THE SENTINAL / AP: Gov. Tom Corbett on Friday nominated a retired Air Force general who helped run the American reconstruction effort in Iraq to take the financial reins of Pennsylvania’s debt-choked capital of Harrisburg after his first appointee called for an investigation into the city’s debt and abruptly resigned.
It will be up to a state Commonwealth Court judge to decide whether to appoint William B. Lynch, who also led the Pennsylvania National Guard for five years, to succeed David Unkovic as the leader of an unprecedented state takeover of one of its cities.
Lynch, 69, was the Pennsylvania adjutant general from 1999 to 2004 under former Gov. Tom Ridge and briefly under former Gov. Ed Rendell. After an unsuccessful run as a Republican for the U.S. House in 2004, Lynch went on to work in Baghdad for several years as a senior civilian planner and strategist as part of the American mission there. In 2010, he campaigned for Corbett as part of a veterans’ coalition and served on Corbett’s gubernatorial transition team… (more)
EDITOR: If nothing else, this seems like a selection that will safeguard Corbett. On the surface, we would have preferred an appointee who was politically neutral, at least in PA, and had more expertise as a receiver.
