Reply #5: I worked with Casey & his staff when he was Auditor General of PA.

[Divernan]

He was incredibly ethical, decent and not-for-sale. This distinguished him from 98% of the politicians with whom I worked for some 10 years. This was back around 2002-03, and the issue we worked on was providing long term care for mentally disabled and severely autistic children and adults. I was staff attorney for a special legislative committee named to address the problem. A lot of parents of the disabled/autistic were campaigning very hard to get state support for various programs. These parents were political neophytes. They did not show up with a campaign contribution in one hand and a piece of legislation in the other, as the lobbyists and political hacks traditionally did.

Casey and his senior staff held lengthy meetings with the families, and gathered information from
them leading to performance audits by Casey's office, which backed up the parents' anectdotal reports. The parents/families were treated with respect and they were listened to. Some of the experiences these families had were nightmares. Casey really cared and he really helped. I can only tell you that the man has a personal integrity which comes shining through. I would compare him to John Heinz, whom I also greatly admired, although I never had the privilege of working with him.