The spot
The 30-second spot “Two Choices” is the latest investment in the state Attorney General’s race by the conservative Commonwealth Leaders Fund. It contrasts Republican Dave Sunday and Democrat Eugene DePasquale, renewing arguments about what kind of experience best suits the state’s top attorney and law-enforcement officer, and what company a candidate should keep.
When did it launch? Sept. 6
How many airings? 1,151 on broadcast TV statewide as of mid-day Sept. 17, according to AdImpact, which tracks political advertising
How much? $798,732 as of Sept. 18, according to AdImpact
Who’s paying?
While the ad is authorized by Sunday’s campaign, it’s paid for by Commonwealth Leaders Fund, a high-profile political action committee that derives the vast majority of its support from sources financed by hedge fund billionaire Jeffrey Yass.
The claims
The ad calls Sunday “an experienced district attorney who prosecuted criminals and gang members,” and who “reduced gun violence” and “protected seniors from fraud.” It shows Sunday with the logos of three public-safety unions that have backed him: the state Fraternal Order of Police, a Philadelphia-based firefighters local, and the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association.
Meanwhile, it asserts that DePasquale “never prosecuted a case in his life,” but “sided with radical Philadelphia progressives.” An image of DePasquale is superimposed against a background that includes a hand holding a “defund the police” sign, along with the logos of progressive advocacy groups that have backed him — Philly Neighborhood Networks and One PA. The ad describes them as “defund-the-police groups.”
The ad also contends that DePasquale “ignored fraud by campaign donors,” a claim it illustrates with a June 2024 headline about the sentencing of Philadelphia labor leader John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty in a federal corruption trial.
The facts
At issue in the spot are the candidates’ experience as well as their affiliations.
There is no dispute that the parties’ nominees have different backgrounds. Sunday has been York County’s district attorney since 2018 and was a top deputy before that. He has reportedly undertaken initiatives to fight heroin trafficking and use, and established an Elder Abuse Task Force.
The ad also cites a news account that shows a 75% drop in homicides in the city of York, the county’s largest municipality. The entire county, which Sunday’s office oversees, had a drop about half that size — from 30 homicides in 2022 to 19 in 2023 — according to a report by the York County Coroner.
That drop appears larger than those seen in other parts of the country last year. But overall the coroner found that homicide rates have mostly been steady since before Sunday took office: Despite spikes in 2017 and 2022, the county saw an average of around 20 homicides a year between 2013 and 2023.
As for DePasquale, the ad correctly cites a 2023 Associated Press story that reports DePasquale “has never worked as a prosecutor, defense lawyer or trial lawyer.”
An attorney general does not argue cases personally. But Sunday campaign spokesman Ben Wren contended that the AG “does have to put unit heads in who know what they are doing. How can you run an office like that without having the requisite experience?”
As that Associated Press story and other coverage notes, the duties of the AG’s office extend beyond criminal matters, and include defending state laws and state agencies in court as well as upholding civil rights and consumer protections. Josh Shapiro, the attorney general from 2017 through 2022, had also never been a prosecutor, and DePasquale’s campaign says “his legal experience is similar to that of Governor Shapiro when he was overwhelmingly elected” to the post.
DePasquale’s campaign adds that as auditor general, he “made enormous improvements to Pennsylvania’s safety,” by investigating a backlog of untested rape kits and the staffing at a child-abuse reporting hotline.
The campaign also said Sunday in fact has “a very mixed record on actually prosecuting violent crime — particularly crimes against women.” It cited a number of cases in which it argued Sunday had given too-generous plea deals or failed to secure convictions. Among them was a case involving a York police officer who appeared in a June 2024 Washington Post investigation of police officers who sexually exploited minors. The officer was given a plea deal that resulted in a misdemeanor and probation, reportedly leaving the judge in the case to wonder, “Should I have done more?”
Sunday’s office told the Post it had “balanced all appropriate considerations” in the case. Wren told WESA that “out of respect for victims, we’re not going to relitigate cases as part of this campaign.” But in general, he said, Sunday’s record “should be judged on who is endorsing him,” including prominent law enforcement associations.
DePasquale’s supporters, meanwhile, do include the two progressive advocacy groups identified by their logos in the ad: OnePA is an economic- and social-justice group that has been active in both Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, while Philly Neighborhood Networks focuses on similar causes in that city.
The latter group has been involved in efforts to reallocate funds away from policing, including advocacy around proposed changes to a Philadelphia police contract that supporters described as a “defund” effort. The nexus between OnePA and defund efforts seems largely confined to an effort to remove police from public schools.
DePasquale’s campaign noted that he, too, has support from law enforcement, including the state’s correctional officers association, a Teamsters group that represents police officers, and a number of Democratic sheriffs. Given that support, his campaign said, “It’s laughable to consider that he would support efforts to defund their departments.”
As for John Dougherty, the story cited in the ad doesn’t mention DePasquale’s name. But Dougherty led Philadelphia-based IBEW Local 98, among the state’s most powerful unions and in years past a top donor to Democrats. Dougherty was sentenced this summer for bribing a Philadelphia City Councilor and stealing money from his union.
Matt Brouillette, the treasurer of Commonwealth Leaders Fund, says that DePasquale should have used his power to investigate Dougherty. “Instead, Eugene accepted thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from [Dougherty] after the FBI raided his office.”
Federal authorities carried out a raid in August 2016: DePasquale received a $25,000 contribution from IBEW Local 98 three months later. A search of state and federal campaign finance records shows no contributions since.
DePasquale’s campaign did not respond directly to questions about Dougherty, but the campaign said that he’d pursued waste and wrongdoing as auditor general, and that “Eugene has never and will never ignore fraud.”
DePasquale also objected that the ad, by superimposing his image on a protest, “includes altered images of Eugene at a rally he never attended. … This office requires someone with unimpeachable honesty, and that is not what Dave Sunday has on display here.”
The spot was paid for by Commonwealth Leaders Fund, a major player in conservative advocacy. While the group says it has “hundreds of generous supporters,” it is heavily funded by Yass, whose longtime advocacy for school choice has made him a bete noire for Democrats. According to AdImpact, the group has aired an estimated $2.7 million worth in broadcast TV ads alone so far this summer, and while it has yet to file financial reports covering that period, the overwhelming majority of money it has received since 2023 came from Yass by way of two other political committees. (DePasquale has spent only a little more than $300,000 on broadcast TV in the same period.)
In a statement, Commonwealth Leaders Fund said that DePasquale appeared at a 2020 Black Lives Matter rally in Harrisburg, and Sunday’s campaign seemed comfortable with the spot.
“A TV ad is a visual representation of the words we’re using,” said Wren. DePasquale’s team “may not understand that because they haven’t had the opportunity to run too many ads.”
PublicSource’s access to AdImpact data on political advertising is made possible through a partnership with WESA and support from The Heinz Endowments.
Chris Potter is 90.5 WESA’s government and accountability editor. He can be reached at cpotter@wesa.fm.
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