MAYBE RAFFERTY WILL GIVE US A BONUS, TOO

"Rafferty said he had 'zero tolerance' for political corruption.  He said he 'abhored the illegal use of tax payer dollars to enhance political positions,' a reference to 'Bonusgate' the other celebrated case pursued by then-Attorney General Tom Corbett and now by his successor Linda Kelly." (Inquirer 11/30/11)

GOP Attorney General candidate Senator John Rafferty knows that there is still a four-caucus investigation going on regarding the bonuses that he so abhors, right?  As recently as September, an active investigation of the Senate Republican Caucus by a state wide grand jury was still in progress. (Tribune Review 9/12/11)

Perhaps not, but why should this matter to Rafferty anyway, a man who just abhors those bonus payments?

For one thing, his newly-minted Attorney General campaign's chief consultant is the Senate Republicans' former taxpayer-funded "campaign guru" Mike Long.  Long's businesses -- Commonwealth Campaigns and LN Consulting (both located at 121 State Street ) -- have been part of the Rafferty campaign team since 2010.  Check the relevant copies of expenditures in Rafferty's campaign finance reports for yourself here.

Long received more legislative bonus money than any other staffer of either party. (Tribune Review 2/1/07)  Not only did he perform an incredible amount of campaign work over the years, he was renowned solely for his political skills.  As a senior staffer who received enormous bonuses and with a long history of campaign work, Long is one of the suspects the state wide grand jury is still examining.

Furthermore, one of the "associates" in Long's operation is Megan Crompton, the wife of Drew Crompton.  Mr. Crompton is the poster boy for the political bonuses doled out in 2006 by the Senate GOP caucus after receiving a $20,000 taxpayer-funded bonus for working four months on the Lynn Swann for Governor campaign in 2006. (Tribune Reveiw 2/4/07)

Beyond merely surrounding himself with some of the largest beneficiaries of the legislative bonuses he abhors, Rafferty seems to have a more significant problem than just schizophrenic taste.

How does it look for a candidate for Attorney General to hire as a leading member of his campaign team a current target of an on-going grand jury investigation?  What signal does it send to the investigators at the OAG who are still investigating the Senate Republican Caucus' operations during Mike Long's leadership?  Are they sitting over at Strawberry Square worried about doing something to embarrass someone who has better-than-even odds of becoming their next boss?