Reports say Perzel could be indicted

Newspaper reports say Republican State Representative John Perzel could soon face indictment. Perzel represents the Northeast section of Philadelphia and once served as Speaker of the House.

Newspaper reports say Republican State Representative John Perzel could soon face indictment. Perzel represents the Northeast section of Philadelphia and once served as Speaker of the House.

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[audio: 091109spindict.mp3]

Several published reports says a state grand jury could recommend Perzel be charged with spending tax-payer money to purchase voter information used in political campaigning.

Last year, State Attorney General Tom Corbett charged 12 Democrats in connection with the so-called “bonusgate” scandal. That scheme paid staffers millions of dollars in tax-payer funded bonuses for political campaigning.

Corbett is a Republican running for Governor. Until now, he’s caught heat for only going after Democrats.

Franklin and Marshall political science professor Terry Madonna says the public is more concerned about the corruption than the Attorney General’s motivation.

Madonna: What the public generally cares about is if there’s public corruption has it been rooted out. The fact that there might be political gain is not something that the public is generally interested in or generally pays attention to.

Madonna says there could be some surprises in the grand jury’s findings, which could come as early as later this week.

Attempts to reach Perzel and his attorney were not successful.