May 28, 2016
"She was angry," said now-former Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office spokesperson Chuck Ardo.
Ardo had decided to give a reporter a tour of the office. The reporter was writing a critical story about worker morale, Ardo said, but, as he puts it, "My philosophy is not dependent on what type of story is going to be written."
Yet Attorney General Kathleen Kane was peeved, according to Ardo.
"As a matter of fact, she called me in the midst of my tour and expressed her anger," Ardo said. "One of the things she said was, 'This guy never wrote a positive story, why would I allow him to look around?'"
That was the "straw that broke the camel's back," Ardo told PhillyVoice Saturday morning. He had resigned from his post Friday.
"It's really difficult to deal with crisis after crisis after crisis. And so many of them are self-inflicted."
His former boss, Kane, is the first Democrat — and the first woman — to hold her current position. She isn't running for re-election this fall amidst charges she leaked grand jury information to a newspaper in order to embarrass a rival and then lied about it to another grand jury.
The news of Ardo quitting was first reported by several media outlets Friday evening. He said he'd been struggling with the decision for weeks, but ultimately, the real challenge was keeping the job for as long as he did.
"It's really difficult to deal with crisis after crisis after crisis," he said.
"And so many of them are self-inflicted."
Ardo, a seasoned political press secretary who used to work for Gov. Ed Rendell, among others, had come out of retirement to work for Kane in April 2015, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Kane has lost eight press secretaries since taking office in 2013, many of them leaving after only a few months, the newspaper reported.
Kane, who has had her law license suspended, is scheduled to go to trial in August to face charges of felony perjury, obstruction and related counts. She has pleaded not guilty.
Amidst those legal woes, Kane has released a string of pornographic and insensitive emails sent between state lawmakers and prosecutors.
Kane has hired a special prosecutor to investigate the scandal, known as "Porngate," to see if any government officials broke any laws in sending or receiving any of the emails. A preliminary report on the more than 4 million emails is expected in the coming weeks.
Despite all this going on, Ardo said the day-to-day for many employees was quite normal.
"I would give you as evidence the fact that each and every day the investigators have accomplished something somewhere across the commonwealth, and, of course, in order to do that the support staff has been there to help them."
Which is why he had invited the reporter up, to show that morale wasn't as bad as some may have perceived.
But, asked whether Kane's reaction to the tour showed an appearance of paranoia, Ardo said, "I think that was certainly the thesis of the reporter’s story, and I do believe that phone call helped confirm it for him."
"That tour should have been innocuous. In fact, it was intended to show exactly the opposite."
The tour was the culmination of a relationship with his boss that had turned sour, Ardo said.
"It's difficult to be the spokesperson for someone who doesn't speak to you."
Bruce Castor, hired by Kane as solicitor general (a newly created position), told The Morning Call Ardo's contract was on a month-to-month basis and that Kane had told him she got a text message from Ardo saying he did not intend to return to work after Memorial Day.
Castor added to the Inquirer that Kane was a good boss and that he had no problem with her management style.
Messages left to Kane's press office outside of business hours Saturday morning were not immediately returned.
