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Luzerne County State Rep. Todd Eachus , who ran the Dems' fall campaign effort, wants to be the majority leader of Pennsylvania House after some modest success increasing the Democratic majority by 2 seats. He is taking on current House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese and Frank Dermody of Oakmont.
From a PR:
“The people of Pennsylvania spoke clearly last Tuesday. They want access to affordable health care for people of all ages. They want to know their children are getting a good education. They want to know that there will be good jobs available for them and for future generations. They want safe roads and bridges and a brighter future for all of us.”
We all want those things but his support of the fantasy cargo airport near Hazleton gives me pause. He inserted a $16.5 million authorization for the cargo airport in a House bill listing projects under the Pennsylvania Gaming Economic Development and Tourism Fund. Shortly after that I got a curious piece of mail from Eachus paid for by the taxpayers claiming 100,000 jobs could be created. It was unusual because I'm not even in his district. So far there is no anchor tenant such as FedEx or DHL. Well, forget DHL. The slots money was supposed to be used to lower our property taxes and people like Eachus keep finding new ways to spend it on other projects. Enough of that. They really need to rewrite that law.
According to Capitol Ideas, who gets to read Capitolwire because he has an expense account, DeWeese is probably going to win re-election to his leadership post "unless, of course, he doesn't."
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www.campaignfinanace.state.pa.us
Donation given to Frank Shimkus
FRIENDS OF FRANK SHIMKUS
SCRANTON, PA 18510 3/31/2008 $2,500.00
Description: CONTRIBUTION
Filer/Payer: EACHUS, TODD FRIENDS OF
Report: 2008 Cycle 2
http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews+articleid_2469063~title_Eachus--Links-to-Workers.html
As the chairman of the House Democratic Campaign Committee, Eachus appropriated thousands from the committee to pay the campaign debts of one of the charged representatives, arguing at the time that the representative had been "dedicated" and "meant a lot to" the committee.
A Times Leader review of campaign finance reports for Friends of Todd Eachus shows the committee made three donations totaling $9,200 in 2006 to the Committee to Elect Mike Veon.
Veon was voted out of office in 2006, but his campaign committee was still in debt. Records show two payments totaling $40,683 from the House Democratic Campaign Committee to Veon's campaign committee in November and December 2007. Eachus acknowledged he individually authorized those allocations.
Eachus' committee also donated $1,000 to Citizens for Sean Ramaley in April. Ramaley, a Democrat representing the 16th Legislative District in Beaver County, was charged with six counts of theft and conflict of interest, and is accused of taking a part-time, no-show job as a legislative aide in Veon's office while running for the state House in 2004.
Just food for thought.
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