Pennsylvania Republicans hand-delivered an ethics complaint against Democrat Katie McGinty, who is challenging GOP Sen. Patrick Toomey, the same day WikiLeaks revealed her coordination with John Podesta while she was working in the governor’s office.
McGiinty was Gov. Tom Wolf’s chief of staff until a week before her Aug. 4, 2015 Senate campaign launch.
The letter from Paul Engelkeimer, the state party’s deputy communications director, to Sharon Minnich, the state’s secretary of administration and copied to Gov. Tom Wolf, cites Section 1 (8) (a) of the Governor’s Code of Conduct, which prohibits political activity during work hours. Engelkeimer also cited in the letter is the Office of Administration’s own guideline that states that running for office as a political activity.
The email was sent from her personal Outlook email account Friday July 17, 2015 at 4:08 p.m., during her normal work hours. Podesta is chairman of the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.
Here is Podesta’s reply with her original email at the bottom:
Re: US Senate
From:john.podesta@gmail.com
To: km0715@outlook.com
Date: 2015-07-17 18:30
Subject: Re: US SenateI’ll call
On Jul 17, 2015 4:08 PM, “Kathleen McGinty” <km0715@outlook.com> wrote:>
> Hey John–Emilys List and DSCC have been working me hard re a US Senate
> run. Would love your perspective. Will need to decide one way or other by
> mid next week.
> Thanks,
> Katie
> 717 480 0960
Engelkeimer says that in addition to violating state ethics laws, McGinty was working on her Senate campaign on Day 17 of the state’s budget impasse between the governor and the legislature and that she gave Podesta the number to her state provided cell phone.
In Wolf’s 2014 campaign against Gov. Tom Corbett, Democrats hammered Corbett when it appeared his staffers may have blurred the line between political and official business.
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