Bruce Castor Emails

The controversy over Montco Commissioner Jim Matthews' accepting extensive campaign contributions from a man convicted of political corruption is steaming over this morning due to a follow up article by Tom Fitzgerald in The Philadelphia Inquirer.  The issue began Friday morning after I received a campaign email from Joe Hoeffel calling attention to the fact Bob Asher was raising money for Matthews.  I did some reseacrh and wrote this article.

Blog articles don't always need a lot of comments to have impact.  This one had an almost immediate impact.  Two hours after posting the original piece Bruce Castor, Matthews' running mate, replied to my questions with this unsolicited email (from his official Montgomery County email account, not a personal or campaign account, which is a no-no):

Believe me, the outrage is there, just not expressed in public.  One correction: Matthews/Castor is NOT accepting Asher money.  Jim has his own campaign account (I do not).  That is where the money is going.  Some other details:

I have never taken a dime from Asher or Asher's PAC for this or any other campaign.  I simply think it is wrong that a person convicted of political corruption hold a position of such power and influence in the Republican Party.  My view on that has not changed, but I recognize the reality that is the case.

 

I told Jim from the outset that I would not accept money from Asher, and advised him that I preferred that he not do so as well.  I am confident that I have helped raise sufficient money already to win the election, thus not only do I not want Asher's money, I don't need it either.

 

There are undoubtedly many things Jim and I do not and will not agree on, but we are committed to resolving any such issues in the future to govern effectively.  The public doesn't want us to always be in lock step with each other, just to work together,  That's why there are three commissioners and not one.

 

Any candidate running for political office has an obligation to raise money to support that run.  I do not tell Jim what to do.  He makes his own decisions and judgments as he thinks best, as do I.  I strongly disagree with his decision to take money from Asher, but Jim is his own man.  Obviously, I hold the minority view since the voters did not hold Asher's support against Tom Corbett.

 

I attended one of the two fundraisers Asher helped support for Jim.  I did so at Jim's request so there was no question that I am firmly committed to Jim winning the election along with our entire team of candidates.  In fact, I attend as many events for our candidates as I can.  Jim is one of the 10 other people I am running with, so of course I was there.

As I read his email I realized at once how explosive it's content was:  Castor was trashing his running mate for getting very cozy with a crook.  He'd warned him about the political consequences and even made Matthews create a separate account for the Asher money so he wouldn't be tainted by it.  Bruce Castor did the right thing.  Matthews is the bad guy in this story, he's the one who knew Asher, knew he'd been convicted of corruption but took his money anyway.  Before I used Castor's statements I decided to be absolutely sure I had permission.  Though it clearly was all "on the record" I emailed back specifically asking permission for its use.

I did this because I have a bit of history with Castor as Montco DA and that staff did a wonderful job in a case where my nephew's wife was murdered.  That's the case I often refer to when writing about gun violence and common sense gun safety laws as my motivation.  Castor and the Montco DA's office handled the prosecution so I wanted to give the man the chance to pull his statements off the record.  He chose not to:

You may certainly use anything I wrote you.  I am very unhappy about this, but I see little I can do about it.  Unlike the situation with Corbett where I was trying to beat him, I am trying to win with Jim.  So while I am critical in private, I am not so in public, since regardless, I want him to win.  I all along suspected that taking Asher money would be bad for the campaign, thus while I wouldn't do it as a matter of principle anyway, it also does not make political sense in my view.  What Asher did was pressure major donors not to contribute to the both of us.  That scared Jim into thinking (wrongly) that we wouldn't have enough money and that Jim needed to get the money from Asher.  I think we would have won without Asher's money and without tainting the campaign by injecting this issue into it.  But unlike the DA's Office where I am the boss, Jim and I are equals when it comes to setting campaign policy, so I voiced my objection which Jim overruled.

After I posted the update Castor got very upset.  I suppose he realized the political damage his statements about his running mate would make and feared they would hurt him.  They shouldn't.  Bruce Castor did the right thing all along.  It was Jim Matthews who acted wrongly and with poor judgment.  I understood Castor was upset when he wrote this:

What you wrote is a disaster for me.  I must have Jim win!  Please, please take it down at once.  If this circulates, I am in deep, deep political trouble.

Let me repeat, Castor isn't the bad guy here, Matthews is.  Unfortunately many Republicans will turn on Castor (which is his obvious concern) for making the above statements.  I specifically asked him for permission to use his comments though and he said yes.  That made them "on the record."  Am I not going to write such a politically explosive story when that's what I do?  Of course not.

Comments

[t.g.]

Castor: "Wait, wait, I take it back. I take it back! There, I said, 'I take it back,' which means I never said it in the first place, so you can't use it."

Wow, the guy has a political mind as sharp as a spoon sharing those thoughts about his running mate.

[John Morgan]

What's amazing is Matthews' silence. Not a word from the incumbent County Commissioner about any of this. Sometimes the absence of words says it all: he has no problem taking Bob Asher's money. What does this say about Jim Matthews? Lots.

[Melissa]

"What's amazing is Matthews' silence."

Do you have public contact information in case any of your readers would like to inquire about it? Is that something you can post here?

[John Morgan]

Sure. Representatives from Matthews/Castor and Friends of Jim Matthews attended the press conference but had nothing to say.

Campaign HQ: 610-275-3058

[LeeLevan]

Maybe Matthews is the smarter politician of the two. Bruce "Not Ready For Prime Time" Castor may be getting the worst of the deal, even though he did the right thing (for a moment) when he communicated with you.

I guess we'll see how important this matter proves to be with the voters in Montco. We'll also see whether the Dems are able to exploit it in their ads, mailings, etc.

[John Morgan]

Joe Hoeffel and Ruth Damsker are all over the issue. Their campaign has been revealing the pay to play culture in the county courthouse anyway and Asher's influence can't help Matthews/Castor.

If Castor was that worried he shouldn't have run with Matthews as a team. He should have split and run on his own and avoided any tainting. Because they do have a joint campaign account Damsker/Hoeffel are able to claim he's also benefiting from the Asher money.