The race for Pennsylvania attorney general has generated millions of dollars in contributions for both candidates, but much of the spending on behalf of Republican Dave Sunday is not noticeable to voters in his latest campaign finance report.
Democrat Eugene DePasquale received $3.2 million in contributions between May 14 and Sept. 16, according to the campaign committee’s latest report, due Friday and set to be posted online this week.
While DePasquale says it is the most reported by any attorney general candidate during the same period since 2000, it falls far brief of the $5.5 million a PAC backed by conservative donor Jeff Yass spent on television advertising on Sunday.
However, those expenses were not included in the latest campaign committee report on Sunday.
A report on Sunday shows he has received nearly $1.4 million in donations, mostly from Republican Association of Attorneys General and another Yass-backed committee, the Commonwealth Children’s Choice Fund. Each gave Sunday $550,000.
In a statement, DePasquale’s campaign boasted of donations from nearly 4,000 people, with the average amount being less than $100. However, DePasquale also received a significant amount from one organization. Democratic Association of Attorneys General donated over $1.5 million.
DePasquale’s report also listed about two dozen donations of more than $10,000 each from PACs to labor unions, including the Pennsylvania State Educators Association, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Service Employees International Union.
Penn State political science professor Daniel Mallinson said that given that Pennsylvania is a must-win state in the presidential election, running a statewide campaign, such as running for attorney general, is costly this year.
“You have to pay for political ads and your own political operations, which in some ways competes with all the noise that comes with presidential campaigns,” Mallinson said.
The office of attorney general also gained greater visibility than the other offices of state treasurer and auditor general, as it became a key link in the development of the office of governor and a vehicle for influencing statewide issues and policies.
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 lend a hand 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.
Advertising Industry Data obtained by the Capital-Star shows that the Commonwealth Leaders Fund paid $5.5 million in TV and cable ads criticizing DePasquale’s record. The ads include a disclaimer that they are paid for by the Commonwealth Leaders Fund on Sunday’s behalf.
The candidates for elected office in Pennsylvania are: required for reporting donations of “valuable items” to the State Department.
The latest report on Sunday did not record any such donations during the period in which the Commonwealth Leaders Fund booked ads on television stations across the state, according to advertising data.
Campaign spokesman Ben Wren told the Capital-Star on Sunday that the campaign received notification of the in-kind contributions from the Commonwealth Leaders Fund after September 16, the deadline for filing the latest reports.
“We had no idea how many in-kind contributions there were until they sent them,” Wren said in a text message, adding that the contributions would be included in the reporting cycle in which the notification was received.
A State Department spokesperson said Capital-Star’s in-kind contributions must be reported in the reporting period in which they are received, and referred to a “Frequently Asked Questions” document on campaign finance reporting that does not clarify when a contribution is considered to have been received.
Carver Murphy, DePasquale’s campaign manager, said Sunday was “hiding behind Yass money instead of campaigning for the people of Pennsylvania.”
“Voters won’t be fooled by a clever donation schedule,” Murphy said.
