Adventure$ With Chip:
Something Screwy This Way Comes
By L. R. Petolicchio
Posted April 15, 2008
Yes, I know it is a bit early
for Halloween-type analogies but have you ever noticed how some politicians
are like vampires and just don't seem to want to go away?
Consider ex-Speaker of the
House John Perzel. He is still running around the state sucking cash
from hapless (well, maybe not so hapless) victims, desperately trying to
reassert himself as the ultimate power of evil in the General Assembly
and meddling in races which are none of his affair (just ask Gary Hornberger
in Schuylkill County, whose Republican primary opponent has just received
an infusion of cash from 'hizzonor'). Soon-to-be ex-state Senator
Gib Armstrong is still bottling up legislation in a vindictive response
to the refusal of other Senators to come to his aid in his now abandoned
re-election effort.
Nope, it cannot be denied
that these walking corpses of a past political era just will not go quietly
into the night; rather, they are awaiting a new moon to garner strength
to push open the lids of their political coffins.
For the most ardent of reform-minded
activists and voters, the most significant nemesis of truth and justice
in our times, though, is a former state Senator who not only does not seem
to have gotten the message that he is no longer desired by the people of
his senatorial district but who is actively striving to pull the stake
out of his heart driven into it by the electorate two years ago.
I speak, of course, of David
J. "Chip" Brightbill aka "Count Brightbill."
The assertion that "The Count"
is trying to make a political comeback is not based upon an excessive use
of narcotic garlic or having viewed too many Bela Lugosi movies; rather,
it is founded upon the life-giving sustanence so fundamental to a politicians
ambitions: money.
Indeed, "Count Brightbill"
has not simply been quietly collecting cash for reasons unknown but his
means of reporting it may be skirting the lines of state reporting requirements.
To begin with, unlike most
most ex-legislators who have been soundly defeated at the ballot box (remember,
Brightbill lost by a margin of two-to-one in the GOP primary to Lebanon
County's Mike Folmer), "The Count" never terminated his official
political action committee (PAC) "Friends of Senator David Brightbill."
But what's more disturbing
is the fact that Brightbill's campaign PAC reported collecting almost $25,000
in 2007 according to reports filed with the state, and most of that
money came from two sources:
RJR PAC, Exton
PA - $5,000
Uncashed checks over
one year - $19,990
Making matters even more bizarre
is the fact that $7,000 was transferred from "The Count's" PAC to an outfit
labeling itself the Great
Valley Leadership Fund (GVLF), the only financial contribution this
PAC received in 2007, and which utilizes the same Treasurer and address
as Brightbill's campaign PAC. The Treasurer? One Thomas S.
Long, brother of Lebanon County GOP Committeeman Mike Long, formerly chief-of-staff
of ex-Senator Bob Jubelirer and brother-in-law of "The Count" himself.
And if that doesn't make
you tingle, consider the fact that the only political contribution made
by GVLF was $6,000 to "Friends of Tom Corbett" in September of 2007.
All of which, of course,
raises a number of nettlesome questions:
Why did RJR PAC
give such a substantial sum to the campaign committee of a Senator who
is no longer Senator? Are these guys not aware of the fact that
Brightbill has been out of office for two years, or are they scheming with
"The Count" to try and take another shot at the seat from which he was
so soundly ejected? Fact is that their contribution to Brightbill
was the largest individual contribution they made to anyone in 2007.
Who did not cash almost
$20,000 in checks from Brightbill's campaign? Fact is that in
2007, other than the money passed off to the GVLF, the Count's campaign
PAC did not make any other political contributions. That means the
nearly $20,000 had to have been from payments made during the 2006 campaign.
And while it is not uncommon for a handful of payments by any given campaign
to be waived by loyal supporters, $19,990 exceeds reality.
Why were "Friends of Tom
Corbett" the only beneficiary of GVLF's largesse? Given that
both Brightbill's PAC and the GVLF had the same Treasurer and address,
it's pretty obvious that "The Count" was trying to politically launder
the money, but that doesn't explain why. If ol' Chippy wanted to
give money to Corbett, the why didn't he just do it instead of playing
round-robin? Or did "The Count" not want the Attorney General to
know where the money came from? If so, why?
Granted, "Count Brightbill"
is no longer in public office, so technically what he does with his money
is his business.
Having said that, all of
these twisted financial transactions only lead one to conclude that Brightbill
is deliberately playing games with his money, and the fact that he is using
political action committees - including his own campaign committee - to
politically launder the cash justifies any and all inquires about what
he is doing and why. And should he refuse comment, then the voters
and taxpayers would know for sure that he is up to nothing good.
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