The Latest Twist at Penn State? Attack Ads in Board Elections

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that advocates for the late football coach, Joe Paterno, are now taking out newspaper attack ads in an effort to force out two members of the university’s Board of Trustees who voted in 2011 to fire Paterno.

Penn Staters for Responsible Stewardship, or PS4RS, an alumni group seeking the ouster of board members over Paterno’s firing, is placing advertisements in Central Pennsylvania targeting incumbents Paul Suhey and Stephanie Nolan Deviney, who are seeking re-election to two of the three alumni seats open this year.

The first ad appeared in Monday’s Centre Daily Times, on its sports section cover. The 6-by-3-inch ad reads: “Suhey and Deviney voted to fire Joe Pa. Now they want OUR vote. Really?”

Roger Williams, executive director of the Penn State Alumni Association, could recall no similar ads during his decades at Penn State, nor the acrimony seen the last two years. His 169,000-member group does not endorse candidates.

Well, at least everything is quieting down and going away, right?