HARRISBURG — The Republican candidate for attorney general and the well-funded political action committees backing him have spent more than $13 million to flood Pennsylvania’s airwaves with TV ads through Election Day.
His Democratic opponent, meanwhile, has spent just $3.1 million on the same purpose.
The race for attorney general is relatively low-profile but highly consequential. The attorney general defends Pennsylvania’s laws and election results, joins multistate legal battles, and prosecutes everything from political corruption to gun and drug dealing. The powerful and highly visible position has launched previous officials — like now-Gov. Josh Shapiro — to higher office.
“This level of disparity in spending can be really hard to overcome, especially in a race that doesn't get the same sort of earned media press coverage as, say, the presidential,” said Anne Wakabayashi, a Democratic political consultant who is not involved in the attorney general race.
The Democratic candidate, Eugene DePasquale, was Pennsylvania’s auditor general for eight years, which gave him a statewide profile. Dave Sunday, the Republican, is York County’s district attorney.
Wakabayashi says she sees the spending on TV ads to support Sunday as an effort to boost his profile, calling him “a relative unknown.” DePasquale, she said, “has been in office for a long time, from the state House all the way to statewide office. He's run real campaigns.”
The $16.7 million spending total encompasses TV advertising that is booked to run between June 11 and Nov. 5 and reported to the FCC. Total ad spending, including on digital promotions, is even higher.
Sunday has received significant support from a PAC funded in large part by Pennsylvania’s richest person, GOP megadonor Jeff Yass, and from a PAC associated with the Republican Attorneys General Association. Both spent millions of dollars on ads to support Sunday and attack DePasquale.
Commonwealth Leaders Fund, the PAC supported by Yass, also gave Sunday’s campaign $800,000 directly. Sunday’s campaign brought in just over $1 million in direct contributions this reporting cycle — from Sept. 17 to Oct. 21 — on top of $1.2 million from the previous cycle.
But that amount is small compared to additional in-kind contributions from Commonwealth Leaders Fund totaling just shy of $10 million. In-kind contributions are expenditures that are coordinated with the campaign.
Much of this in-kind spending contributed to the $13.6 million in pro-Sunday or anti-DePasquale TV ads. But $38,000 also went toward production, $3.3 million went toward printing and postage, and $700,000 went toward digital advertising.
Other notable donors to Sunday’s campaign include the PAC for Comcast; GOP state Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman of Indiana County; the Northeast Leadership Fund, which is chaired by a Luzerne County real estate developer; and a PAC for skill game operators.
DePasquale’s campaign is the only entity spending money on TV ads to support his candidacy. A spokesperson said the campaign is also aware of additional independent digital advertising, though not the amount being spent or who is funding it.
In financial reports filed last week, DePasquale reported bringing in nearly $1.8 million in the most recent reporting cycle, on top of almost $2.2 million from last cycle, plus about $100,000 in in-kind contributions. Big donations included $650,000 from the Democratic Attorneys General Association and $100,000 from Shapiro. DePasquale also saw significant contributions from unions, including the Pennsylvania chapter of SEIU and the state carpenters’ union.
Few polls have covered the race for attorney general, but they indicate a tight race.
Sunday has touted his history as a prosecutor and focused his campaign on public safety, saying he aims to crack down on illegal gun possession and fentanyl sales. He argues he has a holistic view of criminal justice that includes getting certain offenders education and other public services instead of jail time.
Ads funded on his behalf by the PAC Keystone Prosperity have more aggressively focused on undocumented immigrants, and have sought to tie Sunday to Donald Trump, saying they will both stop “anarchy.”
DePasquale has pledged to protect the right to abortion and has argued in ads that Sunday won’t. In recent weeks, he has accused Sunday of letting criminals off too easily during his tenure as York DA — an angle similar to the one seen in the pro-Sunday Keystone Prosperity ads.
He has also focused his campaign on prosecuting hate crimes, and says he would bring personal family experience with addiction and the criminal justice system to the attorney general’s office, as well as previous experience administering a large state agency.
Stephen Caruso and Kate Huangpu of Spotlight PA contributed reporting for this story.
