Counter punch by Cruz

Jonathan Ramos accused him and his associates of widespread voter intimidation.

But before Cruz suffered any consequences, he spurred an investigation of his own which has drawn blood from his arch-enemy, the Tartaglione family. As detailed in a post yesterday, the clan includes City Commission Chair Marge Tartaglione, her daughter, State Sen. Christine Tartaglione, and daughter Renee Tartaglione, who was a Deputy City Commissioner until Cruz’s investigation got underway.

It was widely reported Tuesday that Renee Tartaglione was confronted in November with evidence by the city Ethics Board that she’d engaged in illegal political activity. She resigned her job, admitted several city charter violations, and agreed to pay a $2,700 civil penalty.

Yesterday Cruz had his say about the whole thing and told reporters that yes, he was the one who told the Ethics Board about Tartaglione’s political activity. In fact he sent them a picture of her in the act.

It was a snap shot of Tartaglione at the Democratic city committee headquarters picking up election day “street money” for two wards.

“I took the picture,” Cruz told me yesterday, “and I gave that over to the Ethics Board.”

Cruz is convinced city election officials abuse their authority to support his opponents and undermine his political support. Election officials say they do no such thing, but Cruz said he’ll as for investigation of the office from the Pennsylvania Department of State and federal investigators.

But just as Cruz was celebrating the mighty blow the Tartagliones had suffered, he acknowledged that six of his supporters were just served with state grand jury subpoenas in connection with the probe into his primary battle with Ramos.

This is one feud that isn’t going to be over for a long time.