Dems hit Marino on DeNaples and Luzerne, but Carney keeps it civil

Democrats in Harrisburg and Washington were quick to pounce on former U.S. Attorney Tom Marino’s entrance into the 10th Congressional District race Wednesday, criticizing him for representing a legally-troubled casino owner Louis DeNaples and for not detecting a scandal brewing in the Luzerne County juvenile courts when he was still in office. But the man Marino hopes to take on, Congressman Chris Carney (D-10), stayed out of the trenches for now.

Marino resigned as U.S. Attorney in 2007, a couple months after The Morning Call reported that he had offered up a reference for Louis DeNaples’ casino gaming application while Marino’s office was also investigating the businessman. After resigning, he was hired to represent DeNaples, a situation that spurred more controversy, to which Democrats alluded in reacting to his candidacy. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee wasted no time in referring to him as Tom “Casino” Marino.

“The cloud of conflicts that surrounded Marino’s resignation, stemming from his longstanding ties to businessman Louis DeNaples, speaks volumes about Marino’s controversial past,” DCCC spokesman Shripal Shah said in a statement. “He should fully expect his shady background to be rejected at the ballot box this fall.”

The state Democratic Party said Marino should have stopped a Luzerne County scandal in which juvenille court judges allegedly took kickbacks for sending kids to privately-run detention facilities.

“The last time Tom Marino was in public service, he cut and ran,” party chairman T.J. Rooney said in a statement. “When the going got tough, Marino abandoned his responsibility to the region while the ‘kids for cash’ scandal was taking place right under his nose. No wonder he was quoted in 2007 saying that he doesn’t’t ‘have the patience to be a Congressman.’ Marino doesn’t’t have the patience for any kind of public service.”

But a spokesman for Carney declined to jump into the political fray just yet.

“There will be plenty of time for politics down the road,” spokesman Josh Drobnyk said in a statement. “Right now, Congressman Carney is concentrating on creating jobs in our region and listening to the people from all 14 counties. He is fighting for tax cuts for small businesses and the middle class and working to get area projects the funding they so badly need. Congressman Carney is proud of his bipartisan record in Congress and was flattered to have recently been approached by Sen. John McCain and other Republican leaders about switching parties. He believes, however, that his job is not about a political party. It is about doing the right thing every day for the people he represents.”