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League told to correct violation
The district attorney doesn’t want to prosecute ‘unless forced to.’
NEW CASTLE, Pa. — The Lawrence County League of Women Voters has to take steps to correct an election violation, says the county district attorney.
District Attorney John J. Bongivengo notified the league Tuesday that it must register as a political action committee, file an expenditure report and pay fees over two ads it ran in a local newspaper before the Nov. 6, 2007, election.
The ads, paid for by the league, endorsed candidates, Bongivengo contends. So the league was acting as a PAC, he said in a letter addressed to league treasurer Nancy Bergey.
“It is not my intention to prosecute unless forced to by the league’s actions,” the letter states.
Becoming a PAC is not possible for the league, said its president, Ruth Ray, because endorsing candidates is against the group’s bylaws.
She said she doesn’t know what the group will do if Bongivengo prosecutes.
“We are not an organization that has a lot of money.”
The ads were part of the league’s support for an issue on the ballot about forming a commission to study changing the county’s structure of government. Three commissioners govern now.
The group believes change is needed, Ray said, because, “There are people who are elected who aren’t going to the courthouse and going to work.” She would not provide examples.
Ray said the group believed the question of change should go before voters, but 11 people had to be on the commission. Only five had registered to be on the ballot, leaving six spots open.
One of the ads listed the names of seven people who were willing to be write-in candidates for the commission and urged: “Write in 6 on November 6!”
Ray said the ad was not an endorsement. “There are seven names,” she said. “How could we endorse six if there were seven names in the ad?”
Marlene Gabriel, the county’s director of elections, disagrees. She filed the complaint with Bongivengo on behalf of the county board of elections shortly after the election.
“They still put names in,” she said, adding that if the ad had not listed candidates’ names and was simply set up as information concerning the study commission, there wouldn’t be a problem.
The commission is meeting Wednesdays. It has until Aug. 6 if it wants to recommend a change to voters in the Nov. 4 election, Gabriel said.
There’s no question the panel is legal, the board of election’s solicitor Tom Leslie said at a board meeting Tuesday.
“These people were elected,” he said.
Gabriel said the league could be fined up to $250 for filing paperwork with her office late.
Leslie said he sees no basis for fining the candidates, based on information he has right now. “All we have is an ad by the League of Women Voters.”
Ray said the candidates were aware the ads would run. She said there was a meeting in which the league made sure they were interested in running, and they were shown the ads.
She said some of them gave donations toward the ads. She didn’t remember which candidates donated, saying the league treasurer would have the records. Bergey said she refuses comment until “we talk to our lawyer.”
Leslie said it would be up to the district attorney to investigate further, if a complaint were filed.
The study commission is scheduled to meet tonight at 6:30 at the county government center in New Castle.
Last week, it voted to examine a council-manager form of government, said county commissioner Steve Craig, who’s been going to the panel’s meetings.