Fayette Searchlight

In a May 18, 2015, decision by a single, senior judge of the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, Senior Judge J. Wesley Oler, Jr. (not the original judge — Senior Judge James Gardner Colins!!!!), dismissed the Petition requesting the Commonwealth Court (upon failure of The Friends of Tim Mahoney campaign committee to submit three vouchers) to mandate the PA Dept. of State, Bureau of Commissions, Elections and Legislation (BCEL), to issue the mandatory directive under PA Election Code law to direct The Friends of Tim Mahoney campaign committee to deliver its vouchers to the supervisory office.  The Petition also sought to name The Friends of Tim Mahoney as a party to the matter.

See:  70 MD 2015 Dismissed

What began as a quest to see the Friends of Tim Mahoney vouchers, turned into a quest to save the law in order to vindicate the right of requesters (persons) to see the particulars of campaign expenditures (i.e. vouchers, i.e., receipted bills) as provided for in law.  The three-year quest metamorphosed because the courts in their errant decisions deracinated, eviscerated, and (ultimately) obliterated the law.

Now thanks to the courts (which refused to follow their very own case precedents and the plain meaning of the law) and thanks to the voucher-hiding, enemy of transparency State Rep. Timothy S. Mahoney (D-51), his arrogance, and his recalcitrance, the law has been vanquished and is now a dead letter.

Today would be the last day to undertake an appeal in 70 MD 2015; however, an appeal will not be undertaken.  The reason an appeal will not be undertaken is not because this Petitioner is not right on the merits of the case; the reason an appeal will not be undertaken is because the courts refuse to address the merits of the case and the arguments.  Instead, the courts simply uphold the errant decisions in 215 MD 2013 and in 359 MD of 2014 (i.e., the absurd and asinine “opinion” of Senior “Judge” Keith B. Quigley that, under the Election Code, the BCEL is bereft of the power to make sufficiency determinations regarding voucher submissions made by campaign committees).

Gentle readers, a fifth-grader could reason that in order to make a failure determination for which the law provides, one would logically first have to make an insufficiency determination.  Regarding committee submissions to voucher requests, it’s a very simple proposition that sufficiency equates to non-failure and insufficiency equates to failure.  Either a committee submits its vouchers as defined by law, or it does not.  It’s a pity that Commonwealth Court judges and PA Supreme Court justices refuse to grasp that easily understood precept.  Judge Quigley, solely and on his own volition granted the PA-DOS-BCEL application to make his unreported opinion in 359 MD 2014 a reported opinion.  As such, it is the case precedent to which the PA-DOS-BCEL will refer any future voucher requesters.  In other words, committees may submit anything at all (or nothing at all) and requesters must accept whatever a committee decides to submit (or nothing at all, if the committee deigns to make no submission).

To restore the law that Mahoney (through his actions and inaction) and the courts have destroyed would take a monumental effort by the PA General Assembly.

Prospects are not bright for the restoration of the law.

The next time someone tells you that State Rep. Timothy S. Mahoney (D-Voucher-Hiding) represents openness and transparency tell them to read the NES articles on the three-year voucher saga and to give a listen to Mahoney’s true position on flouting the law.

Listen here as Mahoney, accompanied by one of his sycophants, lies about the original, 2012 voucher request made by the principals of this blog (saying that the request was made under the Right-To-Know law, while knowing all along that the request was made under the PA Election Code):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjHvSuPjews

See also:

http://notenoughsaid.blog.com/2012/11/02/state-rep-tim-mahoney-theyll-never-see-that-voucher/


Update:  Today, State Rep. Timothy S. Mahoney (D-51) was a guest in the second hour of WMBS 590 AM Radio's "What's On Your Mind? with Mark Rafail."  When the topic of election reform arose, Mark Rafail, the same talk show host heard misleading his audience in the YouTube link above, again, failed his radio listeners by failing to bring up Mahoney's refusal to provide his vouchers to requesters.  How can a politician who, by his actions and inaction, is responsible for the destruction of the right of persons to see the particulars of campaign expenditures then pontificate on election reform as it pertains to campaign finances?  The hypocrisy was so thick one could have cut it with a knife.