This election season, WESA and PublicSource are analyzing the political advertising you’re seeing on air and online. Look for Spot Check on Thursdays.
The spot
The 30-second “Salary” is the first negative ad of the closely watched race in Pennsylvania’s 45th Senate District. (The seat, which encompasses eastern and southern suburbs via the Mon Valley, is being vacated by retiring Democrat Jim Brewster and is considered a key battleground this fall.) The ad contrasts the background of first-time Republican candidate Jen Dintini with that of two-term House member Nick Pisciottano, the Democrat. In doing so, it reprises a familiar charge long made against incumbents in Harrisburg: that they are overpaid and take generous expense reimbursements in addition to their salaries.
The political ads and the facts
When did it launch? Aug. 28
How many airings? 109 as of Sept. 4, according to AdImpact, which tracks political advertising.
How much? $133,198 as of Sept. 4, according to AdImpact.
Who’s paying? The ad is paid for by Friends of Jen Dintini, the Republican’s campaign committee, though it remains unclear who exactly is financing the campaign’s efforts. AdImpact reports that Dintini has spent over $1 million on advertising alone this summer – most of which has been spent on positive introductory spots – after finishing her primary with just $44,084.24 on hand. The campaign is not required to disclose donations garnered since then until October, but almost all of Dintini’s fundraising at that point came from Senate leadership. Campaign spokesperson Ben Wren said that while she had held local fundraisers, “She’s a first-time candidate, so I don’t think it’s a surprise if you see a lot from leadership.”
Pisciottano has been outgunned on the airwaves thus far: He just launched a $150,000 ad buy for a positive introductory spot. He closed out his primary with $60,322 on hand, most of which came from Democrats and unions.
The claims
The ad asserts that as “families were struggling,” Pisciottano “put up his feet” — an argument it illustrates with footage of a harried-looking couple and a black-and-white photo of Pisciottano superimposed over an anonymous figure reclining at a desk. “In a year, Nick only worked 55 days but still took home 100 grand in salary and 34,000 additionally in per diems — all on the taxpayer dime,” it asserts. “When Nick Pisciottano works a little, we pay a lot.”
The ad then briefly describes Dintini as “not a politician” but “a mom, a community leader [and] a business owner.”
The facts
The ad correctly characterizes the salary of state House members: A rank-and-file member of the legislature like Pisciottano will earn $106,422 this year. But the claim that he “only worked 55 days” is drawn from the number of voting days in the state House from August 2023 to August 2024. The figure ignores non-voting days, as well as any other form of work a state legislator puts in — doing committee work discussing legislation on non-session days, taking part in policy forums or community events, and so on.
“I don’t set my salary,” Pisciottano said, noting that under state law, salaries are changed to reflect cost-of-living increases.
Pisciottano said that it was “totally false” to “claim that I only work 55 days a year.” He estimated that the job required 50 to 70 hours a week, including time spent in the evenings “responding to emails, catching up on things I miss throughout the day. And so it’s a full-time job.”
A review of Pisciottano’s Twitter account and an archive of official press releases reflect his participation in events outside the Capitol. These range from community discussions about the fate of the defunct Century III mall to such events as ice cream socials and legislative roundtables on causes with which he has aligned himself.
“Per diems” are a means of compensating legislators for the cost of travel, food and lodging they incur for the time they spend outside their district — either in Harrisburg or elsewhere. Legislators can either submit an itemized list of expenses or take a lump-sum payment, which is set according to a schedule put out by the federal government and has hovered around $180 a day.
Pisciottano called lump-sum per diems an “efficient and cost-effective” way to get reimbursed and noted that the amount of the reimbursement is determined by the federal government. “It’s not like the state House or state Senate … sets that amount.”
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Per diems have long been a contentious tradition in Harrisburg, and at least one survey has suggested the rates in Pennsylvania are among the more generous given to state officials. Pisciottano called the attack “cookie-cutter” as well as “dishonest” — because the $34,000 figure represents the amount of per diems he has taken during the course of his nearly four years in office. He said that the ad makes it sound like that is the amount he receives annually, because it is mentioned in a sentence that begins with the phrase “in a year” and includes his annual salary and the number of session days in a year.
Wren said it’s fair to cite the number of voting days while excluding time spent on other legislative work: “The job is to go and vote on legislation, and they have only done that 55 times in the last year. … They’ve had 365 days of potential to [vote].”
Wren acknowledges that “in a 30-second ad it’s hard to do full nuance, but the way the ad is structured we don’t say $34,000 a year [in per diems]. We say he makes $106,000 a year and $34,000 in per diems.”
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When asked whether she would forego a legislative salary that her ad suggested was too generous, Wren demurred. “No, she’s going to take the salary that is given to a state legislator.”
But Dintini, he said, has pledged not to take the lump-sum per diem payment and will instead seek reimbursement for expenses incurred. That would offer savings, he said, because a per diem represents the maximum reimbursement allowable and legislative staff “could easily handle [Pisciottano’s] expenses” efficiently.
“If everyone did that, it would save a lot of money,” Wren said.
PublicSource’s access to AdImpact data on political advertising is made possible through a partnership with WESA and support from The Heinz Endowments.
Chris Potter is 90.5 WESA’s government and accountability editor. He can be reached at cpotter@wesa.fm.
Tom Riese is 90.5 WESA’s Harrisburg-based Capitol reporter. He can be reached at triese@wesa.fm.
