Pa. House Democrats spent more than $18 million to hold on to their narrow majority, as legislative races get more expensive

HARRISBURG — The campaign arms behind both parties in the Pennsylvania House and Senate spent more than $35 million to influence the outcome of last week’s election — nearly half of which was spent by House Democrats to hold on to their narrow majority as the GOP swept races throughout the state.

House Democrats spent more than $18 million to keep their one-seat majority in the state House for the next two years — the only Democratic success in Pennsylvania in the red-wave election.

House Democrats, who came to power by surprise in 2022 under redistricted legislative maps, spent more than double what House Republicans did to stay in power, with the help of Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro. Meanwhile, Republicans doubled down on winning statewide row offices and keeping a strong GOP majority in the state Senate.

Senate Democrats — who fell short of their goal to tie the Senate, which remains at a 28-22 Republican majority — spent the least, at $4.7 million, according to the latest available campaign finance filings.

State legislative races have grown increasingly expensive in recent years, as local officials try to keep up with historic spending on top-of-the-ticket races. In this election, House Democrats spent $6 million more than they did in 2022 to flip the House just to keep the same balance of power, while House Republicans spent $2 million more than they did two years ago — for a total of more than $8 million — to try to win the chamber back.

The total picture of the sums spent to influence Pennsylvania’s election won’t be available until next month, when campaign finance reports are due.

Big spending in the most competitive districts

Every incumbent House member running for reelection held on in last week’s election, but it came at a high cost in competitive districts.

In one race in Cambria County for the seat that ultimately solidified House Democrats’ majority, Democrats ended up spending more than $3.4 million — or $202 per vote — to keep the last remaining Blue Dog Democratic seat in a district that President-elect Donald Trump won by 35 percentage points. House Republicans spent less than $250,000 trying to flip the seat.

Also among the most expensive state House races in the Philadelphia region was the reelection of Rep. Brian Munroe, D-Bucks, a freshman lawmaker who eked out a win in his Central Bucks County district over his GOP opponent, Dan McPhillips, when the purple county itself elected Trump.

Democrats spent nearly $1 million on the race, while Republicans spent more than $700,000, most of which came from a powerful PAC backed by Pennsylvania’s richest man, Jeffrey Yass.

In addition to the big spends by the campaign arms, special interest groups stretching from labor unions to insurance providers to environmental groups put their money behind candidates they think will back their interests in the legislature.

The Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania spent more than $300,000 and knocked on “tens of thousands of doors” to campaign for Munroe, said Molly Parzen, the executive director of the environmental group.

The conservation group also spent heavily in Upper Bucks County to fund Democrat Eleanor Breslin, who was running against GOP Rep. Shelby Labs. Breslin, an environmental attorney, “was a case study for the kind of candidate we want to be running,” Parzen added. Labs won reelection, but Parzen said she was still proud of Breslin’s campaign.

In total, the Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania spent more than $2.1 million in last week’s election — some of the largest spending by special interest groups on the election, outside of labor — to fund candidates it believes will back its priorities, such as more solar power projects and increasing the amount of electricity Pennsylvania gets from clean energy sources by 2035.

“We can’t make change in Harrisburg without first electing the right people,” Parzen said. “You can’t have good environmental laws without good environmental lawmakers.”

‘A transactional business deal’

Still, good-government groups such as March on Harrisburg say unlimited campaign spending and public financing from special interest groups is fraught, and for years have called for an end to the practices in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania has no campaign spending or contribution limits, making it a state with some of the most lax campaign finance laws in the country. This allows national political action committees, interest groups, and individuals to pour as much money as they want into state-level campaigns.

And it allows PACs to spend unlimited amounts of money on independent expenditures, which are separate from campaigns and advocate for or against a candidate or issue. In last week’s election in Pennsylvania, PACs spent more than $15 million in independent expenditures at the state level.

March on Harrisburg’s executive director, Rabbi Michael Pollack, said both Democrats and Republicans give special treatment to their donors in contradiction to what lawmakers’ jobs are: to be a voice of the people.

“To raise money to run for office, public officials and candidates need to auction off their public power to private special interests,” Pollack said. “And those private special interests always want something in return.”

“Big-money interests do not give to politicians out of the kindness of their hearts, they give because it’s a transactional business deal,” he added.

Celebrations and changes in the state House

No matter the cost, House Democrats celebrated their narrow win at a news conference on Tuesday on the steps of the state Capitol as the only bright spot for their party after Republicans dominated statewide races.

Top House Democrats credited their members for stemming the red tide in their chamber by being able to communicate their messages to voters and deliver for their communities, as Democrats at the top of the ticket failed to do so.

“Many folks woke up on Wednesday not knowing what the future of this country will be,” Rep. Jordan Harris, D- Philadelphia, who chairs the powerful Appropriations Committee, said at the news conference. “But in the midst of the red wave, there was a little old blue ship in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. And that blue ship rode every wave that was thrown its way.”

Meanwhile, House Republicans sought to recalibrate after the comparatively lesser performance, and overhauled their leadership. On Tuesday, they introduced a leadership team led by new House Minority Leader Jesse Topper, R- Bedford. Topper will replace Rep. Bryan Cutler, R- Lancaster, who led the caucus in varying roles over the last six years.

Cutler, in announcing that he would not seek a leadership position again this legislative session, noted that even though Republicans received record amounts of support from national conservative groups, “we were unable to pick up even one seat.”

“I know that disappoints everyone, myself included,” Cutler wrote in a letter last week. “I recognize that leaves us all wanting more and needing to make further changes.”

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