PACleanSweep hierarchy in chaos
HARRISBURG – After building an organization of 99 candidates to challenge incumbent lawmakers, the anti-pay raise group PACleanSweep has sunk into chaos at the highest level. Two factions are vying for control over the board of the citizens group, which arose in the aftermath of last July’s pay raise with the populist mantra: “Vote ’em all out.”
One faction is led by founder Russ Diamond, who maintains control over the group’s Web site and tools of communication and insists he’s still the chair. The other represents a majority of board members who voted to remove Diamond from his post earlier this week after he called for the resignation of all nine members.
The group’s internal strife threatens to undermine what has become the largest citizens’ movement in recent Pennsylvania history, giving a voice and message to widespread discontent over the pay raise and secrecy in state government.
PACleanSweep has generated a record number of challengers to incumbents who have faced little political opposition in their home districts in decades.
But just as the candidates are gearing up for the first big test, the May primary, divisions within the organization erupted into internecine warfare.
“The timing of this is not good at all,” said G. Terry Madonna, director of the Keystone Poll at Franklin & Marshall College. “The only thing that holds PACleansweep together is, ‘Throw the rascals out.’ That may be the only thing they can agree on.”
The trouble seems to have started when Diamond announced to fellow board members in early March that he was considering a run for governor as an independent. Diamond said he intended to bow off the board and asked the members for help in taking over operational duties.
When no one volunteered, Diamond sent a memo to board members Tuesday asking for their resignations. Four of them apparently sent them in. The other five refused and later voted Diamond out of his chairmanship seat, establishing a new chairwoman in former vice chair Michele Diehl of South Greensburg. They also voted in a sixth board member.
The faction sent out a press release Thursday afternoon asserting that they were in charge. But Diamond says they are not because they don’t control the group’s primary operational tool, its pacleansweep.org Web site.
“They just want to have control,” he said. “But if you want to steer a ship you have to have access to the wheel house.”
Diamond claims the vote doesn’t hold. For one, it was done without the four other board members, who despite handing in resignations were still officially on duty. Also, the vote over e-mail was taken close to midnight and lasted 23 minutes, far from the 48-hour voting period required in the group’s bylaws, he said.
But the separated board members said they saw Diamond in a power grab. They said the group’s bylaws also state that involuntary resignations must be done with a two-thirds supermajority vote.
“I interpreted it to be him not stepping down, or unilaterally trying to dissolve the board and show up under a new one,” said Jerry Kelley, a board member and Harrisburg-area resident serving as the spokesman of the five. “His actions at this point leave me at a loss and confused.”
Diamond still remains as a member of the board, Kelley said.
“It’s pretty classic dirty politics,” said Tom Lingenfelter, a board member from Bucks County who’s sticking by Diamond. “Russ was trying to reorganize and rather than them participating like rational, sane people, apparently they wanted to do something different. Russ is CleanSweep. He created it and invited people to join his party and, instead, they trash it.”
Just how the board’s implosion will affect the group’s candidates as they seek to toss out incumbents is a matter of debate. Some of them said they still feel secure campaigning under the PACleanSweep name.
PACleanSweep hasn’t given much financial support, and at most provides advice and information for candidates to shape their campaigns.
“They just provided me with the avenue to get involved,” said Larry Lefkowitz, who’s running to be on the Democratic ticket to unseat Bucks County Rep. Matthew Wright. “PACleanSweep is aligned with the pay raise issue and the need for reform in Harrisburg. I don’t see why that message should change at all just because there’s some disagreement with the board on something I have nothing to do with.”
“I don’t think it should have an impact on campaigns,” said Dan Roman, the Beaver County coordinator for the group. “The basic idea of CleanSweep is still alive and doing well, regardless of who’s in charge.”
But Fayette County Democrat Robert “Bobby” Danko, who’s seeking to unseat House Democratic Leader H. William DeWeese in the primary, was uneasy by the development.
“This is a shock to me,” said Danko, also the Fayette County treasurer. “I just felt, with not much money to run on, it would get my name out. I don’t want to be a part of something where there are problems.”
Madonna said the extent to which the board’s problems will impact the races rides on how decentralized the group is. The group’s internal ruckus could give fuel to incumbents, but many voters don’t know the group well or care about the internal baseball, he said.
“This can be very distracting. The turmoil can have an effect,” he said. “But voters are not going to cast votes for legislators because of … CleanSweep. That’s the vehicle.”
For now, Diamond is putting on a cheerful face, calling the muck-up a “family squabble.” He said he would continue screening new candidates and providing help to others with his four-member board, perhaps adding a couple new board members. Diamond said he is “not running for governor yet.”
“I don’t think this is anything the candidates need to worry about because the spirit of the movement has been transferred to them,” Diamond said.
But Kelley said he saw the dispute tarnishing the group.
“That’s the most unfortunate aspect of this internal dispute,” he said. “We have done so much good in raising candidates and increasing the level of awareness … But I’m not sure what else could have happened. Russ precipitated this in my view. This is a failure of leadership on his part.”
Dan Wiedemer, executive director of the House Democratic Campaign Committee, said he’s not surprised at what’s happened given the egos involved. Diamond has vied for political office twice before (for U.S. Congress and a state House seat) and has been using the organization as a platform, Wiedemer said.
“Russ Diamond running for governor is about as surprising as a crowded bar on St. Patrick’s Day,” he said. “I think a lot of people in political circles saw this coming – a two-time political candidate using this platform for his own gain.”
Wiedemer said he doesn’t think the development will change the campaigns much because he wasn’t predicting a CleanSweep candidate would win anyway.
Alison Hawkes can be reached at 717-705-6330 or ahawkes@calkins-media.com