Gainey has plenty of campaign funds for final drive

About two weeks before voters in Pittsburgh were set to head to the polls to vote for a new mayor, Democrat Ed Gainey had more than 200 times the money in his campaign’s bank account than Republican Tony Moreno, new campaign finance reports show.

Bolstered by a fundraising haul of about $525,000 between

June 8 and Oct. 18, Mr. Gainey, a Lincoln-Lemington state lawmaker, had $211,000 cash on hand to spend on the race in the final stretch if he so chooses.

Mr. Moreno, a retired Pittsburgh police officer, had about $1,000 at the end of the period but was able to out-raise the Democrat in contributions of $50 or under during the time frame.

Mr. Moreno put almost all of the money back into his campaign, spending the bulk of his $52,000 of expenditures on advertising and commercials, including buys through Comcast, KDKA, WTAE and Trib Total Media.

Mr. Gainey still spent more than six times as much, though, at about $332,000. That includes about $37,000 in consulting fees with Philadelphia-based Rittenhouse Political Partners, $30,800 for research with polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and at least $78,000 for media buys, design and printing with strategic communications firm BerlinRosen.

Almost two-thirds of Mr. Gainey’s fundraising haul from recent months was from individual donors who gave more than $250 — a sum totaling about $316,000. About a third came from political committees who gave upward of that amount, equaling about $168,000.

Mr. Moreno raised $2,400 from PACs and $12,000 from individuals at the $250-plus mark.

His two committee contributions were police-related: $1,400 from Fraternal Order of Police Fort Pitt Lodge No. 1’s PAC and $1,000 from the Greater Pittsburgh Police Federal Credit Union’s committee.

Mr. Moreno’s small-dollar total was about five times of Mr.

Gainey’s; he raised about $17,000 from contributions of $50 or less, while Mr. Gainey raised $3,000 from such donations.

A who’s who of Pittsburgh’s economic and political backbone made up Mr. Gainey’s large donation total. That included $5,000 sums from the political committees of Duquesne Light, Highmark Health, the Laborers’ District Council of Western PA and several law offices and unions.

Mr. Gainey’s report also showed donations from some of Pittsburgh’s most well-known executives and officials; $2,900 from David

Morehouse, president and CEO of the Penguins; $2,000 from Art Rooney II, Steelers president; $2,900 from Kevin Acklin, chief operating officer and general counsel for the Penguins; and $2,900 from Luis Von Ahn, CEO of Duolingo.

The election is Nov. 2.