Democrats pile up big campaign accounts

HARRISBURG » Six weeks before Pennsylvania’s May 19 primary election, most of the Democratic candidates for three open seats on the state’s highest court already are building sixfigure campaign bank accounts, according to finance reports filed Tuesday.

And a single $500,000 contribution appeared to catapult a little-known county judge to the front of the Republican pack.

Phila delphia Judge Kevin Dougherty and Superior Court Judge David Wecht — both endorsed by the state Democratic Party — apparently held the lead in fundraising among the dozen candidates from both parties in what is expected to be one of the most expensive judicial campaigns in state history.

Dougherty reported having $584,666 on hand, including about $68,000 in debt, when this year’s first reporting period ended March 30. He reported raising all of it since the beginning of the year. Wecht’s campaign committee reported $546,221 on hand, including $279,000 in cash and $135,000 in debt carried over from 2014.

Both men come from political families.

Dougherty, from Philadelphia, is the brother of John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty Jr., business manager of Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, an influen- tial campaign donor. Wecht is the son of Allegheny County’s nationally prominent former medical examiner Cyril Wecht.

Longtime Jef ferson County Judge John Foradora, a Democrat, combined strong fundraising with a $100,000 contribution of his own money to end the quarter with a balance of $350,897, according to a finance report his campaign said would be submitted before Tuesday’s midnight deadline.