Clean Sweep

DALLAS TOWNSHIP - PACleanSweep visited Luzerne County Friday, supporting some candidates for state office and sweeping others under the rug.

At a rally at the Irem Temple Country Club, the political action committee supported the candidacy of state Senate hopeful Russ Bigus, a republican, and the State Representative bids of Randy Tomasacci and Ed Sieminski.

Every candidate is against the pay raise and a few feel slighted by the organization. They are against it now but we will see what happens when they get to Harrisburg.

John Yudichak (D-119) cries foul:

An anti-pay raise political action committee is supporting a challenger for the only legislator representative in the region who voted against the controversial legislation...."My commitment has existed before CleanSweep ... The most recent pay raise was an opportunity to uphold my principles," Yudichak said. "Not one dime of that pay raise touched my hands."

Cleansweep is in the midst of some sort of civil war.

PAClean Sweep is suffering from a case of political schizophrenia.

Two rival organizations - both bearing the same name - are laying claim to being the springboard for a grass-roots political movement that raised challenges to the incumbencies of legislators across the state. Michele Diehl, a South Greensburg resident, heads one faction and accuses Russ Diamond, founder of the original PAClean Sweep, of selling out the organization by planning to run for governor. She accused him of putting his political plans ahead of the organization's.

"It's a big ego thing," she said.....After becoming involved in PAClean Sweep, Diehl was elected vice chairwoman and began helping to build a statewide organization. Problems developed when the board of directors learned through an e-mail that Diamond was considering running for governor, Diehl said....."We didn't start this organization so he could run for governor," Diehl said.

"We've been treated badly," she said. "We want to clean sweep him."