Not sure, but maybe Latino voters think bribes are normal and necessary in the U.S. government. So they voted for Trump. At a Coatesville City Council meeting, a priest asked “Who do we bribe in city government?” He didn’t really say who to bribe. Diplomatically, he asked about who to speak to in the city for assistance. The council said, “You speak to us.” He left confused.

With him were several members of his congregation. Most didn’t appear to be good English speakers.

His congregation needed help. 

When city council members told him, you talk to us for the assistance of the City of Coatesville, he looked perplexed.  

His jaw dropped. His eyes opened wide. He left, confused. 

I believe that in his home country a bribe was needed to get the attention of government. 

I think this happened sometime in Obama’s 2nd term

Maybe Latino voters think bribes are normal and necessary in U.S. government.  So they voted for Trump.

A home builder from Maryland came to our Coatesville Democratic Committee meeting. A Democrat, he was told to register as Republican so his business went smoothly. He was angry. 

Back in 1970s Republican Party controlled Chester County Pennsylvania bribing government was normal for businesses of all kinds.  

When Theodore “Teddy” Rubino was Chester County Commissioner and Republican Party Chair he ran Chester County as Angelo Bruno ran the Delaware Valley. 

Business owners would put a “tribute” into Rubino’s desk drawer when he left the room. If a business owner did not pay “insurance” to Rubino his business could be in trouble.  

"Then, in 1977, Mr. Rubino pleaded guilty to having extorted $6,400 from architects who were awarded a $130,000 contract to convert a former West Chester hospital into a county government annex…. 

As part of Mr. Rubino’s plea agreement, prosecutors read into the record statements that the FBI had taken from businessmen and politicians who had dealt with Mr. Rubino. They indicated that he had established set prices for those doing business with the county, ranging from milk supplies to the leases on court offices. Some of the money went to the county GOP.”

FROM:

The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Theodore S.a. Rubino, Long A Power In Chesco

March 12, 1989|By Rich Henson, Inquirer Staff Writer Staff writer Mark Fazlollah

Theodore S. A. Rubino, 77, a self-made millionaire and the predominant power broker in Chester County Republican politics for two decades until he was convicted of extortion in 1977, died yesterday at Bryn Mawr Hospital. He had lived in Malvern.

Mr. Rubino, who entered politics as a Malvern Borough councilman in 1955, was chairman of the Chester County Republican Party for 12 years and chairman of the county commissioners for seven.

He rose to prominence at a time when county bosses could wield considerable power, said William Lamb, the current head of the county’s GOP…..

Although Mr. Rubino had held no official position in the county GOP since 1977, his tight reins on the county’s political patronage system can still be felt.

“You need only look around the courthouse today to see how many people’s careers Ted helped,” Lamb said, adding that for the last decade Mr. Rubino ”had been a friend and an adviser.” The county GOP considered him to be the party’s chairman emeritus, Lamb said.

Senior U.S. District Judge John B. Hannum, whom Mr. Rubino succeeded as county GOP chairman in 1964, said: “He was an exceptional man and a great friend. He had been sick a long time, though, and maybe this is a blessing.”….

The son of an Italian immigrant quarry worker, origins that helped him maintain an easy rapport with the county’s rank-and-file voters, Mr. Rubino considered himself an anomaly among the fox-hunting gentry who controlled the county before him.

“This is real WASP country,” he once said. “Somehow, I just never belonged.”

Despite never being fully accepted by the county’s Republican traditionalists, he did acquire power and wealth.

And controversy frequently followed him.

Through real estate speculation, his ownership of the Knickerbocker Landfill near Malvern and his association with a Paoli insurance firm, Mr. Rubino, a lifelong bachelor, was a millionaire by the early 1970s…..Mr. Rubino’s first public troubles began in 1970, when state officials reported that hazardous wastes had been dumped, apparently illegally, at the landfill he owned with his brother. Knickerbocker was closed for a week in 1971 but was not shut down permanently until 1979, despite efforts by local environmental groups to have it closed sooner…..

Public controversy also swirled over the state’s $1 million purchase of part of his landfill for a stretch of the Route 202 bypass.

Though the legal division of the state Department of Transportation cleared Mr. Rubino of any wrongdoing in the case, public outcry caused enough pressure that he decided not to seek re-election to his county commission post in 1975.

Still, he was re-elected that same year as party chairman without opposition.

Then, in 1977, Mr. Rubino pleaded guilty to having extorted $6,400 from architects who were awarded a $130,000 contract to convert a former West Chester hospital into a county government annex….

As part of Mr. Rubino’s plea agreement, prosecutors read into the record statements that the FBI had taken from businessmen and politicians who had dealt with Mr. Rubino. They indicated that he had established set prices for those doing business with the county, ranging from milk supplies to the leases on court offices. Some of the money went to the county GOP.

As vice president of the Huggler Insurance Agency of Paoli, Mr. Rubino also received commissions from county contracts that he personally directed to the agency."