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Pennsylvania, breeding farm of the bizarre

Two odd stories involving politics and porn bump up against the campaigns for governor.

Alan Benyak, an attorney who appears in a campaign commercial for Democrat Tom Wolf, is also an actor in what Buzzfeed.com calls a "torture porn" film called "Breeding Farm." YouTube
Alan Benyak, an attorney who appears in a campaign commercial for Democrat Tom Wolf, is also an actor in what Buzzfeed.com calls a "torture porn" film called "Breeding Farm." YouTubeRead more

AH, PENNSYLVANIA.

Just when you think the governor's race is shaping up as a staid, boring, G-rated affair, along comes a couple of bizarre, saucy stories of porn.

Lord, I love this state.

How about the western Pennsylvania lawyer with, um, other acting credits, who appeared in a TV ad promoting Democrat Tom Wolf for governor?

Turns out Alan Benyak, of Charleroi, last year played Mr. Cannibal in a flick called "Breeding Farm."

I believe I can state with some confidence that it isn't the best first-date movie.

Websites and trailers say it depicts kidnapping, rape, torture and cannibalism.

And while it's listed as a "horror" flick, it strikes me that any movie portraying women as "milked, bred and much, much worse" can be classified as porn.

In this, I follow the lead of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, who famously said in a 1964 landmark porn case, "I know it when I see it."

Wolf's campaign quickly denied all knowledge of Benyak's past work and cut him from its A-list.

Benyak, in a statement, said he appeared in the low-budget film "as a favor to a friend struggling to fulfill his own dreams."

Yes. Who wouldn't help a friend fulfill dreams of degrading women?

If you're thinking maybe a candidate for judge wouldn't, you'd be wrong.

Benyak last year ran for a seat on the Washington County Court. He cross-filed: finished seventh in the GOP primary, second in the Democratic.

The primary was May 2013. "Breeding Farm" was released in January 2013.

Now maybe Washington Countians didn't like Benyak's Mr. Cannibal. Or maybe they don't watch porn.

If so, they're not alone. Data from the website PornHub say Pennsylvania trails all mid-Atlantic states in per capita porn consumption.

No surprise. We trail all mid-Atlantic states in just about everything.

We're 25th nationally. Kansas is first. Who knew? Arkansas is last.

Oh, and the director of "Breeding Farm," Cody Knotts, of Uniontown, also had political aspirations. He twice ran for state House as a Republican. In 2010, he lost to Democratic Rep. Brandon Neuman by 5 percentage points.

Knotts' film the year before "Breeding Farm" was "Lucifer's Unholy Desire."

No word yet on sequels to either of these cinematic gems.

Wolf's campaign isn't alone in its brush with porn.

There are legal efforts to make public a reported cache of pornographic emails among officials in the state Office of Attorney General during the time Gov. Corbett ran the place.

The emails, subject of Harrisburg rumors for months, supposedly contain sexually explicit photos and messages shared among top prosecutors, other state officials and even judges - may it please the court.

Last week, it was reported the state paid a $15,000 settlement to a female agent in the Attorney General's Office.

The agent claimed gender discrimination and said executives in the Criminal Law Division were "known to share racy pictures and make derogatory comments against women."

The emails are the subject of media Right-to-Know requests. But the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that (oddly) a judge overseeing a statewide grand jury, Cambria County Judge Norman Krumenacker, and not the Attorney General's Office, is considering whether to release them.

It's suggested the emails are connected to an ongoing investigation into possible grand jury leaks by the Attorney General's Office because, you know, there's never a dull moment.

Speaking of dull, Corbett managed to keep the naughty-emails story alive by first saying he had no knowledge of smut sent on his watch only to then have his campaign say, well, yes, he was told of such emails earlier this year.

It is likely safe to assume neither Wolf nor Corbett knew of racy doings involving hires or employees.

Then again this is Pennsylvania, breeding farm of the bizarre.

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