Pittsburgh's Democratic mayoral primary race heats up as candidates see sudden infusion of so-called dark money
With just over a month before the Democratic primary, the mayor's race is heating up. The sudden infusion of hundreds of thousands of dollars is fueling mostly negative ads.
The campaign contributions are called independent expenditures. Some call it dark money. It's not always clear who's behind it, and there's no limit on what they can spend, but the money funds the attack ads that can sometimes turn an election.
The first attack ad just hit the air.
"Corey O'Connor has taken nearly $300,000 for the predatory landlords and the city's worst developers," a pro-Gainey ad claims.
Meanwhile, mailers sent to city voters condemn Mayor Ed Gainey's time in office as littered with broken promises, and an independently funded TV ad says O'Connor will do better.
"Now, Corey is fighting to make housing more affordable, fix our bridges and roads and tackle our homeless crisis," the ad says.
"We're going to be talking about the issues, and if someone thinks it's negative, it's because Ed Gainey's been a failure as mayor in the city of Pittsburgh," says political consultant Mike Mikus.
While Pittsburgh's municipal election rules cap direct contributions by individuals at $3,500 and committees at $5,000, political action committees can raise and spend as much as they want as long as they don't coordinate with the campaigns of the individual candidates.
But it's not often clear just who is footing the bill.
Sheehan: Is this dark money?
Mikus: No, it's not dark money at all because we file reports.
On Monday, a PAC called Common Sense Change Action filed a report acknowledging it has raised $264,000 to support Corey O'Connor. The PAC is being administered by Mikus, who says it is almost entirely funded by local trade unions.
Developers Walnut Capital gave $25,000, but Mikus says it's being returned. So far, about $130,000 has gone to the negative mailers and an ad supporting O'Connor.
On the other side, the Pennsylvania Working Families Party is funding a negative ad claiming O'Connor is taking donations from supporters of President Trump.
"MAGA donors. Even Trump's own teams are trying to buy the race for Corey O'Connor," the anti-O'Connor ad claims.
It's not yet clear how much Working Families has raised or from whom, but in Gainey's first run for mayor, KDKA-TV reported that $350,000 in independent expenditures were made by the SEIU Healthcare union, which has been trying unsuccessfully to unionize UPMC workers.
Sources say the union will not make as large an independent expenditure this time.
KDKA-TV has reached out to Working Families for comment.
With a month to go, money is pouring into both sides in the form of independent expenditures.
KDKA-TV is committed to keeping tabs on how much money, who's paying, and the accuracy of those ads in future reports to help voters make an informed decision before going to the polls.
