McCord let us all down
Notice: Undefined variable: article_ad_placement3 in /usr/web/cs-washington.ogdennews.com/wp-content/themes/News_Core_2023_WashCluster/single.php on line 128
From the moment he became state treasurer in 2009, Rob McCord appeared to be a politician to watch.
A graduate of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, McCord possessed formidable credentials – time spent in Washington, D.C., the leader of a think tank and success as a venture capitalist. McCord sat down with the Observer-Reporter’s editorial board shortly after becoming treasurer, and we were impressed with his intelligence and affability. It was also clear the Democrat was nursing ambitions to one day become governor, and was laying the groundwork for an eventual run.
McCord did indeed become a gubernatorial candidate in 2014, but he was one of several competitors swamped in the tidal wave of money eventual winner Tom Wolf brought to the contest. McCord visited our editorial board again last May, shortly before voters cast ballots in the primary election, and we were struck anew by his wide-ranging intellect and gregariousness. Even if at that stage his bid to become governor appeared doomed, it was not out of the question he could try his luck for some other office at some point.
Those possibilities were, however, foreclosed entirely last week when McCord resigned as state treasurer and then announced he would be pleading guilty to federal charges he tried to strong-arm contributions to his gubernatorial campaign by suggesting the business potential donors had with the commonwealth could be endangered if they didn’t cough up.
That’s called extortion.
In a videotaped message released Friday, McCord admitted he attempted to “take advantage of the fact that two potential contributors hoped to continue to do business with the commonwealth – and by reminding them that I could make things difficult for them. I essentially said that the potential contributors should not risk making an enemy out of the state treasurer.”
A story that appeared on the PennLive.com website over the weekend indicated other possible benefactors were pressured aggressively by McCord to give to his gubernatorial campaign. Now, the former treasurer’s successful 2012 re-election effort, in which his Republican opponent was Diana Irey Vaughan, a Washington County commissioner, will also be coming under scrutiny.
“I let all of you down,” McCord said on Friday.
Yes, he did. Of that there can be no doubt.