Strategist worked to defeat Fumo daughter

A former political strategist for Sen. Vincent J. Fumo testified yesterday that he worked on behalf of Democratic candidates running against Fumo's estranged daughter in a 2003 township supervisor race in Montgomery County.

Testifying for a second day as a prosecution witness at Fumo's federal corruption trial, Howard J. Cain said Fumo's daughter Nicole Marrone, who ran as a Republican, was defeated in the Whitemarsh Township contest.

The next morning, he said, he put a poster from Marrone's campaign on Fumo's chair, along with a notation that she had lost.

"You assisted the candidates opposing the senator's daughter?" U.S. Attorney John J. Pease asked.

"Yes, that's correct," Cain replied.

"How were you paid?" Pease asked.

"Through my Senate contract," Cain said.

That was one of the final points of questioning by Pease before Fumo's lead defense attorney, Dennis J. Cogan, embarked on a painstaking and aggressive cross-examination aimed at destroying the credibility of the key prosecution witness.

Cogan immediately touched on Cain's plea agreement with federal prosecutors, under which he admitted to a single count of tax evasion, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

"Pretty good deal, isn't it?" Cogan asked, noting that Cain could have been charged with additional counts that would have put him at risk of a 30-year prison sentence.

At another point, Cogan questioned Cain's truthfulness, pointing out that he also worked in communications, dealing with the news media.

"Political spin, isn't that right?" Cogan asked.

"No, sir," Cain replied.

Cogan also got Cain to concede that it was not only federal income tax that he had dodged.

"How much have you paid in city taxes?" Cogan asked.

"Nothing," Cain said.

"All this money," Cogan went on. "You don't pay - not a nickel - of income tax, state taxes, city tax?"

"That's correct," Cain replied. "I knew I owed the money. It got to a point where I couldn't afford to pay it."

Cogan questioned Cain about a relationship he had with a printing firm that specializes in political work.

During the time Cain worked for Fumo, he was paid more than $95,000 in commissions by Kennedy Printing for campaign work Cain brought to the firm.

Cogan tried to make the connection for the jury that Cain's campaign work was being paid for by sources other than taxpayers through Cain's Senate contract.

Cogan also detailed nonpolitical work that Cain did for Fumo, and tried to suggest that the combination of two assignments in particular could have added up to one year of what the Senate had paid Cain.

But Cain insisted that most of the work he did over the course of his career for Fumo was related to political campaigns.

The cross-examination is set to resume tomorrow, when Cain will appear for a third day in the trial before U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter.

Fumo, 65, a powerful Democrat in Philadelphia and Harrisburg for decades, is accused of defrauding the state Senate by having Senate staffers and contractors, including Cain, do a wide variety of personal and political campaign work for him.

Fumo also is charged with defrauding a South Philadelphia charity, Citizens' Alliance for Better Neighborhoods, getting free yacht trips from the Independence Seaport Museum, and trying to obstruct the FBI and IRS investigations.

The jury already has heard much about Fumo's estrangement from his daughter, who is married to Christian Marrone, a former aide to Fumo who testified for the prosecution.

Fumo and his daughter have not spoken in several years, including when she was in court during her husband's testimony.

Under questioning by Pease, Cain has said that he was paid more than $500,000 under Senate contracts, but that his primary job was to work on campaigns across the state for candidates Fumo supported.

Yesterday, he testified that Citizens' Alliance paid for political polling and for the services of a lawyer who filed a suit against a high-ranking Republican in the state legislature whom Fumo did not get along with.

Cain said that as the federal investigation heated up, Fumo felt "under siege," and became consumed with dealing with the FBI and IRS inquiry and getting reelected in the face of opposition in the primary in 2004.

"This became all-encompassing," Cain said. "Once the investigation started, there was no idea where it would go."

Cain testified that Fumo wanted him to find out from a lawyer what a client had told investigators - and that the senator was not pleased when the lawyer said she could not disclose such information.

"FRIENDS are supposed to help FRIENDS!!!" Fumo wrote in an e-mail to Cain in June 2004. "Ask anyway, so that we will know if we have a future friend or an enemy . . . There is no middle ground on this one!! You know how serious and life threatening this is."

Cain testified that he agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors after the FBI and IRS discovered that he had not filed federal tax returns or paid federal taxes from 1991 to 2005.

He pleaded guilty to tax evasion and said he had no idea what kind of sentence he would get.

"I am clearly going to pay for it," Cain said. "I just don't know how bad it's going to be."