By Dick Miller
WE.CONNECT.DOTS: Few have a harder existence than a spokesman for a controversial politician. Just ask Chuck Ardo. He’s had three of them.
Ardo’s three job assignments of that nature came late in life. He was not born into, nor did he study to become a government flack.
Ardo resigned last week from what is likely to be his last such assignment. He held that job as director of communications for embattled state Attorney General Kathleen Kane for more than a year.
Kane is the first Democrat and the first woman to occupy that post since it was designated an elective office more than four decades ago. She goes on trial for criminal charges later this summer. Kane is also buried under numerous civil lawsuits. Almost daily she dodges verbal bullets fired by her staff members, the press and political enemies.
She did not attempt to get on the Democrat primary ballot and says she does not want to be re-elected.
Argo was Kane’s seventh spokesman in her less than three-and-a-half years in the office. Her claim to dubious fame has been a scandal known as “porngate.” Kane discovered that a good bit of government computer network traffic in Central Pennsylvania was devoted to pornographic emails.
By exposing their existence, she is given credit for bringing down Supreme Court and lower court judges, prosecutors and cabinet level functionaries. The epicenter for the emails appears to be the Attorney General’s office when occupied by her predecessor, former Republican Gov. Tom Corbett. Like Teflon, Corbett has not been directly connected.
Kane created her own problems. Her criminal charges all relate to conduct in leaking sensitive grand jury information to a Philadelphia newspaper. News of her grand jury indictment was also leaked by person(s) unknown but is not the subject of an investigation.
Ardo stepped into that role to be the person between Kane and the rest of the world. It was one of the very few decisions Kane made that is highly regarded. When Kane names his successor, he or she will be the eighth person to occupy the job.
The press learned to know and trust Chuck Ardo from his two previous – equally challenging — assignments. He had served as communications director for another embattled female, Linda Thompson, mayor of Harrisburg, following a lengthy stint in the same post for Gov. Ed Rendell.
Thompson was mayor during the period when Harrisburg sank into receivership. She won office by defeating “Mayor for Life” Stephen Reed. She remained on the financial hot seat throughout and finished third in the Democrat primaries when she tried to get re-elected.
Rendell, of course, had the ability to create a controversy where none existed. His off-the-shoulder quips often forced Ardo to walk back the damage for days after.
Rendell also demonstrated some difficulty in keeping a good staff loyal to him. Ardo was one of the few subordinates who could tolerate the Governor’s occasional outbursts of temperaments. There is no doubt Ardo was one of the few people that Rendell trusted.
Ardo had given up on a restaurant he owned in Columbus, OH. He began working as a campaign aide for Ohio Democratic candidates. During that time, he developed a professional relationship with Denny Roberge and John Marshall.
In 2001, the three western Ohio campaign experts were brought on by Rendell with the responsibility of running all aspects of his campaign for governor in Western Pennsylvania.
Ardo’s relationship with the press corps was unusual given the nature of his three controversial bosses. Seasoned reporters seem to know the statements Ardo made in response to their questions were truthful and represented as far as he could go.
Communications executives occupy an unusual role. First, if the elected official has much of an ego (what politician doesn’t?), there is a tendency to consider the job as only necessary because the boss doesn’t have time to be his own flack. Second, reporters are looking for good stories but lazily hope the material will be dumped in their laps by the “official spokesperson.” Third, any confidence in the communications director is built solely on trust. The press may not get all the truth they would like, but what they get is the truth.
Bottom Line: At 69, Ardo can park his laptop and cell phone. If some Democrat needs help promoting his candidacy in Pennsylvania, he or she would be hard pressed to get a communications director better than Ardo.
When someone begins a flack Hall of Fame for Pennsylvania, Ardo should be the first entrant.
