Why is Tom Corbett using his official Twitter account to promote his campaign?

If you follow Governor Corbett on Twitter, you may have noticed an uptick in campaign-type tweets and retweets in last few months given the approach of his 2014 re-election bid.

For example, earlier today, Governor Corbett used his official gubernatorial account to announce that “[l]ongtime Rendell adviser David Cohen backs Corbett.”

The retweet is was here (Governor Corbett’s Twitter account has since un-retweeted the link. For a screenshot taken earlier this afternoon, see bottom of the article).

Not only is Governor Corbett’s “Official Twitter Account” retweeting campaign endorsements, but the account has been retweeting the PA GOP almost daily for a few weeks now.

Like, here, here, here, here, and here.

Also here.

And here too!

Governor Corbett has both an official Twitter account and a campaign Twitter account, yet he hasn’t used the campaign account since October of 2010. So far, all re-election-campaign-related Tweets have come from his official, Gubernatorial account which links to Pennsylvania’s www.pa.gov website.

According to his official account, the page is “[u]pdated daily by staff,” leaving it unclear whether state employees are composing the campaign-type Tweets.

As far as I can tell, Governor Corbett’s actions do not constitute a violation.

It is, however, on its face inappropriate to use an official, government Twitter account for campaign and party-related purposes.

If the Governor wants to clean up his official image, he needs to start doing the little things that give us confidence that he represents all Pennsylvanians, not just the @PAGOP.

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UPDATE: John Hanger, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate and former Secretary of the PA Department of Environmental Protection, said on his blog that Corbett’s campaign-style use of his official Twitter account is “classic do as I say, not as I do,” adding that “this is the same behavior that Corbett used to put state legislators behind bars in his Bonusgate investigation. This is the height of hyprocrisy and it must stop.”

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UPDATE 2: It looks like Governor Corbett’s official account un-retweeted the tweet that led to this story. The Governor’s official account had retweeted an article from @TomCorbettNews. Fortunately, Keystone Politics has advanced screenshot technology.

This screenshot of Governor Corbett’s Official Twitter Account was taken just before Noon on Friday. Later Friday evening, after the Keystone Politics story broke, the retweet was gone.

Screenshot of Governor Corbett’s official Twitter having retweeted a campaign announcement. The official Twitter account has since un-retweeted the article. Keystone Politics has added the large, red circle surrounding Governor Corbett’s Twitter account.