Source Of $125K Donation To McCord's Campaign Is Revealed

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - A political action committee that gave $125,000 to the failed gubernatorial campaign of former Pennsylvania Treasurer Rob McCord has revealed the source of its money eight months after it blew through the deadline to report the information to the state.

A report by The Enterprise Fund appeared on the Pennsylvania Department of State's website Friday. The department, which administers state election and campaign finance reporting laws, fined the group $500 for missing a June deadline to file the report.

The Enterprise Fund's report shows that it received $100,000 from Ross Nese, president of a Pittsburgh-based nursing home services company, and another $25,000 that filtered through two other political action committees after being given by Vahan and Danielle Gureghian of Gladwyne in suburban Philadelphia.

Vahan Gureghian, the CEO of a Chester-based charter school management firm, is active in Montgomery County's Republican Party and gave more than $330,000 to former Gov. Tom Corbett's two campaigns for governor.

McCord abruptly resigned last month as Pennsylvania's elected state treasurer and signed an agreement in federal court to plead guilty to extortion charges for using his office to try to strong-arm contributions to his gubernatorial campaign. McCord is due in federal court in Harrisburg next week.

McCord's campaign reported the $125,000 Enterprise Fund donation on May 21, a day after he came in a distant third in an expensive four-way race for the Democratic nomination to take on then-Gov. Tom Corbett in the Nov. 4 election.

The winner, Tom Wolf, went on to beat Corbett and as governor is expected to nominate a successor to fill the remaining two years of McCord's term. All told, the four Democratic candidates spent more than $36 million on the primary, including nearly $9 million by McCord and nearly $15 million by Wolf.

Department of State records show that lawyer John H. Estey submitted paperwork in 2013 to create the Enterprise Fund.

Estey, 52, a onetime chief of staff to former Gov. Ed Rendell and former chairman of the Delaware River Port Authority, is an executive vice president for The Hershey Trust and chairman of the Independence Visitor Center.

Nese, Gureghian and Estey have not returned telephone messages seeking comment.

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