Porn Remains a Player in Pennsylvania Governor's Race

PENNSYLVANIA—The word "porn" is used in so many different ways these days that as a useable descriptive term it has become almost meaningless. But that has not stopped "porn" from becoming a player in the race for governor in Pennsylvania, where Philly.com reports that York Democrat Tom Wolf holds a double-digit lead in the polls over incumbent Republican Governor Tom Corbett, who seeks a second term in the Nov. 4 general election. The article by Daily News staff writer Chris Brennan, titled "Do as I say, not as I ... porn?" details the latest revelations in what has already been dubbed "porngate," and opens with the caustic observation, "AT THIS POINT, it might be harder to find a government computer in Harrisburg that hasn't been used to view or transmit porn." No place to go but down after that lede. "Porngate" is totally overblown, of course, a mostly meritless scandal that says more about local politics than it does about lax oversight of state bureaucracies and a top-down culture of sexist male entitlement. (Well, maybe it says something about those things, too.) But context is also important here. Pennsylvania politics are notoriously dirty, and so it should come as no surprise that allegations of something awful are being dragged out less than a month before voters go to the polls in midterms that will also set the stage for the 2016 elections, but there also remains something small about this scandal. After all, holding a campaigning politician accountable now for (presumable legal, if prohibited) porn viewing by others that happened at least a few years ago is pretty lame in the scheme of things—and it's perhaps a bit worse in that it seems to be being aired by the left-leaning side, which should have a more liberal attitude toward the material. But politics is a dirty game, pretty much no matter who plays it. And that's precisely what's going down in Pennsylvania, and heads have already rolled over it. According to HuffPo, "So far, the scandal has prompted the resignations of Environmental Secretary Christopher Abruzzo, along with his deputy counsel, Glenn Parno. It has also ensnared a member of the state Board of Probation and Parole, a state Supreme Court justice, the head of the state Gaming Control Board, and the State Police Commissioner. [Attorney General Kathleen] Kane has resisted calls from Corbett and other state officials to release the names of additional employees who were on the email list and are still employed in the attorney general's office." Up until yesterday, Corbett was the one running for cover under attack by a barrage of porn allegations, but now the embattled governor is returning fire. As Brennan reports, "Gov. Corbett's press office yesterday released details of disciplinary actions taken against eight Department of Revenue employees for using state computers and email accounts to view or transmit 'sexually suggestive' material while Tom Wolf headed that agency during Gov. Ed Rendell's second term." Wolf's camp was quick to react, however. "Wolf spokesman Mark Nicastre said the actions taken against the porn viewers in the Department of Revenue is 'an example of the contrasting leadership' between Wolf and Corbett," reported Brennan. "Under Tom Wolf," said Nicastre, "when these types of improprieties arose in a few cases among a staff of approximately 1,800, there was discipline. Under Tom Corbett, his top lieutenants shared hundreds of pornographic emails over four years with no discipline whatsoever." But Brennan's reporting also shows that it is the media that is also driving "porngate." According to his article, "Corbett's staff pulled the information, at the request of the Daily News, from the Department of Revenue's files. It did not include the names of the employees involved and is not a complete accounting of any inappropriate state computer use that might have occurred in the agency." The information released yesterday indicates that "two Department of Revenue employees—both clerks—were fired in 2007 for Internet activity that involved 'sexually oriented websites.' Five more employees—a tax-collection manager, clerical supervisor, tax-appeal hearing officer, district lottery representative and clerk—were reprimanded for emailing information deemed sexually inappropriate. A tax examiner was reprimanded for the same offense." What is even more interesting about the entire "porngate" episode is that it would never have happened had the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal at Penn State never come to light. It was only because of a review of Corbett's handling of the Sandusky case that the porn emails were discovered. "Two weeks ago," according to Brennan, "Kane showed reporters a small portion of the explicit images and videos. Last week, she released the emails used to deliver those files." From there it has taken on a life of its own, and will likely not become a footnote in history until November 5.