Do Republican voters not have to show ID for the August 7th Special Election?

SPECIAL ELECTION - AUGUST 7, 2012 - PA STATE SENATE, DIST. 40

Here is another mailer that Rep. Randy Vulakovich sent out to Republican voters. Other than Mr. Vulakovich running with his lie that he doesn't take 'perks' from Harrisburg, there is a interesting little thing about the absentee ballot application that is included. This is what the official PA Department of State absentee ballot looks like. It includes a section asking for your PA Driver's Licence number or the last 4 digits of your Social Security number. However on the Randy Vulakovich absentee ballot application, there is no section asking for identification numbers.

The Democratic candidate, Dr. Sharon Brown, is using these absentee ballot applications that clearly ask for identification numbers.

So why don't the Republicans have to go by the same voter identification laws (that they created and Mr. Vulakovich voted for) and claim that the Voter ID legislation isn't about suppressing the vote?

Why does Randy keep getting away with his lie about not taking 'perks?' When will candidates stop lying in campaign materials? When will the press call them out for these lies?

Randy Vulakovich Mailer to Republicans

SPECIAL ELECTION - AUGUST 7, 2012 - PA STATE SENATE, DIST. 40

Here is a mailer from State Rep. Randy Vulakovich that a Republican voter sent to me. Pretty standard stuff, but I have some issues with Mr. Vulakovich claiming that they have passed balanced budgets when they have ignored the pension crisis that led to a downgrade of the state's credit rating. How does someone get away with saying they 'will protect taxpayers' when the majority of the school districts in the 40th PA State Senate District have raised taxes since Mr. Vulakovich voted for millions of dollars in education cuts since Governor Corbett was elected?

“No perks” Randy Vulakovich amasses more than $20,000 in state perks

FROM THE ALLEGHENY COUNTY DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE:

“No perks” Randy Vulakovich amasses more than $20,000 in state perks

Per diems, state car, excess mileage, and other expenses found in state records show more of the same from Republican wanting to replace jailed GOP senator

(Pittsburgh – July 23, 2012) – As Republican Randy Vulakovich runs commercials in his race for the 40th State Senatorial seat claiming to be a “real reformer” who is “refusing the Harrisburg perks such as per diems and a state car,” the Allegheny County Democratic Committee has discovered that Vulakovich received $20,978.67 in perks from January 2007 to May of this year. The details of the Vulakovich secret perks were found in records of the Office of the Comptroller of the House of Representatives.

“’No perks’ Randy is a fraud,” said Nancy Patton Mills, Chair of the County Democrats. “As a state legislator, he gets more than his share of perks – and plenty of them. He has accepted per diems. He has had a state car. And when he hasn’t had a state car, he has received mileage and other car payments of more than $13,000 -- all of which went directly into his pocket.

“Meanwhile, the people of his district are paying through the nose for both his perks and his policies,” continued Mills. “While Randy has been feeding at the public trough, he has also been voting to cut funding to schools and local municipalities. The schools in his district have had to raise property taxes to make up the difference to keep their quality schools going. This is certainly not a record he should be proud of.

“This special election on August 7 is happening for one reason only – the previous Republican senator engaged in unethical, untruthful, and ultimately criminal behavior, and she was convicted and jailed for violating the public trust,” said Mills. “Now we have another Republican who claims to be a reformer, but apparently sees nothing wrong with lying to the public.

“The voters of this district deserve far better – and electing Dr. Sharon Brown will give them the ethical and honest representation they want and need,” continued Mills. “Dr. Brown has real world experience – as a nurse practitioner, an educator, and a small business owner. She has met a payroll. She knows how to care for people in a time of shrinking budgets. She knows that the schools of the district are a major reason why families move to and stay in the district, and that we must protect them – for now and in the future. And she knows that to continue the same kind of leadership that failed us before will only fail us again.”

Hart vs. Demarco for State Senate District 40

All reports and sources are pointing to a Melissa Hart versus Dan Demarco to replace State Senator Jane Orie (R-Convict). Since it is a very Republican area, the GOP nomination is where the real battle will take place. Considering Jane Orie won with an indictment hanging over her head in 2010, it will be tough for any Democrat to win this seat.

Frontrunners:

Democrat: Dan Demarco - Ross Township Commissioner.

Republican: Melissa Hart - Former State Senator/Congresswoman

Just throwing some names out there:

Republicans: State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, Bob Howard, Karen Shaheen, Robin Redding, Ed Kress, Lou Nudi, Tom Baker

Democrats: Sharon Brown, Jack Goodrich, Brian O'Malley, Brad Cline, Jennifer Rapach, Gerald O'Brien

From the PG: New charges filed against Janine Orie

New charges filed against Janine Orie
Justice Melvin's staff offers testimony

Saturday, December 17, 2011
By Timothy McNulty, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Leaning on new testimony from several current and former workers for state Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin, prosecutors filed a slew of new charges in the ongoing corruption probe against her sisters Janine, her former judicial aide, and state Sen. Jane Orie.

Detectives for Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. filed five new charges against Janine Orie, one of them saying she directed a judicial staffer to destroy campaign computer files before they could be seized by investigators in late 2009.

A grand jury report also includes claims from court workers for Justice Melvin that they have been doing political work for her on state time over two decades in office. No charges were filed against the Supreme Court justice, and a spokesman for Mr. Zappala would not comment on whether any were forthcoming.

Dressed in a red jacket and black skirt, Janine Orie said just one sentence following her arraignment before Magisterial District Court Judge Nancy Longo: "My faith will get me through this."

Her brother, Jack Orie, used slightly stronger words to describe the new charges. "My family is quite disappointed in the amoral district attorney for filing charges with no merit against my sister Janine."

Janine Orie was released Friday night on her own recognizance and is due to appear in court again on Tuesday.

The 29-page grand jury presentment released Friday contains loads of new material claiming Janine Orie -- while an aide to then Superior Court Justice Melvin -- played a key role in working on her sister's successful 2009 Supreme Court run. Her sister Jane, a Republican state senator from McCandless, has been charged with doing similar work in her state office.

The presentment said Janine Orie worked on the 2009 campaign and another in 2003 in court offices; directed other court workers to campaign, sometimes under orders from her two sisters; and when investigators began looking into the work, directed another aide to copy and then destroy campaign-related files on the court computer network.

Read more: http://www.postgazette.com/pg/11351/1197578-54.stm#ixzz1go1sqq4m

Jane Orie needs to resign

As the drama that is the Jane Orie case continues to be dragged out, we are left with a completely ineffective State Senator. She completely avoids all media and the only information we get from her is directly from her office with her spin added to it. I came across this petition a few weeks ago and thought I would share it with my readers. I thought it would gain some traction, but this is further proof as to how ineffective the Democratic Party is in most of the North Hills.

Sen. Orie, please do the right thing and resign from the State Senate.

This petition was created by the Richland Township Democratic Committee (Facebook - Twitter) and only has 3 signatures after 3 weeks. No wonder the Democrats never have any good candidates in the North Hills if this is all they can muster.

From the Post Gazette - Orie wavies hearing

Orie waives hearing, new trial postponed until February

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

By Paula Reed Ward, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


The retrial for state Sen. Jane Orie, R-McCandless, has been postponed until Feb. 13 so that the defense can prepare to try new charges against her with the old.

Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey A. Manning this morning agreed to join the two cases together, after having previously denied the same motion by the defense.

Judge Manning said he had denied the request because it was premature. Once Ms. Orie waived a preliminary hearing this morning on the new charges, which include forgery, perjury and tampering with evidence, the case was automatically bound over to Common Pleas Court and Judge Manning's jurisdiction.

Ms. Orie, charged along with her sister, Janine Orie, is accused of misusing her legislative staff and resources to help run campaigns for herself and another sister, Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin.

The original case against her and Janine went to trial in February but ended with a mistrial after the prosecution alleged that the senator's defense submitted fraudulent documents as exhibits.

Those documents -- and testimony by the senator -- led to the new charges against the senator, which were filed in August.

"We all feel very strongly there should be one more trial to address all the questions and allegations raised," said the senator's defense attorney, William Costopoulos.

Having two trials would be a "bit much for the senator, and it's a bit much for the commonwealth," he said.

Assistant District Attorney Lawrence Claus joined in the motion to try the cases together.

"This way, we're guaranteed ... all that evidence will come in and give the jury the proper perspective," Mr. Claus said.

Did Orie get to see any of the evidence before she went to trial?

Courtesy of the Post Gazette Early Returns blog. The D.A. actually has pictures of Jane Orie's staff leaving the office with boxes of campaign material. Wow is all I can really say.

Orie: Begin finding one

Election Results

Congrats to Toomey, Corbett, Altmire, Orie, and Turzai. Now can we stop partisan bickering for at least a few months? Thanks.

Jane Orie attacks Dan Demarco for a property tax reduction

I went off the other day about Sen. Jane Orie attacking Dan Demarco for raising taxes $15 (or 150%) based on legislation that Orie voted for that raised most of her constituents taxes by 420%. Then little information was provided to me about this 'tax hike' from 2004. The legislation that Dan Demarco voted for to increase the Emergency Municipal Services tax (formerly the Occupational Privilege Tax, currently the Local Services Tax) included a Property Tax CUT for Ross Township Residents. So Dan Demarco voted to REDUCE the property tax from 2.0451 mills to 1.9671 mills. Here is the the PG article.

The PG gives some more detail on the Emergency & Municipal Services Tax, which is essentially a 'user fee', that affects about 22,000 workers in Ross of which 86% don’t even live in the Township but use Ross services. So Dan Demarco was looking out for the people he represented and Jane Orie wants you to think she is the one that will fight for us? I hope the voters see through her games.

Jane Orie: I was for the tax before I was against it.

Sen. Jane Orie has really outdone herself this time. In her most recent mailing she accused her opponent, Dan Demarco, of raising taxes by 150%. Local elected officials in Pennsylvania have very few taxes they can impose or raise. One would assume this 150% tax increase must be property taxes, but that would mean a major increase in property tax millage. Generally our citizens pay very small amounts of our property tax bill towards the municipality. Our school taxes are the largest chunk of our property tax bill. A little research on Ross Township’s property tax rate will find the 8th lowest property taxes (1.97 mils) in Allegheny County. That seems like a pretty impressive record for any elected official in Allegheny County.

So what tax is Jane Orie talking about? She is referencing the $52 Occupational Privilege/Emergency Municipal/Local Services Tax. In 2004 the state gave every municipality the option of raising the tax on citizens that worked in the municipality from $10 to $52. So Dan Demarco and Ross Township only raised the tax to $25. So Sen. Orie is telling us because of a $15 increase in taxes we should vote for her and Dan Demarco is just another tax and spend liberal. Jane Orie wants to scare us with facts and figures, but would we be as scared if she told us that Dan Demarco didn’t raise taxes as high as 110 other municipalities in Allegheny County did?

In order for Ross Township to have this option of raising this tax in 2004 on those that were employed in Ross Township, the state had to amend the local tax enabling law of 1965. So the State Legislature had to approve this new option allowing municipalities to raise this tax. Guess who supported and voted for this tax increase? Sen. Jane Orie. So using Jane Orie’s math, she approved a 420% tax increase in 2004, and now is trying to use that same legislation against her opponent.

I started to think back a few years and I remembered that this isn’t the first time Jane Orie has used legislation that she voted for against a political opponent. When first running for State Senate against a member of the Rooney family she attacked him because the Rooney’s accepted public funding for Heinz field and the implosion of Three Rivers Stadium. The kicker was she voted for the legislation that approved funding to be used for the stadiums and convention center.

Jane Orie, just another power hungry politician grasping at straws.

Dan Demarco Mailers

Letting you all know that Jane Orie isn't the only one sending direct mail in the 40th District PA Senate race.

Why Did Jane Orie get indicted? Hmmm...

Why Did Steve Zappala indict Jane Orie? Hmmmm.....overwhelming evidence is the correct answer. The actual question is misleading since a jury of Orie's peers indicted Sen. Orie (h/t RossRenegade on Twitter):

* Rioja (Intern) testified that beginning in fall of 2009, she personally observed Orie's paid staff members performing political campaign work for Orie's sister, now Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin.

*Rioja became aware that various election and campaign materials for Orie Melvin were being created on Orie's district office equipment, including the photocopier, scanner, computer(s) and telephone(s) which were provided and paid for by the Pennsylvania Senate.

*Rioja testified that a majority of the political work that she observed had been conducted in the Orie office during the legislative workday by senate staffers Joshua Dott (hereinafter "Dott") and Kurt Acker, Esquire (hereinafter "Acker"). Rioja also stated that she had heard Acker state to fellow staffers on at least one occasion that if the Attorney General's Office knew what was occurring in Orie's office, that "they all would be in handcuffs".

*Young indicated via IM that Frantz had been directed to conduct certain campaign work for Orie Melvin's campaign during the legislative workday while at Orie's office.

*That day, after Rioja had submitted her resignation from her internship, Rioja called both the Pennsylvania Bureau of Elections and later the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General to report the political activities that were being carried out at Orie's legislative office. Rioja was told by the person with whom she spoke at the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General that her complaint should be directed instead to the Office of the District Attorney of Allegheny County. Rioja's own telephone records for that day have been admitted into evidence, and they corroborate Rioja's description of the sequence of the phone calls that she made that day that ultimately led to her filing a written complaint with the Investigations Unit of the Allegheny County District Attorney's Office. (Where were you at Mr. Corbett???)

*Pavlot recalled that on October 29, 2009, Pavlot directed Frantz to make phone calls to convents because Orie wanted to deliver letters to nuns promoting Orie Melvin's campaign for Supreme Court Justice.

*According to Pavlot, as per the directive by Orie, Campbell, Frantz, Young and another Orie staffer, Dan Soltesz, all helped to prepare those campaign materials for delivery to the convents; Pavlot admitted that this work was done at the legislative office using senate-owned equipment and supplies, as well as legislative workers who were on state time.

*This Grand Jury takes note of the fact that during the pendency of this investigation, no fewer than fifteen either current or past members of Orie's Senatorial staff have testified under oath before this body that they either participated in, and/or observed non-legislative work occurring during legislative working hours. Staffers reported that directives to do this political and campaign work came from at least three sources: Orie herself, Orie's Chief of Staff, and, in regard to the 2009 political campaign of Joan Orie Melvin, from Orie's sister, Janine Orie. (I'd like to point out that I know someone that did a high school shadow study with Ms. Orie when she was still a State Representative in 1999. He observed campaign work on state time and even had a staffer tell him that it was 'part of the job?')

Did Jane Orie "screw" with the Zappala family? She didn't pass any legislation that has hurt the Pennsylvania Casino Association. She just makes up stories about casino gangsters based on popular movies so that she can frame her crazy arguments.

By the way Jane, your opponent is Dan Demarco, not Steve Zappala! Demarco is a Ross Township Commissioner that is so 'unconnected' that he didn't even decide to run against you until April. Demarco had to get on the ballot as a write-in candidate. If this conspiracy theory exists about the Zappalas and the insider deals, wouldn't the Zappalas have lined up a candidate to go against you this year in February when a candidate can circulate a petition to get on the ballot?

Ms. Orie, I used to have respect for you. I also used to vote for you. These mailers and your campaign is a joke.

Also, why haven't we heard more Joan Melvin Orie's indictment?

The Rest of the Jane Orie Mailers - So Far

I might have more to say later, but sometimes the crazy speaks for itself.

Dan Demarco Mailers

I thought since I was showing off all of Jane Orie's mail, I would let you see what her opponent was sending. Some positive mail pieces from Dan Demarco.

Will these mailers convince you that Jane Orie didn't abuse taxpayer's money?

#1: Jane Orie is not running against Steve Zappala or his family, she is running against Dan Demarco, a Ross Township Commissioner and Harrisburg outsider. Hardly a 'Good Old Boy'

#2 Are we supposed to ignore the nepotism by the Orie family when Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin (Soon to be indicted!) gave Janine Orie a government job working directly for the Supreme Court Justice.

#3 Why everyone ignoring how poorly Tom Corbett handled the intern's complaint?

#4 Did Jane Orie blatantly break the law and use taxpayer money and resources to campaign for her sister because she knew she would be safe from an Attorney General investigation? Does anyone remember this quote from the Trib:
"As a former prosecutor, I understand it's extremely complicated and (the investigation) expands as he goes along," said Sen. Jane Orie, R-McCandless, a former assistant district attorney in Allegheny County. "I'm confident in (Corbett) and I think he has handled this well."

#5 This is a sad display of a power hungry politician and family.

Jane Orie's Fantasy World

I thought I would take a moment to share last few pieces of mail that State Senator Jane Orie has been crushing my mailbox with. If you have ignored every newspaper article about her indictment, maybe you could believe this fantasy world that she is trying to create about how she is 'under attack' and is 'fighting for us.'

Jane Orie has been watching too much Boardwalk Empire:

Seriously, who is she fighting to 'clean-up' the gambling industry? She has held press conferences and put out press releases, but it has all been grandstanding at best.

Fighting for our wallets - to pay her staff to do campaign work:

Sen. Jane Orie's shameful mailing

I thought I would take a moment to share the hypocrisy of one of our State's leaders. Sen. Jane Orie is under indictment on multiple charges of corruption. Even with her upcoming trial hanging over her head, she has the guts to put on a mail piece that she is cleaning up Harrisburg. Is she speaking of the same Harrisburg that I know? A Harrisburg that includes her Republican buddy Tom Corbett ignoring the call from the intern that reported her misuse of taxpayer staff and resources for her sister's Supreme Court campaign? I would only believe the first line of this mailer if she was wearing a janitor's outfit and had a broom in her hand.

I also want to know what she means by 'fighting for us.' I don't believe that 'us' includes me. I believe 'us' only includes those with a name that starts with a J and includes an Orie somewhere.

Today her opponent, Ross Twp. Commissioner Dan Demarco, announced that he is leading her in polls. I hope that the voters see the past Sen. Orie's misleading mailers and think twice before sending her back to Harrisburg.

North Pittsburgh campaigns - State Senate

Does Dan Demarco have a chance at beating Jane Orie?

We all know about the Orie indictment, but will she follow other State legislators that have been re-elected under indictment like Bill DeWeese (D – Greene County) and John Perzel (R-Philadelphia)? The Dan Demarco campaign came on strong to win the write-in nomination on the Democratic side, but I haven’t heard much since. State Senate districts are way bigger than many realize and the Orie’s will bankroll a decent campaign I’m sure to hold onto their power.

Luckily Jane Orie’s trial got pushed back to November. She has always been popular in the North Hills and has crushed quite a few Democrats through the years. I hope the State Democrats and the local Democrats will do what they can to make this a real race, but the lack of news coverage makes me think that Orie has this one in the bag.

Buchanan campaign chief quits in Orie furor

The congressional campaign manager for Mary Beth Buchanan -- a man named Kurt Acker who was formerly a staffer for state Sen. Jane Orie, R-McCandless -- resigned yesterday in the wake of the fraud charges filed against his former boss.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10100/1049364-454.stm