In the wake of the Bonusgate arrests, a senior state Senate Republican has called on Gov. Ed Rendell to convene a special legislative session on government reform. And Rendell says he’s up for it — if lawmakers are.

Last week, state Attorney General Tom Corbett announced charges against one current and one former lawmaker and 10 current and former legislative employees.

All 12 are or were affiliated with the House Democratic caucus and are accused of participating in a culture that used public money to further political and, in some cases, personal gains. Each faces charges that include at least one count of theft, conspiracy and conflict of interest.  read more »

Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl on Monday vetoed a City Council ordinance that sought to limit the size of political contributions to city candidates.

“The ordinance before me today is fraught with problems,” Ravenstahl wrote in a four-page message to council members. “It provides an unfair competitive advantage for the wealthy and will have a chilling effect on the labor movement.”  read more »

A coalition of government reform groups wants Gov. Ed Rendell to call a special session of the Legislature to act on what it calls “integrity issues,” such as campaign finance limits, reducing the size of the Legislature, imposing term limits for legislators, banning lobbyists from taking lawmakers to dinner and giving them gifts, and ending lame-duck sessions in November.

“Today is Day 921 since the pay raise of July 2005, and our government has done virtually nothing in law or [changes to the] constitution to improve integrity and prevent more of the scandals on parade that we have seen since the pay raise,” complained Tim Potts, co-founder of Democracy Rising PA.  read more »