Wolf Donation To Auditor General’s Congressional Campaign Draws Scrutiny
Eugene DePasquale is the Auditor General of Pennsylvania. Since April 30, he’s been auditing the waiver process that the Wolf Administration used to decide which businesses could be exempt from ordered shutdowns due to the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Depasquale is also running for the U.S. House in the 10th Congressional District, which includes parts of York, Cumberland and Dauphin Counties.
Governor Wolf is not only a major contributor to DePasquale’s congressional campaign, he was also big donor to both of Depasquale’s campaigns for Auditor General. And before that, Wolf contributed $48,000 to Depasqaule’s campaigns when he was running for the Pennsylvania House, as far back as 2006.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette had this to say about the waiver process in an editorial on September 7.
The waiver process was cumbersome and lacked transparency and consistency ― allowing one competitor to open, while another remained closed. Making matters worse, Mr. Wolf stopped processing open records requests, including some about the waivers, citing closed offices due to the pandemic.
The Capital-Star’s reporting on Wolf’s contributions to DePasquale, did not go unnoticed by Republican Scott Perry, the incumbent Congressman in CD-10, who DePasquale is trying to unseat.
The Capital-Star in an article published on Wednesay (September 9), called into question Wolf’s relationship with DePasquale. The Capital-Star points to a June fundraiser on behalf of DePasquale’s campaign for Congress, for which Wolf was the “headliner.”
In an interview with a reporter from a CBS affiliate in Harrisburg, DePasquale said, “I’m tough and fair, no matter who the governor is.”
Tom Wolf’s Wolf PAC is a major factor in Pennsylvania politics. In the recent primary, Amanda Cappelletti received $25,000 from the PAC for her successful campaign to unseat Daylin Leach in SD-17.