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HARRISBURG — Gov. Josh Shapiro viewed a Villanova University basketball game last week alongside a coach who’s won two national championships.
A few days later, he talked to tailgaters outside Lincoln Financial Field before heading inside to watch the Philadelphia Eagles take on the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Shapiro paid for neither ticket out of pocket.
He attended the Villanova game on the dime of Team PA, a nonprofit that spent at least $12,000 last year on sports tickets for Shapiro. The organization manages the Pennsylvania Growth Partnership fund, which raises money to promote the governor — and by extension, the commonwealth and its economic health — on the national and international stages.
Its donors are anonymous, making it impossible to know who pays for Shapiro to attend sporting events.
The NFL ticket was “covered with campaign funds,” said Shapiro spokesperson Manuel Bonder. Bonder didn’t answer a question about whether the governor used money from his sizable campaign war chest to buy the ticket or if the ticket itself was donated.
The first scenario is a common practice in Pennsylvania, one of two states that don’t ban or restrict spending campaign funds for personal reasons. A top GOP state senator bought two tickets to the Eagles-Steelers game — one for himself and one for another lawmaker — this way. The second scenario would involve Shapiro accepting the ticket as an in-kind contribution, which he’s done in the past.
Shapiro’s camp has insisted that the governor has done nothing wrong by accepting tickets from Team PA or political donors, including a lobbyist for a gaming industry at the center of a messy political fight.
But good-government advocates have previously argued that Shapiro is violating his own ban on taking gifts from people with business before the government. They say third parties financing Shapiro and other policymakers’ attendance at pricey events is problematic no matter how it happens.
There are “many ways money can flow” from special interests to elected officials, Michael Pollack, executive director of the good-government group March on Harrisburg, told Spotlight PA. Whether a campaign contribution, gift, or something else, the end result is the same, Pollack argued: an expectation that the recipient will prioritize donors’ interests over everyday people’s.
“He’s not unique,” Pollack said of Shapiro. “This is a systemic problem.”
Pennsylvania allows donors to provide limitless cash to political campaigns and politicians to spend it with almost no restrictions. The state also allows anyone seeking to influence the government to give public officials gifts, as long as those gifts are listed on a yearly report due in May (though there are ways to avoid disclosure).
For instance, a state contractor and its lobbyist paid to send four state lawmakers to Arizona last year ahead of the Super Bowl. Two other lawmakers accepted free tickets to the big game from a separate benefactor, millionaire insurance exec Charles Volpe.
Some lawmakers follow stricter rules, though they are generally self-policed.
Shapiro’s predecessor, Gov. Tom Wolf, implemented a strict gift ban for the executive branch nearly a decade ago. Shapiro loosened it after taking office in 2023, allowing state employees to accept a meal from a community group, for example.
The policy still bans members of Shapiro’s administration from taking gifts from any “person or entity” that is “seeking to obtain business or an outcome from or has financial relations with the Commonwealth.”
However, Shapiro has regularly accepted tickets from people or groups that appear to fall under that definition.
That includes Team PA, which has existed since 1997 to improve the commonwealth’s “competitiveness and economic prosperity.” It holds several state contracts, including one to study hydrogen technology.
Bonder said Shapiro attended the Villanova game at the invitation of the university and “thanks to a partnership with the Team PA Foundation.”
“He met with university, community, and academic leaders to discuss their priorities and the work the Administration is doing to continue creating opportunity across Pennsylvania,” Bonder said.
The game was not reported on Shapiro’s public schedule, though he was seen on camera talking to former Villanova head coach Jay Wright.
Shapiro attended the Eagles-Steelers game for political reasons, according to Bonder.
The governor hyped up the rare interstate matchup, making numerous sports radio appearances and an informal bet with Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, who is from the Pittsburgh area. Davis also attended the game with a ticket paid for by the Shapiro campaign.
Shapiro talked with tailgating fans and appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia. Both were on his official public schedule.
But inside, the governor “conducted political fundraising activity at this game and as a result, his attendance was covered with campaign funds,” Bonder told Spotlight PA.
According to social media posts, at least 12 state lawmakers also attended the game, including House Speaker Joanna McClinton, D-Philadelphia, House Majority Leader Matt Bradford, D-Montgomery, and Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman, R-Indiana.
Spokespersons for McClinton and other lawmakers did not respond to questions about who paid for their tickets. A spokesperson for Pittman said he used campaign money to buy tickets for himself and another GOP state senator, Scott Martin.
Over the past decade-plus, individual lawmakers have introduced gift bans and campaign finance legislation that have received a handful of preliminary votes, but never made it to the governor’s desk. Pollack says that needs to change.
“We desperately need a gift ban in Pennsylvania. We desperately need campaign finance reform. And much more to build trust,” Pollack said.
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