Harrisburg - Pennsylvania state government is broken and the misuse of public money by officials at the Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA) along with widespread nepotism and alleged corruption is just the latest incident of ethical failure by public officials. The next governor needs to have the right plan to reform government, and the determination and experience to make the right decisions regardless of the consequences.
“Dan Onorato flunked his first real leadership test yesterday by repeating his call for reforms at the DRPA but punting on who should implement them,” said Corbett campaign manager Brian Nutt. “Dan Onorato shouldn’t allow his personal relationship with DRPA Chairman John Estey to cloud the fact that ending the culture of abuse at the DRPA starts with new leadership who wasn’t at least complicit in the failures.”
Onorato and Estey are former law school classmates. Also, Estey was chief of staff to Onorato’s mentor, Gov. Ed Rendell.
“We got a glimpse of the real Dan Onorato, a politician who will say anything to get elected without the toughness to implement reform and effectively govern,” asserted Nutt. “Onorato claims he’s a reformer who wants to curb the power of the special interest, prevent fraud and abuse, and reach beyond the normal insiders to serve on public boards, but he is really just another political insider and career politician who has spent the last twenty years moving from political office to another in Pittsburgh.”
Corbett, who has done more to change the culture of political corruption in Pennsylvania than any attorney general in the history of the commonwealth, has said that when he is elected governor he will replace Estey as chairman of the DRPA with someone who is a competent chairman who will not politicize the authority.
“When asked about the removal of his friend John Estey as DRPA Chairman, Dan Onorato’s instinct to protect the special interest at the expense of the public interest leaves one wondering where’s the real reform he promises?” asked Nutt. “NO WHERE.”
