pro-fracking candidate McGinty. He pumped in over $4 million of out of state money from the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee to purchase last minute, misleading cough/lying/cough ads in her behalf. McGinty was censured by the state ethics committee for her actions while secretary of the state's Department of Environmental Protection. It found that she had delivered over $2 million of state contracts to her fracking-lobbyist -husband's Big Energy employers. The Ethics Committee let her off with a warning that if she or any other cabinet officer gave sweetheart deals to their spouses or spouses' employers in the future, they would be subject to a hefty fine and ten years in prison. She was the appointee of then PA Governor, now-fracking-lobbyist, Fast Eddie Rendell. Rendell was pissed at the Ethics Committee so appealed their ruling to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The Court upheld the ruling.
Both the major papers in Pennsylvania, Phillie's Inquirer and Pittsburgh's Post-Gazette, endorsed retired Navy Admiral/former U.S. Congressman Joe Sestak in the primary race, but Schumer's millions carried the day and McGinty won.
Getting back to Fast Eddie: http://articles.philly.com/2013-03-30/news/38128340_1_natural-gas-drilling-ed-rendell-energy-companies
By Angela Couloumbis, Inquirer Harrisburg Bureau
Posted: March 30, 2013
HARRISBURG - Never leave anything unsaid is a lesson former Gov. Ed Rendell may have relearned the hard way this week. Two days ago, the usually loquacious Democrat had an op-ed piece published in the New York Daily News urging New York state to get over its fears and permit hydraulic fracturing - commonly known as fracking - to seek natural gas within its borders.
In the piece, headlined "Why [Gov. Andrew] Cuomo Must Seize the Moment on Hydrofracking," Rendell listed the benefits of natural gas for the region's economic development as well as the nation's energy future. He said Pennsylvania under his watch and since had struck a balance of benefiting from natural gas drilling while protecting the environment.
One thing Rendell didn't mention: He is a paid consultant to a private-equity firm that invests in energy companies, including several with a stake in natural gas drilling. The nonprofit website ProPublica first wrote about the connection Thursday and tried to nail the former governor down on why his article did not disclose his tie to Element Partners of Radnor. Rendell also separately acts as a senior adviser to investment bank Greenhill & Co., which has advised on a number of natural gas-related financial transactions.
Daily News editors said they were not aware of Rendell's connection to Element when they published his op-ed Wednesday. They have since added a note to the online version: "Rendell is a paid consultant to Element Partners, a private-equity firm with stake in a number of energy companies, including hydrofracking/natural gas interests. This information was not disclosed at the time his op-ed was submitted to the News."
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