Greg Hopkins

Bill DeWeese

State Rep. Bill DeWeese (D-Greene County) said in an interview with The Observer-Reporter last week that he will not run for re-election as majority leader.

He'll vie for majority whip instead, he told the paper, while supporting state Rep. Todd Eachus (D-Luzerne County) for his old position.

"(Eachus) has been at the head of our campaign committee, and over the last many months he helped deliver the majority by an overwhelming work ethic," said DeWeese, who added he thought state Rep. Keith McCall (D-Caron County) would become speaker of the House.

DeWeese has been embattled in recent years, surviving two difficult re-election fights against Republican Greg Hopkins while fighting off allegations he is connected with "Bonusgate."

WAYNESBURG -- Just minutes late Thursday night after securing a victory most thought wouldn't happen a few months ago, Bill DeWeese had a few parting shots for his Republican opponent Greg Hopkins.

Hopkins, whom he narrowly defeated in 2006, ran an "aggressive, abrasive" campaign, the House Majority Leader told reporters as throngs of supporters celebrated around him.

But when people scrutinized him they realized they didn't like what they saw.

"He was an empty suit," said DeWeese, who called Hopkins' debate performance "pathetic."

Preliminary results posted on the Department of State's website show DeWeese won 54.6 percent of the vote, earning roughly 2,000 more votes than Hopkins. He won 52.7 percent of the vote in 2006, about a 1,000 more votes than Hopkins.

WAYNESBURG -- Preliminary early voting results in the 50th Legislative District show House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese winning several precincts he lost in 2006, including some areas of Waynesburg, a population center in the district.

He faces Republican Greg Hopkins in a rematch of a 2006 contest he won by little more than a 1,000 votes.

DeWeese supporters gathered at this election night headquarters are overwhelmingly positive about his chances tonight. 

House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese (D-Greene County) told PolitickerPA.com in a brief interview Monday that he's more confident about his re-election chances Tuesday than he was two years ago.

The majority leader squeaked by Republican Greg Hopkins in 2006 by little more than 1,000 votes. The two are currently in a 50th Legislative District rematch expected to be just as close as their last race. But the longtime lawmaker said circumstances have changed. The election two years ago was dominated by the legislative pay-raise of 2005 that swept 50 incumbents out of office.

"I think the pay-raise was an incandescent moment in history of the assembly, and we were all perceived as intimately involved," DeWeese said.

This year appeared poised to be dominated by another voter uproar when 12 former and current House Democratic lawmakers and staffers were charged in connection with "Bonusgate." DeWeese was not one of the those initially charged, but he has since been linked to the scandal by his former chief of staff, Mike Manzo.

The majority leader, however, thinks "Bonusgate" is much different than the pay-raise because he said his constituents are aware he worked hand-in-hand with the attorney general's office during its investigation. Manzo was the ringleader, not him, Deweese said.

"This is not the issue the pay-raise was," DeWeese said.

The lawmaker touted his grassroots organization, which he said his him poised for re-election.

I'm "cautiously optimistic," he said.

This article is by Dan Hirschhorn in Philadelphia and Alex Roarty in Harrisburg.

With Election Day less than two weeks away, PolitickerPA.com turned to resident political insiders to help determine which state House races are the most competitive in Pennsylvania. As Democrats try to expand their narrow majority, Republicans try to take back control of the chamber and candidates throughout the state encounter changing demographics in the electorate, there is no shortage of tightly-contested races.

The five ranked below, starting with the most competitive and with incumbents listed first (one open seat being the exception), are just a way to start the conversation.

Don't agree with the order? Think we've left important races out? Want to make a list of your own? We invite you to post comments.

The campaign for House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese (D-Greene County) has released a new TV ad that criticizes remarks made by his opponent, Greg Hopkins, when he said the 50th Legislative District "has become sort of a welfare society" during a debate.

The 30-second spot, which the campaign said will air on cable and Pittsburgh network TV, starts by describing Hopkins as an outsider who has worked in Indianapolis, New York and California.

"We're not a welfare society, and he'd know that if he lived here," the spot's narrator says.

It's the kind of hard-hitting ad necessary for DeWeese as he battles in what most observers consider the fight of his political life. DeWeese beat Hopkins by little more than a thousand votes in 2006, and since then the majority leader has beset by "Bonusgate"

DeWeese himself was directly implicated earlier this month in the scandal when his former chief of staff, Mike Manzo, said he helped mastermind a plan that paid taxpayer-funded bonuses to legislative staffers in exchange for political work.

The longtime incumbent has denied any involvement.

A surge in voter turnout and success at the top of the Democratic ticket will likely propel House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese (D-Greene County) to re-election despite last week's bombshell testimony from the longtime incumbent's former chief of staff, a southwest Pennsylvania political science professor tells PolitickerPA.com.

DeWeese faces a rematch this fall against Republican Greg Hopkins, whom he defeated in 2006 by little more than a 1,000 votes. Since 2006, DeWeese has become embroiled in the latest Harrisburg scandal, "Bonusgate," which Hopkins has used to portray the majority leader as corrupt and out of touch.

Bonusgate might have been enough to push Hopkins to victory in 2006, said Joseph DiSarro, chairman of the Washington & Jefferson College department of political science. But 2008 has "a new set of variables," he said, primarily a presidential election likely to drive many longtime Democrats who didn't vote in 2006 to cast a ballot this year. 

"Turnout is going to be much higher," DiSarro said. "(2008 and 2006) are absolutely different scenarios."

The shocking accusations from his former chief of staff that Bill DeWeese knew about illegal bonuses paid to caucus staffers for working on campaigns ignited a palpable buzz in the Capitol that could be felt from lobbyist scurrying in the rotunda to TV cameras focusing on the majority leader's office.

But the most pertinent question this fall isn't how Michael Manzo's "Bonusgate" testimony will affect Harrisburg.

Rather, it is: How will Manzo's accusation affect DeWeese's home district in Greene County, where he faces an already difficult re-election challenge against Republican Greg Hopkins?

It won't, according to DeWeese, who has denied any involvement in "Bonusgate." The majority leader told PolitickerPA.com in an interview that Manzo, who's also been indicted in connection "Bonusgate," already lost credibility with residents in the 50th Legislative District when his affair with Angela Bertugli, a local beauty queen, was made public in the attorney general's presentment.

House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese (D-Greene County) fires back at his accuser in front of a fleet of reporters: Politicker Photo

Embattled House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese fired back at a former aide's accusation that he knew about illegal bonuses paid to House Democratic staffers, calling the accuser a "desperate, disgruntled former employee."

Michael Manzo, DeWeese's former chief of staff, made the explosive testimony Wednesday morning at a Dauphin County courthouse.

DeWeese started his prepared remarks, which he made just outside the state House after emerging from the chamber, by saying he would normally not comment on a court case.

"But because of the seriousness of the situation, let me say this: Mike Manzo's speculation that I knew about his criminal acts is absolutely false and there is no evidence to support his opinion," DeWeese said. "In fact, the grand jury described in detail the steps that those now charged took to keep their scheme secret."