Pa. cash surge grows as election nears

As the Pennsylvania gubernatorial race barrels to an end, money is pouring in faster than ever - and not always going in a predictable direction.

In the last week, Republican Tom Corbett and Democrat Dan Onorato have collected at least $7 million, according to daily reports filed with state election officials.

Corbett has taken the lion's share, more than $5 million, buoyed in part by two million-dollar payments in three days from a national group, the Republican Governors Association, and $480,000 from the state GOP.

Onorato, on the other hand, might claim the biggest bold-faced name. On Tuesday, his campaign took $250,000 from the man he hopes to replace, Gov. Rendell. (More precisely, it was a loan from Rendell's campaign committee.)

Then there's $25,000 Rendell's old law firm donated - to Corbett.

Even those numbers grow stale by the hour. The donations, disclosed in daily reports that each candidate must make, offer a stark reminder of Pennsylvania's no-limits campaign finance system.

"You look at those reports and you just see those numbers," said T.J. Rooney, former chairman of the state Democratic Party. "Does it need to change? You bet it does."

The final surge suggests the governor's race will almost certainly top $50 million in donations. Through mid-October, Corbett had raised $22 million and Onorato had amassed $19 million.

Since then both have filed the daily disclosures, which are added to a list of all state candidate contributions. By Wednesday evening, that list, which includes the myriad races for legislative seats and lieutenant governor as well as governor, had grown to include more than 1,800 contributions logged since Oct. 19.

In the race for chief executive, some of the names are familiar and the donations transparent - lawyers and unions favoring the Democrat, businesses and conservative groups supporting the Republican.

Onorato, for instance, collected $200,000 last week from a political action committee for Philadelphia trial lawyers. It was the second $200,000 donation from the trial lawyers group, which generally leans Democratic and opposes tort-law changes proposed by Corbett.

Other contributions aren't as easily decipherable. On Tuesday, the Carpenters PAC of Philadelphia and Vicinity - a union that a month ago gave to Onorato - donated $100,000 to Corbett.

Another surprise was $25,000 the Republican received from Ballard Spahr, the politically powerful law firm that once employed Rendell. Four days later, the firm gave $20,000 to Onorato.

Barry Kauffman, executive director of the watchdog group Common Cause Pennsylvania, said the late-season donation list offers a window into how power brokers and political players see the race unfolding.

"Right now Corbett's ahead in the polls and the smart money might be on him," he said. But if Onorato pulls out a victory, Kauffman said, expect to see hundreds of thousands in fresh donations to the Democrat in the weeks after the election.

"The tale won't be told and the picture won't be completely clear until February of next year," Kauffman said.

Because Pennsylvania is one of fewer than a dozen states with no campaign contribution limits, candidates can return again and again to the same donors.

Wayne Michael Boich, an Ohio mining company owner, gave Corbett's campaign an extra $50,000 last week after donating $100,000 in July, the records show.

David Minnotte, president of a Pittsburgh contracting company, had given Onorato $117,000 in five donations through September. This week, he tossed in an additional $50,000.

Both men are part of a small but growing club of six-figure donors to the prospective governors.

Corbett's biggest chunks also include more than $250,000 from Vahan Gureghian, a Gladwyne lawyer and operator of the state's largest charter school, $100,000 from Foster Friess, a Wyoming investment executive active in conservative Christian politics, and $200,000 from Bob J. Perry, a Houston developer and prolific GOP donor.

Onorato has accepted more than $350,000 from H.F. "Gerry" Lenfest, the Philadelphia-area philanthropist and Democratic donor, $100,000 from Thomas Buckner, Western Pennsylvania owner of defense contractor Ibis Tek, and $100,000 from California supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle.

"They may not specifically buy a vote, but those large contributions get them on the agenda, get them in the front of the line," said Kauffman, a critic of Pennsylvania's political practices. "It creates an atmosphere of cynicism."

Rendell - who raised record amounts in his own gubernatorial runs - acknowledged that this year's 11th-hour flood of dollars "is an awful lot of money."

The outgoing governor said he didn't expect to give any more to Onorato. He said he's already donated about $100,000 to the campaign, will stump for the candidate this week and pay for a series of mailings.

Sure, the governor said, more money was trending toward Corbett. "But how many times have you seen upsets in politics?" he said. "It happens all the time."

Rooney, the former Democratic chairman, said that he didn't believe elected officials were corrupted by contributions, but that the perception might be bad enough to alienate voters. And he acknowledged that the money can make an impact on a future officeholder.

"If you have a limited amount of time, and you have time to just make three more phone calls," Rooney said, "it's likely the first call you are going to return is to the person who gave you $250,000."