Jim Marshall campaigning in Harrisburg office?

A fan of this blog from Beaver County passed along to me an interesting photo from the Beaver county Times that shows Rep. Jim Marshall working on his campaign while sitting at his office desk in his Capitol office. [photo removed by request]

How can this be? Just like Captain Renault, I was shocked. Shocked, that a Republican House member would be campaigning in the Capitol. So, I checked out the supporting information our Beaver County fan provided with the picture.

Apparently, the skeptically witty political reporter from the Beaver County Times, J.D. Prose, shadowed newly minted state Rep. Jim Marshall for a day in Harrisburg. If you’re interested in reading the story it is titled “Marshall begins legislative career with a bang” in the Sunday, February 4th edition.

The date of Prose’s visit was January 31st, 2007. Keep in mind this was the due date for Marshall's 2006 Cycle 7 Year-end campaign finance report.

Prose snapped this picture and it ran with the story. You don’t have to look too hard to see that Marshall is clearly working on and signing his campaign finance reports at his state funded desk in his official state office. It is even clearer when viewed on your own computer. See below on how to have the picture sent to you to see for yourself.

You say that Marshall could be working on a document that merely resembles the campaign finance report form found at this link? http://www.dos.state.pa.us/campaignfinance/lib/campaignfinance/050forms_online/cf_report_rev_10-03.pdf

That is a very fair question, so I asked our fan from Beaver County for better proof than just this picture.

That is when I was provided with the cover page of the Marshall campaign finance report filed on the very day the photo was taken -- January 31st, 2007.

It was signed by Rep. Marshall on January 31st, and it was necessarily signed in Harrisburg because the notary is a Dauphin County notary.

It seems to be pretty compelling evidence that Rep. Marshall was, in fact, working on his campaign report at his official state desk in his state funded Harrisburg office. However, I was still a bit skeptical that Rep. Marshall would really be working on his campaign in his office.

That is when our fan pointed out to me that the notarization was by Judy Jehu, an Administrative Assistant in the House Republican Caucus. This very same Judy Jehu received a $1,817 bonus.

A picture that clearly shows a campaign finance reporting form on a date that the finance report was due signed in Harrisburg and notarized by an employee of the House Republican Caucus. That adds up to fairly compelling proof that this photo is of Rep. Marshall working on his campaign in his state office at his state-funded desk.

As Captain Renault has said all along regarding the bonusgate investigation, I am shocked. Shocked that this is happening in the Capitol.

I wonder if Attorney General Tom Corbett will speak with Rep. Marshall about this? Or Ms. Jehu and her supervisor Mary Geiger? Or Geiger’s supervisor, Bernadette Runk? Perhaps Runk’s supervisor Tony Aliano?

Oh, wait. Corbett has put a moratorium on his investigation of Republicans in the bonusgate affair. How convenient for the Republicans, especially considering House Republican candidates will need Ms. Jehu’s notarization services next week when campaign finance reports are due again.