Even as Pittsburgh-area voters are swamped by hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of ads related to the presidential and U.S. Senate elections, a rush of fundraising and spending is underway to sway control of the state legislature in Harrisburg and state row offices, according to the last round of campaign finance disclosures before Election Day on Nov. 5.
Allegheny County is host to two multimillion-dollar state Senate races. Labor unions, billionaires and national PACs are aiding both parties as Democrats attempt to take control of the upper chamber for the first time in decades.
At the same time, a Philadelphia-area conservative billionaire is teaming up with a national PAC to try to tilt the race for Pennsylvania attorney general, while labor unions and national liberal groups try to keep the office in Democratic hands.
And the state House, where Democrats have held the majority by a single seat following the 2022 midterm elections, could hinge on the handful of competitive races in Allegheny County. Candidates for those down-ballot races have collectively raised well over $1 million since May.
State Senate: Millions flowing to suburban contests
Control of the Pennsylvania Senate, and with it policy-making power in Harrisburg, runs through Allegheny County this November. Republicans currently hold a three-seat majority in the chamber, and two Allegheny County seats are critical to determining control for 2025.
The 37th District, encompassing southern, western and northern Pittsburgh suburbs, is one of three that state Democrats are targeting as pickup opportunities to grow their numbers. The Mon Valley-centric 45th District is a competitive seat that Democrats must hold onto in order to have any chance of winning control.
The 37th District race is the most expensive of the hotly contested Senate contests in the state this year. Republican Sen. Devlin Robinson, of Bridgeville, holds the seat today, and teacher and former Jefferson Hills councilor Nicole Ruscitto is the Democratic nominee.
According to AdImpact, which tracks political advertising, the race has drawn about $6.4 million in television ads, almost exactly split between the two parties.
A campaign finance disclosure for Robinson showed he raised $2.7 million between May and mid-October and had $215,000 on hand on Oct. 21. A disclosure for Ruscitto showed she raised $2.1 million during the same time period.
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Robinson received $1 million from campaigns of two Senate Republican leaders, Majority Leader Joe Pittman and President Pro Tem Kim Ward. He also received $375,000 from For-Ward PAC, a committee that has historically received funding from Ward’s campaign and from Students First PAC, which in turn has been funded by Eastern Pennsylvania conservative billionaire Jeffrey Yass.
Yass-funded PACs also gave hundreds of thousands to the Senate Republicans’ statewide campaign PAC and the GOP candidates for row offices.
About 40% of Ruscitto’s contributions came from the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee, which supports Democratic Senate candidates statewide. That committee, in turn, received more than $800,000 from the campaign of Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa, $865,000 from the campaign of Southeastern Pennsylvania Sen. Vincent Hughes, and $1.35 million from a national PAC aimed at helping Democrats in state legislatures called The PAC for America’s Future.
Ruscitto also received $120,000 from Represent! PAC, which supports progressive women in Pennsylvania, $222,500 from Hughes’ campaign and $122,000 in in-kind donations from the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.
In the 45th District, where state Rep. Nick Pisciottano, D-West Mifflin, is running to succeed retiring Sen. Jim Brewster and keep the seat blue, neither Pisciottano nor Republican nominee Jen Dintini, of Plum, had campaign finance disclosures available online at publication time.
AdImpact shows that race has drawn $5.2 million in TV ads, with the Dintini campaign spending $3.3 million and Pisciottano’s campaign spending $2 million.
Dintini more than doubled Pisciottano’s fundraising since May, raising $3.7 million to Pisciottano’s $1.7 million.
Most of the money came from party leaders: $1 million from Ward’s campaign, $750,000 from Pittman’s campaign, $550,000 from For-Ward PAC and $587,000 from the Senate Republican Campaign Committee.
Pisciottano took in $780,000 from the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee and received in-kind donations worth $226,000 from the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.
Costa, who is running unopposed in the Pittsburgh-centric 43rd district, has raised more than $800,000 since May and spent almost as much in an effort to pull his fellow Democrats to a majority and potentially change his title from minority leader to majority leader. His campaign gave $50,000 to Pisciottano’s and $587,000 to the Senate Democrats’ statewide PAC.
Row offices: Uneven funding in all races
The race for Pennsylvania attorney general has seen more than $20 million in TV ads so far, and the campaign for Democrat Eugene DePasquale has outspent that of Republican Dave Sunday, $5.5 million to $2.3 million.
But outside groups have rallied to Sunday’s defense, with two PACs buying a total of $14.3 million in ads, launching Sunday to a wide advantage on the airwaves.
One of the PACs, Commonwealth Leaders Fund, received almost all its funding from a chain of PAC donations that originated with Yass, who is one of the largest donors to Republican causes in the country.
The other, Keystone Prosperity PAC, is funded by the Republican Attorneys General Association, which spends on attorney general races nationwide. That group received millions of dollars from The Concord Fund, an organization focused on getting conservatives appointed to the federal judiciary.
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DePasquale raised much of his $5 million from trade unions, as well as $100,000 each from a PAC funded by Philadelphia attorneys and Gov. Josh Shapiro’s campaign.
The other two row offices, with considerably less money and attention than the AG race, were financially lopsided.
Malcolm Kenyatta, the Democrat running against incumbent Republican Auditor General Tim DeFoor, raised $767,000 from May through mid-October. DeFoor has yet to disclose his latest financials, but he raised just $68,000 between May and mid-September. The only ads on the air for this race belong to Kenyatta, to the tune of $445,000.
In the race for treasurer, incumbent Republican Stacy Garrity is running financial circles around challenging Democrat Erin McClelland. Garrity outraised McClelland, $1 million to $105,000, between May and October. Garrity has received $250,000 from a Yass-funded PAC, as well as a $275,000 in-kind contribution from the same group. McClelland put $100,000 of her own money into her campaign ahead of the primaries and, since then, raised more than $50,000 from labor unions.
State House: Dems raise six-figures in bid to keep control
Data was still trickling in for state House candidates Monday, but Democrats generally showed financial strength in Allegheny County as they look to defend their narrow majority.
Mandy Steele, a Fox Chapel Democratic incumbent in the 33rd District, outraised challenger Gary Lotz, $344,000 to $89,000.
Two other Democrats in competitive districts, Arvind Venkat of McCandless in the 30th and Bill Petulla of Richland in the 28th, each raised more than $230,000. Their opponents’ disclosures were not yet available, but AdImpact showed Democrats outspending their opponents in those districts so far.
Editor’s note (10/30): This story was amended to reflect campaign contribution information that was not available at the time of initial publication.
PublicSource’s access to AdImpact data on political advertising is made possible through a partnership with WESA and support from The Heinz Endowments.
Charlie Wolfson is PublicSource’s local government reporter. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.
This story was fact-checked by Rich Lord.
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