Brad Bumsted
Dean of Pennsylvania Capitol reporters Brad Bumsted retires
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Scott LaMar
Brad Bumsted
Airdate: January 30, 2023
Veteran State Capitol reporter Brad Bumsted retired earlier this month after almost five decades as a journalist.
Bumsted was one of the most respected reporters covering state government and had a reputation for being fair and thorough.
He broke many stories over the years including Porngate – staffers in the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office shared sexually explicit emails and political campaigns that didn’t make public where almost $3.5 million in expenses went.
Bumsted also wrote two books about corruption in Harrisb Spark today.
On The Spark Monday, Bumsted identified what drove him throughout his career in journalism,”The hunt. There is a story out there, but you have to find it. You have to go get it. You have to be able to prove it. That’s all part of the hunt. And it’s what I was addicted to, in a way, is that that, could I get this story, could I prove this story and could I break this story before anyone else? All of that is part of what I think of the hunt.”
Bumsted commented on the partisanship in Harrisburg,”When you have a split legislature, it does breed bi-partisan friction, but it can make the argument that that’s what people want. I mean, they don’t specifically go to the polls and say, I want, you know, a Democratic House and Republican Senate. But I think a lot of people in the end are not dissatisfied with that because it prevents a lot of crazy things from becoming law. The fact that there are there’s a check and balance on things as there is a governor from the opposing party, when you have a Republican legislature like you had a Democratic governor, Tom Wolf, a lot of those Republican ideas aren’t going to get through. They would say that’s terrible. And the Wolf, you know, shouldn’t have vetoed all the bills that he did. He did veto a lot. But, yeah, sure, we see the partisanship here.”
Bumsted was asked who in state government was the most straightforward and honest and who was the most difficult to deal with,”I think clearly one of the more honest people that I dealt with, I saw it, although he was, you know, criticized by opponents of being a goody two shoes, was former rep and state Senator Allen Kukovich from Westmoreland County, a Democrat, a reformer. But he was somebody that I didn’t envision ever getting in any kind of trouble, trouble with the law or ethics. And he never did. There were people. You know, on the other side of that, not to in any way indicate that it was dishonest. But Governor Rendell was difficult to deal with just because of his personality and his ego. He was a huge force to deal with. And, you know, he got a lot done as governor from what he wanted to get done. But for reporters, he wasn’t held back at all by the idea of of dressing them down at press conferences, yelling at his staff, at reporters. So he was a really mercurial kind of guy and therefore difficult to deal with. But, in terms of governors who accomplished things, he would he certainly would be in the upper tier.”
