Attack ads in Pittsburgh's mayoral race funded by so-called dark money
It's all being fueled by so-called "dark money" — unlimited amounts of cash spent by political action committees on TV attack ads and mailers.
"We're a month out and it's already this nasty, so past experience tells us it will only get worse," said political consultant Mike Butler.
PACs are funding these ads with hundreds of thousands of dollars in so-called independent expenditures. There's no limit on what they can spend as long as they don't communicate or coordinate with a candidate's campaign.
"And people don't know who's behind these PACs," said KDKA-TV's Andy Sheehan.
"And that's very unfortunate for our voters to not have a full sense of who is making the messages and who's behind those messages," Butler said.
On the O'Connor side, the mailers and coming TV ads are being funded by a PAC called Common Sense Action. Campaign filings show local trade unions and old line Democrats like Pennsylvania state Sen. Wayne Fontana have contributed $264,000 to the PAC.
On the Gainey side, the anti-O'Connor ads are the product of Pennsylvania Working Families Party — a PAC based in Philadelphia. It's part of a national organization dedicated to the election of progressive candidates. Its most recent filing showed $64,000 on hand, but its total expenditures and contributors won't be learned until another filing at the end of the month.
"Needs reform?" Sheehan asked.
"I think so," Butler said.
Butler says dark money funds attack ads and the messages will likely get nastier and nastier — emotions stoked by faceless PACs with unlimited cash to spend.
"I don't think anyone could be happy with where we are now," Butler said.
Before this is all over, close to $2 million will have been spent on this race, with more than a half million dollars in the form of independent expenditures — a lot of money for a race in Pittsburgh with voters only in the tens of thousands.
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