significant nature in those six months," Castor said, according to The Inquirer.

Castor was joined by more than a dozen top county Republicans, but not his fellow commissioner, The Inquirer reports.

Both Matthews and Hoeffel defended themselves against assertions that little progress had been made.

"We've done some very important things in very large areas that Bruce has either not participated in or has opposed," Hoeffel told The Inquirer.