May 8, 2007 2 min read

Now that he’s retired from office, why can’t former state Rep. Larry Roberts simply take comfort in knowing that his “yes” vote on the July 2005 pay hike and subsequent acceptance of the money right away in the form of “unvouchered expenses” (which were later declared illegal) gave him one last chance to reach deep into the taxpayers’ pocket?

If he’s bored with that, Roberts could reminisce on his landmark achievement after 14 years in the state House of Representatives, a bill that brought cable television to tiny Ohiopyle Borough. He could even read through his mountainous stack of self-serving brochures, where he constantly pledged to work for tax reform that’s yet to occur.

Instead, we have Roberts injecting himself into the re-election campaign of his son, Fayette County Controller Mark D. Roberts, who by the minute seems to be facing a stronger challenge from Sean P. Lally. Perhaps that’s why Larry Roberts, for reasons that defy logic, filed but quickly withdrew a challenge to Lally’s Fayette County voter registration.

That Larry Roberts withdrew his complaint so quickly (within two days) proves the weakness of his original allegation. But a lack of substance in his allegations of wrongdoing hasn’t deterred Larry Roberts before (see, “Hercik, Jim” under “exonerated chief assessors”), so we see no reason that he’d change his tactics now.

While Larry Roberts is free to throw the full weight of his political support behind his son, this latest move seems like an act of desperation to a campaign already reeling from Mark Roberts’ failure to have Lally removed from the Democratic primary election ballot. That attempt failed in Fayette County Court, despite hundreds of Lally nominating petition signers being subpoenaed to testify, and an appeal by Mark Roberts was rejected by a state court.

Then came a mysteriously mailed packet containing information about Lally’s 2004 business-related bankruptcy, which consequently dredged up reminders of Mark Roberts’ own 1998 bankruptcy.

Now we have Larry Roberts entering the fray in full force, making hay over whether Lally is registered to vote in Fayette, which Lally is.

None of this political game-playing has anything to do with which candidate would better serve as county controller. We’d like voters to focus on that aspect of things -and for Larry Roberts to realize that he’s already had his turn at elected office with lackluster results.