Ideology rules: Pay-taking Shaner dumped for non-vote
State Minority Leader Bill DeWeese clearly played political hardball by demoting 15 Democrats from House committee assignments, including state Rep. James. Shaner (D-Dunbar) who lost his vice chairmanship of the finance committee. Each of them had voted “no” on the recent legislative pay raise, so the powerful DeWeese basically opted to play musical chairs with his party’s committee assignments, elevating members who had voted in favor of the hike and sending down the power ladder those who didn’t.
Shaner, whose stated intention was to accept the base $11,403 pay hike to fund scholarships back in his district, saw his ox get gored big-time. This was pure Machiavellian politics at its finest, despite the masterful spin coming from the DeWeese camp, which chose to cast the move in a, “We just wanted to reward the guy who took the tough vote, not punish the one who didn’t” type of light.
Thus DeWeese’s unilateral power was wielded to elevate state Rep. Larry Roberts (D-South Union), who supported the pay raise, into the seat of vice chairman of the financial service and banking subcommittee. The moves indisputably prove one thing: If you’re a House Democrat, Bill can giveth and he can taketh away.
The knee jerk reaction, and it’s rooted in a justifiable position, is that a member of the Democratic caucus can and will be punished for not going along with leadership. Shaner said as much, noting, “I think it’s wrong … (and) I’m sure (this) will be the end of the ramifications I will have to swallow.”
With those words Shaner may have uttered the most prophetic and insightful words of his long but otherwise nondescript House career. But let’s take a theoretical look at the likely synapse flow in DeWeese’s brain before passing judgment.
First, Shaner votes no on the pay hike, removing himself from back-home political jeopardy. By doing so, he remains a champion against his greedy peers in big, bad Harrisburg. But in the same breath uttered by many of his no-voting brethren, Shaner admits that yes, he’ll take the extra cash. But not for any personal gain, mind you. He’s going to distribute it as scholarships to the folks back home. What’s lacking in that vague plan are two things: any real detail on how much of the pay raise would go to scholarships, and any real commitment on how long that venture would be funded. There’s no way to verify that any of this ever occurs, or for how long, unless Shaner and those like him voluntarily show someone the proverbial cancelled checks, which they don’t have to do. And chances are pretty slim that anyone is even going to ask, especially one, two or three years down the road.
We also suspect that DeWeese was frosted by another interesting fact. Not only would Shaner get the increased $81,050 base salary without having to vote in favor of it; Shaner also stood to automatically get an extra $4,053 just for being a Democratic committee vice chairman. So he was positioned to be doubly rewarded even though he didn’t put an ounce of his own political capital on the line.
No one’s likely to push that shell game past DeWeese, who unabashedly supported the pay raise and whose subsequent actions were at least consistent with that ideological position.