AG candidate Sunday, GOP contenders in Pa. House races get support from Yass-backed fund
Republican attorney general nominee Dave Sunday and GOP contenders in eight Democratic-controlled state House districts have received at least $7.7 million in television advertising support from the PAC backed by conservative mega donor Jeff Yass.
The Democrats targeted in those ads say they're untruthful and strain the limits of how closely a political action committee can work with candidates. They also question whether the candidates backed by Commonwealth Leaders Fund, some of whom had raised little campaign money themselves, would be independent elected leaders.
"We have deep concerns about a campaign solely funded by one person: what are the expectations of that candidate if they're elected, when does the debt come due, why does an allegedly education focused advocacy group plan to invest millions into the Attorney General's office, for starters?" Carver Murphy, campaign manager for Democratic attorney general nominee Eugene DePasquale, asked.
Commonwealth Leaders Fund spent $5.5 million for advertising reservations on Sunday's behalf from June 11 through Oct. 1, according to advertising industry data obtained by the Capital-Star.
The data shows Commonwealth Leaders Fund spent $2.1 million during the same period on broadcast and cable TV advertising for the eight Republican state House candidates who are running against Democrats in rural districts where former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee for president, has performed well.
The spending on broadcast and cable television advertising is in addition to direct mail and other campaign media spending by Commonwealth Leaders Fund, the extent of which will not be public until the Pennsylvania Department of State posts campaign finance reports that were due Friday.
The television stations running the Commonwealth Leaders Fund advertising on behalf of the campaigns have filed documents with the Federal Communications Commission, including copies of a letter signed by Sunday, authorizing Commonwealth Leaders Fund to purchase advertising on their behalf.
Zach Wallen, a Pittsburgh attorney specializing in election law, said the arrangement is unusual, but it complies with Pennsylvania law.
"Commonwealth Leaders Fund is a hard money PAC. Therefore, under Pennsylvania law, it can legally contribute to Pennsylvania candidates in unlimited amounts," Wallen said, adding that the expenditures must be reported in the candidates' campaign finance reports.
Adam Bonin, a Philadelphia election lawyer, said that when candidates and PACs coordinate on campaign spending, it's generally an arms-length relationship. He also said the blanket authorizations by the candidates is unusual.
"It raises all sorts of questions about who's running the show," Bonin said. "Are they independent candidates or are they subsidiaries of the Commonwealth Leaders Fund?"
State Rep. Frank Burns (D-Cambria) has called out his Republican opponent Amy Bradley in a TV spot that says she signed over her campaign to the Commonwealth Leaders Fund which it describes as "a Philadelphia billionaire-funded group."
"It shows the shallowness of their candidates when they can't even speak for themselves and the Commonwealth Leaders Fund makes every decision for them," Burns said.
Bradley, for whom the PAC has spent about $472,000, did not respond to a request for comment.
Democrats in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives have held a one-seat majority during the 2023-2034 legislative session. It's the first time Democrats have held a majority in either chamber of the General Assembly since 2010 and the defeat of only one incumbent could flip the House back to Republican control.
"They're just trying to invest a record amount of spending in these House districts to see what they can do and they're throwing a bunch of nonsense at these candidates to see what sticks," state Rep. Ryan Bizzarro (D-Erie) said.
Bizzarro is facing a challenge by Republican Micah Goring, who has received at least $200,000 in television advertising support from the Commonwealth Leaders Fund. Goring's campaign committee reported raising only about $15,000.
Goring told the Capital-Star that he has had no interaction with the Commonwealth Leaders Fund and that he made the decision to run for the state House "very late" just as the period for collecting signatures on nominating petitions began.
"I'm excited that we support the same thing. I think they see in me a candidate who sees the need to apply free market principles to our public education system," Goring said, noting that he hears from senior citizens 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 personal wealth nearing $50 billion, according to Forbes. As a proponent of charter schools and taxpayer funded vouchers to help parents pay for private school tuition, Yass has contributed tens of millions to PACs devoted to those issues.
Much of that money passes through to the Commonwealth Leaders Fund, which has pumped more than $45 million into Pennsylvania elections since 2017, according to campaign finance records.
Matthew Brouillette, president and CEO of Commonwealth Partners Chamber of Entrepreneurs, serves as treasurer of Commonwealth Leaders Fund and did not respond to questions about its support of candidates in this year's election that the Capital-Star emailed to him and the organization's public affairs director Gina Pope.
School choice is a longstanding political live wire in Pennsylvania, where publicly funded charter schools have flourished in the last two decades and growth in spending for traditional public schools has been accomplished over the objections of Republican lawmakers. Gov. Josh Shapiro came into office as an unusual Democrat who supports school vouchers , and his first two budgets expanded existing tax credit programs for private school scholarships.
In a direct mail piece sent to voters in the targeted districts, the Commonwealth Leaders Fund says Democratic incumbents voted for a $2,000 per family tax hike. State Rep. Arvind Venkat (D-Allegheny) noted the mailer references a bill that passed in the House with a 107-94 vote that included a plan to spend $6 billion in response to a state court order to alleviate public education funding disparities.
But the claim that the vote would cost taxpayers $2,000 a year is attributed to an op-ed that Commonwealth Leaders Fund chairperson Brouillette submitted to The Bradford Era that cites a study authored by the conservative Harrisburg think tank Commonwealth Foundation.
"All of these ads are lying about our records," Venkat said.
Education not the only focus
The ads Commonwealth Leaders Fund is funding attack Democrats on issues other than education.
Another mail piece sent to voters across the state claims Democratic incumbents voted for a bill that would make it easier to pardon "murderers, rapists and child molesters." It refers to a bill introduced by House Speaker Joanna McClinton (D-Philadelphia) that would restore a requirement for only a majority rather than a unanimous vote by the board of pardons for people sentenced to life without parole or death.
The bill was never put to a roll call vote Burns noted.
"These are the lies that all of their candidates are forced to swallow," Burns said. "And if they're willing to do that now, what will happen if they're elected?"
A TV spot about the attorney general's race contrasting Sunday and DePasquale focuses on the Democratic candidate's inexperience as a prosecutor and his backing by progressive advocacy groups the ad describes as "defund-the-police groups."
Data from the advertising tracking firm AdImpact shows Commonwealth Leaders Fund has spent about $400,000 on the attorney general's race nearly every week since the beginning of August.
"Sunday has very few other donors and minimal public presence. He's running this race like a shadow puppet for Jeff Yass and voters deserve to know more about their relationship," DePasquale's campaign manager Murphy said.
Campaign finance records show Sunday's campaign had raised only $304,000 through the end of May. By comparison, former attorney general Shapiro's committee had raised $1.5 million by the same point in his 2020 reelection 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 so far has surpassed the $5.4 million total that Shapiro's committee spent to get reelected in 2020, according to campaign finance reports.
Ben Wren, a spokesperson for Sunday's campaign, said it's not unusual for the Commonwealth Leaders Fund to get involved in public safety focused campaigns, noting that the PAC has worked on some district attorney races.
Wren told the Capital-Star that Sunday met with the board of the Commonwealth Leaders Fund and it decided to back him.
"Dave welcomes support from anybody who will help bring his message of accountability and redemption of the criminal justice system to the people of Pennsylvania," Wren said.
The Commonwealth Leaders Fund's support has been advantageous for Sunday, allowing him to get his message to voters early, before the airwaves became crowded with campaign commercials.
The advent of mail-in voting in Pennsylvania allowing voters to cast ballots weeks before Election Day has also changed the formula.
"You have to get your message out earlier or you miss a critical component of the voters who tend to be your swing voters," Wren said.
