PACleanSweep founder announces bid for governor
HARRISBURG – PACleanSweep founder Russ Diamond announced his candidacy as an Independent for governor, saying he would leave the anti-incumbency organization to campaign for reform in the state’s highest post. Speculation has circulated for months that Diamond would capitalize on his star status as leader of one of the biggest citizens movement in recent history, to run for governor.
Diamond, a Lebanon County businessman, clinched his candidacy announcement with what he said was an exclusive story deal with the New York Times, which published it Thursday.
Bucks County resident Tom Lingenfelter, a rare documents dealer and perennial candidate, will be Diamond’s running mate for lieutenant governor and said he would step down from the PACleanSweep board to do so.
As Independents, together they need to collect a formidable 67,000 signatures, the highest ever in state history, to be placed on the November ballot. They have until Aug. 1 to do so.
Anti-pay raise activist Gene Stilp also is running for lieutenant governor in the Democratic primary, although his campaign is focused on eliminating the $10 million office.
Diamond, 42, laughed off suggestions that his ego had gotten ahead of him.
“Some people think this is a conflict of interest. It’s a conflict of interest not to run,” he said. “I’m going to work to fix Pennsylvania. Ed Rendell and Lynn Swann are not.”
He said he tried to find other candidates, one from each party, to run for governor, but to no avail.
The campaigns of the other two gubernatorial candidates – Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell and Republican Lynn Swann – didn’t seem concerned about Diamond entering the race.
“We’re having a war council meeting in about an hour,” joked Rendell’s campaign spokesman Dan Fee. “It doesn’t change anything about what we have to do to get Gov. Rendell re-elected.”
Swann’s spokeswoman Melissa Walters said she’s not worried about Diamond drawing from the anti-Rendell votes. She said Swann has a reform message, too.
“We feel confident they will choose Lynn Swann,” she said. “Certainly, we need to reform the business tax structure, property taxes, reform in general the way business is done. We need to make it more open – lobbyist disclosure. Enact tort reform.”
History shows that third party and independent candidates like Diamond have not in a century drawn enough votes to be a spoiler, said the director of the Keystone Poll G. Terry Madonna. And Libertarian-type candidates like Diamond tend to draw votes from both sides, Democrats on social issues and Republicans on fiscal issues, Madonna said.
What Diamond has going is the ability to change the substance of the debate in drawing attention to the way Harrisburg does business. But even then he’s on shaky footing as far as precedent, Madonna said.
“Typically, gubernatorial elections in Pennsylvania are about big things, policy issues like taxes, education, jobs,” he said. “Typically, they’re not about the internal sausage making. It’s about the sausage and not the sausage making.”
He believed Swann and Rendell would not even acknowledge Diamond in the campaign until he shows some strength in the polls. That will take money.
“You need about $3 million to raise your name recognition to run for statewide office,” Madonna said.
Right now, Rendell has a $15.4 million campaign war chest, and Swann trails far behind with $1.5 million, according to the online news service Capitolwire.
Diamond said his goal is to raise $2 million to $3 million to be effective, and would accept some political action committee money, especially from pro-business groups.
On a variety of issues, Diamond has staked himself out as a mix of both party ideologies. He said he is against raising the minimum wage, would not ban abortion if it became a state issue, is not against gay marriage and thinks the government should get out of the business of issuing marriage licenses. He said he is unhappy with legalized gambling but would not ban it, and favors a sales tax or an earned income tax increase to reduce property taxes but thinks the real focus should be reducing school spending.
He said his top priority is forming a constitutional convention, where Pennsylvania citizens could discuss changing elements of the state constitution, although doing so would require legislative support.
Lingenfelter, 67, of Doylestown, said he was not staking any strong stances on issues other than reform. He has run for political office 14 times since 1993, for everything from U.S. House and U.S. Senate to county controller and school board.
He’s been alternately a Republican, Democratic and Independent candidate.
Diamond lost by considerably margins in U.S. Congress and state House seat races.
“I’m not issue-driven,” said Lingenfelter. “My issue is, we don’t have a constitutional government anymore – it’s run by special interests and political parties. We have to get back to the basics.”
Diamond said he would formally sever ties with PACleanSweep at a rally Thursday for the more than three dozen recruited candidates running against legislative incumbents.
Diamond said he has left the organization in capable hands with a new board chairman and six members.
The PACleanSweep board fractured over Diamond’s contemplated run for governor, with five breakaway members vowing that they were in control of the organization. Diamond was in tight-lipped negotiations with them for about a month, while asserting he was still in charge.
Thursday, he said the organization doesn’t need him anymore because the campaigns have been launched.
“As far as CleanSweep goes, I say ‘Mission Accomplished,'” he said.
He said he would not seek PACleanSweep’s endorsement. But clearly the name recognition helps him, and he’s not giving up on the perennial pay raise issue. Diamond browbeat Rendell for signing the controversial legislation that raised salaries for top government officials, and he said Swann would have done the same.
“He’s backed by the entire Republican establishment,” Diamond said. “The Republican establishment advanced the pay raise.”
Walters asserted that Swann has said repeatedly that he would have vetoed the pay raise.
Fee said it was “not a substantive argument.”
“The governor has already reformed the way Harrisburg does business,” he said. “That’s why we’re saving over $1 billion a year in reduced expenditures.”
As for Diamond’s seeking the national spotlight for his announcement, he explained he’s been trying to get the national media interested in his political action committee, PACleansSweep PAC.
Alison Hawkes can be reached at 717-705-6330 or ahawkes@calkins-media.com.