D21 President Fred Wertheimer Statement on PA18 Special Election: Wave Elections Override Political Money
PA18: Wave Elections Override Political Money
Statement of Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer
In a wave election year, the wave overrides political money.
That is what just happened in the Pennsylvania special election for the 18th Congressional District.
According to the latest information provided by Open Secrets, outside groups spent $10.6 million to support the Republican candidate, Rick Saccone, including $3.5 million spend by the National Republican Congressional Committee.
That was nearly seven times the amount spent to support the Democratic candidate, Conor Lamb.
Outside groups spent some $1.8 million to support Lamb, including $312,000 spent by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, according to Open Secrets.
Lamb raised $3.9 million and spent $3.0 million, compared to Saccone’s $900,000 raised and $600,000 spent as of February 21, according to Open Secrets.
Overall, Saccone had approximately a 2:1 financial advantage over Lamb.
With absentee ballots still being counted, Lamb was leading the race by 641 votes as of 8:43am today in a district that President Trump won by nearly 20 percentage points in 2016 – a district that has been represented by a Republican for the past 15 years.
Regardless of whether Lamb holds his narrow lead or Saccone squeaks in, Saccone’s huge financial advantage met the wave last night, and the wave won.
Watch out for the blue wave – or maybe the blue tsunami – flooding political money in the 2018 congressional elections.
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Correction: an earlier version of this statement misrepresented the spending by the NRCC and DCCC as separate from outside spending totals, but the Committees’ spending is included in the totals. This version has been changed to clarify that.
