Posted: Friday, 11 July 2008 11:21AM
Yeah, Yeah, That's The Ticket
Steve Corbett Reporting
Friday, July 11, 2008
Yesterday afternoon, at about the same time that Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett was announcing the first criminal charges in a massive state government public corruption scandal, I called state Sen. Bob Mellow’s office with a serious question.
“Where can I buy tickets to the senator’s picnic?” I asked.
“We have them here,” said the woman who answered the phone at Mellow’s Peckville office.
People can also buy them at the picnic, she said, that is scheduled for next Wednesday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Toyota Pavilion on Montage Mountain. Tickets cost $35, she said.
“What’s the picnic for?” I asked.
“The senator,” she said.
“Yeah, but what’s the picnic for?” I asked again.
The woman at the state senator’s state office then said on state time that the picnic is an annual fundraising event that raises money for Mellow when he runs for office.
“I see,” I said.
The woman then referred me to another worker in Mellow’s district office.
“He’s handling it,” she said, referring to Mellow’s campaign fundraising ticket sales.
I had called to see if I could get a phone number for the political campaign committee known as the Friends of Bob Mellow. The powerful Democrat from Peckville has many friends who contribute money to his campaigns.
And I’m interested in who they are.
Imagine my surprise when I realized that campaign fundraising from picnic ticket sales might be taking place in my state senator’s office at the same time that the state attorney general was announcing a crackdown on similar behavior in Harrisburg.
So I called Mellow’s office in Harrisburg.
A woman answered the telephone number posted on Mellow’s website that took me to the “Democratic Leader’s” office.
Mellow is the Democratic Leader in the Senate.
I asked her where I could buy tickets to Mellow’s picnic. She transferred me to another Mellow staffer. I asked him the same question. After a few moments, he provided me with a number. But when I called the number was not in service.
So I again called the Democratic Leader’s number on Capitol Hill.
When I began to tell the same woman who had earlier answered the phone what had happened, she said that she had found out where I should call for picnic tickets. She gave me Mellow’s district office number in Peckville.
When I called back, the same woman who told me she had picnic tickets answered the phone. This time I asked to talk with the Mellow staffer who she had earlier told me was handling Mellow’s fundraising picnic tickets.
This time, though, the woman asked me my name. I told her. And, although she had earlier told me that the man was in his office, she now told me that he had stepped away from his desk.
So, who’s in charge of this clambake, anyway, I wanted to know. Who’s running this pig roast? Who’s handling the money?
“The Friends of Bob Mellow,” she said.
“Do you have a phone number for them?” I asked.
“No,” she said.
“Could you see if you might find one?” I asked.
The woman told me to hold. Then she came back on the line with the number. When I called, a recorded voice identified the fun group as the very group I had earlier set out to find.
Mission accomplished.
I left a message and asked for somebody to return my call and maybe talk with us today on “Corbett” about the picnic.
Mellow’s party sounds like a good time – even if Pennsylvania politics is definitely no picnic.
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