The ghost of Vince Fumo’s political career has entered Josh Shapiro’s lexicon

As Gov. Josh Shapiro works to sell the ambitious, $48.3 billion budget proposal he unveiled this week, Clout wanted to dig into his administration’s mantra: Get S– Done.

Shapiro first officially used the motto last year as he celebrated reopening a collapsed portion of I-95 in 12 days. Since then, the Democratic governor has repeated it dozens of times, and even shortened it to a “GSD Attitude.”

But Shapiro isn’t the first person in Pennsylvania politics to make use of the phrase.

Former State Sen. Vincent Fumo — who was once thought of as the most powerful politician in Pennsylvania — used a similar motto to exemplify his staff’s ability to cut through red tape and bring home nearly $8 billion in state funds to Philadelphia, despite being in the minority party for most of his tenure.

He summed up his success with the line: “We Get S– Done.”

Fumo’s staffers wore shirts emblazoned with the motto — similarly shortened to an acronym, just like Shapiro’s “GSD Attitude.”

Until, of course, it was discovered that Fumo was wielding his power to snag yacht trips and other freebies that got him convicted on 137 federal corruption charges in 2009.

Shapiro told Clout last month that he didn’t know Fumo used the same phrase, and that he hadn’t modeled it off of him.

”Really? I didn’t know that,” Shapiro said.

But he’s continued using it, including twice during his hour-and-a-half-long budget address (Though, he used the family-friendly line “Get stuff done.”)

Fumo did not respond to a request for comment, but he told PhillyVoice in 2017: “We always said, ‘Get S– Done,’ GSD. We had these shirts made up one time for the staff [that said] GSD and on the arm, over here, was BBLL.”

”To get s– done you have to have brains and balls. And you’ve got to understand loyalty and leverage,” Fumo added at the time.

Sounds a lot like a certain governor with his eye on the national stage.

Rumors of the death of Mark Houck’s congressional campaign have been greatly exaggerated.

Houck is still in the race for Pennsylvania’s 1st District, he confirmed Tuesday, explaining how an FEC filing led to incorrect speculation on social media that he’d suspended his GOP primary campaign.

The anti-abortion activist challenging U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick said his campaign had suspended a committee, “Houck for Congress,” because the language didn’t match his website and campaign materials as required.

The committee named “Mark Houck for Congress” is still alive, as is his bid.

“We’ve got more momentum than ever,” Houck said.

Houck also faced questions this week about the more than $400,000 he raised after being arrested outside of a Philly Planned Parenthood in 2021.

During a Bucks County candidate forum Monday in Newtown, an attendee asked Houck about the money raised on GiveSendGo, a crowdfunding site favored by right-wing causes. In a video shared with Clout, Houck tells the woman, in a testy exchange, the money is now in a trust for his seven children.

Houck told Clout the fund, set up in his wife’s name, was always intended to support his family. He faced 11 years in prison and $350,000 in fines if convicted of intimidating workers. His legal fees were covered by the Thomas More Society, a conservative Catholic law firm.

Last January, Houck was acquitted.

“It was there to help … provided I would go off to prison or the government would continue to attack me,” Houck said of the fund. “And those funds have gone into a trust for the children should their father continue to be persecuted. I don’t know what people expect. Do they expect me to donate to a cause?”

Houck, a first-time candidate, said he didn’t list the trust on his financial disclosure, filed in December with the U.S. House, because it’s in the name of his wife and children.

However, U.S. House ethics rules require candidates disclose their spouse and dependents’ financial interests, except in rare circumstances.

Clout would like to propose a toast to Darrell L. Clarke, whose post-City Hall career was one of the only things both parties in Harrisburg could agree on this week.

The erstwhile Philly City Council president and longtime Democrat was unanimously confirmed by the GOP-controlled state Senate on Thursday to serve for four years on the state’s Liquor Control Board, a three-member panel that regulates booze imports and sales. Shapiro nominated Clarke to the board, one of several that’s often staffed by the state’s most well-connected politicos.

The LCB is no small-time gig. There are about 600 state-run liquor stores, and more than 18 million cases of wine and spirits are shipped from the state’s distribution centers annually. That’s a lot of Fireball.

In an interview late last year, Clarke alluded to the task ahead of him. He said the “LCB thing” is “way bigger than I knew.”

“I had no idea,” he said. “It’s a three billion dollar department.”

Sure is. The state says Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores generated more than $3.1 billion in sales and taxes in the last fiscal year.

Clarke, 71, will make out OK himself. The new job pays nearly $90,000 a year. That’s less than his $195,000 yearly pay as Council president — but he’s now receiving a city pension worth $11,900 monthly, so he’s actually making more following his exit from City Hall.

And the LCB only meets once or twice a month. Cheers to that.

Clout provides often irreverent news and analysis about people, power, and politics.