John Perzel

==Background==
* R, state rep, 172nd
* Ran against Tim Kearney, D, challenger in general in 2006
==News==
===December 2006===
* State Representative Thomas Caltagirone, D, sent a letter to Democratic colleagues in the PA House saying he plans to vote for Republican John Perzel as Speaker in January, 2007. His vote gives John Perzel the one vote he needs to become Speaker in the Democrat-majority State House. 
** http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/16352325.htm
==Links==
* Tim Kearney
* VIPs
===Media===
* Dimitri on Perzel from the Tribune Review in May, 2004
: * He addressed my questions, but I did not like his answers.
: * I wanted to hear a real commitment to cut the cost of government, to rein in powerful municipal unions such as those to which Pittsburgh's firefighters and police belong, and to empower taxpayers in every school district. But what I heard were the stone-cold hard facts of political life in Harrisburg.
: * Tax increases never stop. He was asked where it ends. "You try to control costs as best as you can," he said.
: * The most disheartening answer was to a question about how to control perpetually escalating school district budgets. Perzel said that the people responsible -- school board members -- are elected at the local level. "That is the way we are set up." Perzel would have impressed Mr. Obvious.
: * Perzel could not name one representative who believes "We spend too much on education. Nobody." I believe him.
* Perzel's spending of campaign funds from Tribune Review in June, 2006
===Blogs===
* The Fly Under the Dome: Perzel in Limbo July 12, 2006, John Perzel is hanging onto his speakership by a thread.
==Details==
===Perzel fixes up image on Pa.'s tab===
:Source: By Mario F. Cattabiani, Inquirer Staff Writer
Stung by PR gaffes, the state House speaker hired an outside
consultant at a cost of $5,000 a month.
HARRISBURG - The day after the state House voted to repeal the
unpopular legislative pay raise, Rep. John M. Perzel took the first
step in what some are calling the speaker's "extreme makeover."
Perzel (R., Phila.) hired a public relations consultant on Nov. 15 to
buff his image after months of brutal depictions in the media, mostly
over the pay-raise issue.
And you're paying for it: $5,000 a month.
The speaker already has a press secretary, another outside media
consultant, and access to a pool of 46 public-relations staffers
whose job it is to put the best spin on House Republicans - in print,
on TV, and over the Internet.
Robert J. Philbin, who is handling the new PR campaign for Perzel,
said the two started negotiating the contract in February 2005,
months before the pay raise was passed in July. He acknowledged,
however, that part of his job was to temper the fallout.
"Speaker Perzel does not dodge bullets. That's not what he does,"
said Philbin, the chief executive officer of Hershey-Philbin
Associates of Camp Hill. "He needs strong communications counsel when
he makes a move."
In March, Philbin created "The New Speaker John Perzel Press Kit" and
had 1,500 copies of it printed at a cost to the state of $4,500.
Perzel has been speaker since April 2003.
"You can't put lipstick on a pig," said Gene Stilp, a Harrisburg
activist and one of the leading critics of the pay raise. "The first
thing he should do if he wants to improve his image is not to spend
this kind of money to improve his image."
Said Matthew Brouillette, president of the Commonwealth Foundation, a conservative Harrisburg think tank: "It is going to take more than a $60,000-per-year PR firm to clean up the speaker's mess."
Perzel declined to be interviewed for this article.
Since Philbin started, getting access to Perzel - known by reporters
for speaking his mind, often in raw and unfiltered ways - has been
increasingly difficult for reporters.
He has declined many interview requests. Instead, at Philbin's
insistence, reporters have had to take the unusual step of putting
questions in writing. Philbin has argued that it allows Perzel to
give more thoughtful answers.
It also, he has acknowledged, reduces the risk that Perzel will go
off-script and say something inflammatory.
Perzel was roundly ridiculed for one such comment in September, when
he publicly defended the pay raise by arguing that immigrant cow
milkers in Lancaster County make between $50,000 and $55,000 a year.
Reporters were unable to find any who did.
In Perzel, the anti-pay-raise movement has found a wide target. He
was a leading architect of the pay raise. He voted for it and
accepted it.
A source close to Perzel who said he was not authorized to speak for
Perzel said the decision to hire Philbin was cemented in October
after a news conference in Pittsburgh was mishandled.
The event, at an elementary school where Perzel was donating books,
was supposed to have produced good news coverage in a part of the
state where many people were irate over the pay raise. But
unknowingly, Perzel stood in front of a classroom wall covered with
small paper pink pigs - the adopted symbol of the anti-pay-raise
movement.
He left town as an editorial called for voters to unseat him.
One House Republican, who asked that his name not be used so as not
to antagonize the speaker, said Perzel needs the additional media
help because he "was tired of always looking like Darth Vader."
House Republicans also pay Marty O'Rourke, a Philadelphia-area
consultant, $60,000 annually to handle local media relations for
three members, including Perzel.
The speaker is not alone in spending taxpayer dollars for outside
media consultants.
Sen. Vincent Fumo (D., Phila.) pays $60,000 a year from his
Appropriations Committee account to public-relations expert Ken
Snyder. Philadelphia media consultant Larry Ceisler gets $42,000
annually from House Democrats for his expertise with press relations.
Philbin said the bulk of his work to date has focused on arranging
regional forums for Perzel to meet with other House members and their
constituents. So far, the speaker has held such meetings in the
Poconos, central Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh.
"One of the main complaints has been that he represents Southeast
Pennsylvania and nowhere else," Philbin said.
In February, Philbin wrote an opinion column, sent to editors across
the state, lauding Perzel for his decision to craft a new lobbying
disclosure bill.
It was titled "Independent Spin" and began this way:
"House Speaker John Perzel, arguably the most powerful political
figure in Pennsylvania today, has put lobbying reform... right where
it belongs: front and center in the statewide public sphere, leaving
many observers apparently blinded by his footwork."
Philbin didn't disclose in the column that he was being paid by Perzel. He merely signed the piece "R.J. Philbin, contributing editor, CapNews." CapNews is one of several arms of Philbin's agency.
Although he agreed to be interviewed for this story, Philbin declined
to answer questions about his column.
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, called the column "electioneering propaganda."
"Taxpayers shouldn't pay for that," she added, "especially since it
is being made to look like it is coming from a neutral source."
Despite closer attention to how he is perceived, Perzel has still
grabbed his share of critical headlines of late.
Last month, The Inquirer reported that Perzel, a director of Geo Group Inc., attended the company's annual meeting in Florida on the day the House was expected to give final legislative approval to a major property-tax relief plan.
Perzel