Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala said he didn’t want to contradict the will of the people who voted for Sanders, but he had no choice under the law. Wouldn’t those voters have liked to have known that before they cast a ballot? By hiding his conviction and hoping no one would notice, Sanders engaged in the sort of self-delusion many people entertain … right before a PR crisis lands squarely on their heads.
Look, if you have an issue in your closet, your team needs to know about it. While certain things are subject to law, anything subject to public relations can be mitigated if, one, you have the right people on your team, and, two, you get control of the message at the right time. That time? Always, as soon as possible.
In Sanders’ case, he got a little ahead of himself. He’s been seeking a state pardon so he could run for office, but that will take years. Sanders decided to roll the dice. He lost … and that impatience likely means his political career is done, at least for the foreseeable future. Plus, if he does get the pardon and decides to run again, you can bet his opponent will bring up how he tried to pull a fast one on voters.
The lesson? Don’t hide from your skeletons. Deal with them … because someone else will be more than happy to pull them out of the closet and put them on parade.
Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala said he didn’t want to contradict the will of the people who voted for Sanders, but he had no choice under the law. Wouldn’t those voters have liked to have known that before they cast a ballot? By hiding his conviction and hoping no one would notice, Sanders engaged in the sort of self-delusion many people entertain … right before a PR crisis lands squarely on their heads.
Look, if you have an issue in your closet, your team needs to know about it. While certain things are subject to law, anything subject to public relations can be mitigated if, one, you have the right people on your team, and, two, you get control of the message at the right time. That time? Always, as soon as possible.
In Sanders’ case, he got a little ahead of himself. He’s been seeking a state pardon so he could run for office, but that will take years. Sanders decided to roll the dice. He lost … and that impatience likely means his political career is done, at least for the foreseeable future. Plus, if he does get the pardon and decides to run again, you can bet his opponent will bring up how he tried to pull a fast one on voters.
The lesson? Don’t hide from your skeletons. Deal with them … because someone else will be more than happy to pull them out of the closet and put them on parade.
Written by
EPR Editorial Team
The Everything-PR Editorial Team produces reporting, research, and analysis across thirty verticals — communications, reputation, AI visibility, public affairs, media systems, and digital discovery in the answer-engine era. Publishing since 2009.
Other news
See all
EPR Editorial Team · 05/29/2026
Who Controls AI Answers in Public Affairs?
Wire services and .gov own the facts. Think tanks own the framing.
EPR Editorial Team · 05/29/2026
Nous Research: Who They Are and Why They Built Hermes
Nous Research is an independent AI lab focused on agent infrastructure, model post-training, and open-weight model work. Their recent Hermes project, a harness for Claude Code, has brought them unexpected attention. This article profiles Nous Research, explains what Hermes does, and explores why the lab is building on top of another company's coding agent.
EPR Editorial Team · 05/29/2026
Cursor IDE
Cursor IDE is the AI-native code editor that won the developer market. 70 percent of the Fortune 1,000 are customers. $2B ARR in three years — the fastest B2B scaling on record. EPR ranks Cursor first in coding assistants.
Never Miss a Headline
Daily PR headlines, weekly long-form analysis, and our proprietary research drops — straight to your inbox.