Republican Attorney General candidate Dave Sunday and GOP candidates in eight Democratic-held U.S. House districts have received at least $7.7 million in television ad support from a PAC backed by conservative donor Jeff Yass.
Democrats targeted by the ads say they are untrue and push the boundaries of how closely a political action committee can work with candidates. They also question whether candidates backed by the Commonwealth Leaders Fund, some of whom have raised compact campaign funds themselves, would be independent elected leaders.
“We have deep concerns about a campaign funded solely by one person: what are the expectations for this candidate if elected, when the debt is due, why does a supposedly education-focused advocacy group plan to invest millions in the attorney general’s office?” asked Carver Murphy, campaign manager for Democratic attorney general candidate Eugene DePasquale.
According to advertising industry data obtained by Capital-Star, the Commonwealth Leaders Fund spent $5.5 million advertising for Sunday reservations from June 11 to October 1.
The data shows that during the same period, the Commonwealth Leaders Fund spent $2.1 million on cable and on-air ads for eight Republican House candidates who are running against Democrats in rural districts where former President Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, performed well.
The cable and broadcast ad spending is in addition to the Commonwealth Leaders Fund’s spending on direct mail and other campaign media. The amount won’t be disclosed until the Pennsylvania Department of State releases its campaign finance reports, which were due Friday.
Television stations that placed ads in the Commonwealth Leaders Fund ad campaign filed documents with the Federal Communications Commission, including copies of a letter signed by Sunday authorizing the Commonwealth Leaders Fund to purchase ads on their behalf.
Zach Wallen, a Pittsburgh attorney specializing in election law, said the arrangement is unusual but consistent with Pennsylvania law.
“Commonwealth Leaders Fund is a hard PAC. Therefore, under Pennsylvania law, it can legally contribute to Pennsylvania candidates in unlimited amounts,” Wallen said, adding that the spending must be reported on candidates’ campaign finance reports.
Adam Bonin, an election lawyer in Philadelphia, said that when candidates and PACs coordinate campaign spending, it is usually a long-distance relationship. He also said that candidates’ blanket mandates are unusual.
“It raises a lot of questions about who is running the show,” Bonin said. “Are they independent candidates or subsidiaries of the Commonwealth Leaders Fund?”
State Rep. Frank Burns (D-Cambria) criticized his Republican opponent Amy Bradley in a TV spot in which he claims she donated her campaign to the Commonwealth Leaders Fund, which he describes as a “group funded by Philadelphia billionaires.”
“It shows the shallowness of their candidates when they can’t even speak for themselves and the Commonwealth Leaders Foundation makes all the decisions for them,” Burns said.
Bradley, on whom the PAC has spent about $472,000, did not respond to a request for comment.
Democrats in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives have won a one-seat majority in the 2023-34 legislative session. It is the first time Democrats have won a majority in either chamber of the General Assembly since 2010, and a defeat by just one incumbent could return control of the House to Republicans.
“They’re just trying to put a record amount of spending into these House districts to see what they can do, and they’re throwing a bunch of crap at the candidates to see what sticks,” said state Rep. Ryan Bizzarro (D-Erie).
Bizzarro faces a challenge from Republican Micah Goring, who has received at least $200,000 in TV ad support from the Commonwealth Leaders Fund. Goring’s campaign committee said it has raised only about $15,000.
Goring told the Capital-Star that he had no contact with the Commonwealth Leaders Fund and that he made the decision to run for state House of Representatives “very late,” just before the nominating petition period began.
“I’m glad we’re endorsing the same thing. I think they see me as a candidate who sees the need for free-market principles in our public education system,” Goring said, noting that he hears from seniors who are struggling to pay school taxes on their homes and parents who want better outcomes for their children. Goring said his children attend the state’s largest online charter school.
Yass, a Montgomery County trader and founder of Susquehanna International Group, has a personal net worth approaching $50 billion, according to Forbes. A supporter of charter schools and taxpayer-funded vouchers to facilitate parents pay for private school tuition, Yass has donated tens of millions to PACs dedicated to those issues.
Much of that money goes to the Commonwealth Leadership Fund, which has donated more than $45 million to Pennsylvania elections since 2017, campaign finance records show.
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Matthew Brouillette, president and CEO of Commonwealth Partners, serves as treasurer of the Commonwealth Leaders Fund, and did not respond to questions about his support of candidates in this year’s election that the Capital-Star emailed to him and the organization’s director of public relations, Gina Pope.
School choice has long been a balmy political issue in Pennsylvania, where publicly funded charter schools have flourished over the past two decades and spending increases for established public schools have been achieved despite opposition from Republican lawmakers. Gov. Josh Shapiro came to office as an unusual Democrat who supports school vouchersand his first two budgets expanded existing tax-credit programs for private school scholarships.
In direct mail sent to voters in select districts, the Commonwealth Leaders Fund says Democratic incumbents voted to enhance the family tax by $2,000. State Rep. Arvind Venkat (D-Allegheny) noted that the mailing referenced legislation that passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 107-94 that included: $6 billion spending plan in response to a state court order aimed at mitigating inequities in public education funding.
However, the claim that voting would cost taxpayers $2,000 a year is attributed to an editorial that Commonwealth Leaders Fund chairman Brouillette sent Bradford Era citing a study conducted by the conservative think tank Commonwealth Foundation in Harrisburg.
“All these ads are lying about our records,” Venkat said.
Education is not the only goal
The Commonwealth Leaders Fund funds ads attacking Democrats on issues other than education.
Another message sent to voters across the state claims that Democratic incumbents voted for legislation that would make it easier to pardon “murderers, rapists and pedophiles.” It refers to legislation introduced by House Speaker Joanna McClinton (D-Philadelphia) that would restore a requirement for a majority vote, rather than unanimity, by the pardon board for those sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty.
Burns noted that the bill was never put to a roll call vote.
“These are the lies that all of their candidates are forced to swallow,” Burns said. “And if they’re willing to do it now, what happens if they get elected?”
TV spot about the race for attorney general contrasting Sunday and DePasquale focuses on the Democratic candidate’s lack of experience as a prosecutor and his support from progressive advocacy groups, which the ad describes as “defund the police groups.”
Data from ad-tracking firm AdImpact shows the Commonwealth Leaders Fund has spent about $400,000 on the attorney general race almost every week since early August.
“There are very few other donors on Sunday and minimal public presence. She’s running this race like a Jeff Yass puppet, and voters deserve to know more about their relationship,” DePasquale’s campaign manager, Murphy, said.
Campaign finance records show Sunday’s campaign had raised just $304,000 by the end of May. By comparison, former Attorney General Shapiro’s committee had raised $1.5 million by the same point in his 2020 re-election campaign. Shapiro’s opponent, Heather Heidelbaugh, had raised $377,000 during the same period in 2020.
The Commonwealth Leaders Fund’s spending on Sunday’s campaign exceeded the total $5.4 million Shapiro’s committee spent on his 2020 re-election, campaign finance reports show.
Ben Wren, a spokesman for Sunday’s campaign, said it is not unusual for the Commonwealth Leaders Fund to get involved in campaigns that focus on public safety, noting that the PAC has been involved in some district attorney races.
Wren told the Capital-Star that he met with the board of the Commonwealth Leaders Fund on Sunday, which made the decision to support him.
“Dave welcomes support from anyone who can help carry his message of accountability and redemption in the criminal justice system to the people of Pennsylvania,” Wren said.
The Commonwealth Leaders Fund’s support proved beneficial on Sunday, allowing him to get his message to voters before the radio was swarmed with election ads.
The introduction of mail-in voting in Pennsylvania, which allows voters to cast their ballots up to several weeks before Election Day, also changed the voting formula.
“You have to get your message out early, otherwise you’re going to miss a significant portion of voters who tend to be undecided voters,” Wren said.
