LD-50

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 DeWeeseYoung Conservatives of Pennsylvania has aired a new radio ad in House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese's (D-Greene County) district that takes aim at the incumbent for halting seven reform bills approved unanimously by the state Senate.

The ads, according to YCOP President Chris Lilik, are meant to pressure DeWeese to allowing votes on the measures, which range from preventing bonuses to state employees and requiring government salaries to be posted online.

But they also provide a boost to DeWeese's Republican challenger this fall, Greg Hopkins. The spots take direct aim at the longtime incumbent's reform credentials, reminding voters of his role during the unpopular 2005 pay-raise and the role his former chief of staff allegedly played in the Capitol's most recent scandal, "Bonusgate." Those scandals are tied to the seven bills sitting in the House.

Republican candidate Greg Hopkins, left, volunteer Bryan Snyder, center, and "soldier" Wayne Hart, right, prepare to campaign.: Politicker PhotoWAYNESBURG -- Greg Hopkins knew Oliver Stockdale would be his worst nightmare, but the Republican state House candidate still made sure he, and not one of his campaign volunteers, knocked on Stockdale's door Thursday afternoon. It was as if the Bill DeWeese sign planted in Stockdale's front yard issued a challenge to the Republican state House candidate, who was going door-to-door in this Waynesburg community to drum up support for his campaign.

Can you convince a DeWeese loyalist that the 32-year-incumbent no longer embodies Greene County values?

In this case, no. The nearly 77-year-old Stockdale listened to Hopkins, said he liked him, and then promptly told him there's no way he, or any other Democrat is the 50th Legislative District, is voting against DeWeese.

"You're a good man," Stockdale said as he leaned against his front porch swing, "but there'll be no money from the state going to Greene County if you're elected."

Hopkins countered that he can get just as much money for the county as DeWeese does and reminded Stockdale that he won the popular vote in Greene County when he faced DeWeese in 2006.  The two men argued for several minutes, but smiled and shook hands when Hopkins had to continue his door-to-door campaign.

The encounter was a reminder that despite the turmoil DeWeese has been through the last three years, he still retains a loyal group of supporters in the heavily Democratic district.