Mayor’s race underway with $400K in donations
More than $400,000 flowed into the campaign accounts of Pittsburgh’s mayoral candidates during the first two months of the year, a signal of high interest in incumbent Bill Peduto’s bid for a third term.
A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette analysis of nearly 1,000 itemized contributions to the campaigns between Jan. 1 and Feb. 28 shows mayor whose haul was bolstered by large donations and a challenger — state Rep. Ed Gainey — who raised twothirds of his money from donors who gave less than $1,000. Many of the contributions to both candidates came from supporters in East End neighborhoods.
Mr. Peduto raised $281,000 in those two months, including $244,000 from donors who gave at least $50; $3,000 from those who gave less; and $34,000 from political committees.
Mr. Gainey, who launched his campaign 23 days into the report period, raised $134,000 — $107,000 from contributors who gave at least $50; $9,000 from those who donated less; and $18,000 from committees.
Tony Moreno, a retired police officer, raised $3,000 in his bid for the nomination, and candidate Mike Thompson filed a waiver in lieu of a report.
From a fundraising perspective, the race basically started Jan. 23, when Mr. Gainey announced his candidacy in a live event online. That day, he raised more than $13,000, according to the data.
Before Mr. Gainey’s launch day, Mr. Peduto had raised about $7,000 in itemized contributions for his re-election bid. After Mr. Gainey’s launch, the incumbent mayor raised $238,000.
The biggest disparity came in the amount Mr. Peduto and Mr. Gainey raised from donors who gave at least $1,000. For Mr. Peduto, more than threefourths of his haul — $192,000 — came from those contributors. About 34% of Mr. Gainey’s donation total came from those who gave at least $1,000.
Responding to that disparity, Mr. Peduto’s campaign noted, by sheer head count, half of the mayor’s donors gave $250 or less.
“That shows a tremendous amount of grassroots support, and this balance is a sign of a healthy campaign,” Peduto spokesman Matt Harrison said in response to written questions.
Mr. Gainey, in an interview, said he was meeting his fundraising goals and insisted no one thought he could raise so much in five weeks. He said he spends each afternoon soliciting donations, calling the result “people power.”
“It’s really peopledriven,” Mr. Gainey said. “You’re seeing people that never gave, give. You’re seeing a host of people participating in the process, and that’s what we wanted.”
While Mr. Gainey’s larger contributions didn’t show many trends, numerous themes from Mr. Peduto’s emerged.
The incumbent raised at least $66,000 from real estate developers, property operators and construction firms with stakes in Pittsburgh development.
That included $6,600 from three executives at Beacon Development, which deals in mixed-income and market-rate housing; $5,500 from two vice presidents at A. Folino Construction, which has worked as a subcontractor on many UPMC projects; and $5,000 from Walnut Capital, Shadyside developer that’s currently partnering with the city to direct more than $2 million in funding to Larimer for affordable housing and workforce development.
And at least $23,600 of Mr. Peduto’s haul was from executives, doctors and board members in the UPMC network.
For example, he received $ 1,000 from Charles Bogosta, executive vice president of UPMC and president of UPMC International; $1,000 from Holly Lorenz, chief nursing officer; $1,000 from Diane Holders, president and CEO
of UPMC Health Plan and executive vice president at UPMC; $1,000 from K. Scott Baker, vice president and chief government relations officer; and $1,900 from Thomas McGough, chief legal officer.
Asked whether that number lends credence to Mr. Gainey’s allegation the mayor is too cozy with the giant nonprofit, Mr. Harrison said the amount is less than 3% of the total raised for the cycle and pointed out Mr. Peduto has received “even more support from labor unions and working families because of the actions that he has taken to build middle-class jobs.”
“We have the support of many doctors, in addition to hundreds of other Pittsburghers from any number of industries,” Mr. Harrison said. “The relationships that the mayor has built over decades of work in the community is due to issues ranging from gun control to immigration to LGBTQIA+ rights to any other number of things that have nothing to do with who that individual’s employer is.”
Mr. Harrison also noted the mayor was influential in the city’s implementation of campaign finance limits. Mr. Peduto championed a bill as a councilman in 2008 that set limits, then signed an updated ordinance in 2015.
Mr. Gainey countered, “You can’t ask [UPMC] to pay taxes when you took that much money. He knows that, and I know that.” In his economic agenda, Mr. Gainey argues for “resuming the legal challenge to UPMC’s nonprofit status that shields the health care giant from paying city and school district taxes.”
According to the campaign finance data, Mr. Peduto also raised at least $28,000 from lawyers at Pittsburgh-based firms and national firms that have offices in the city, including $10,000 from attorneys and officials at Downtownbased Babst Calland, the highest contribution in that category.
Of the $34,000 Mr. Peduto raised from committees, $5,000 came from the political spending arm of the Laborers District Council of Western Pennsylvania, $5,000 from state Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa’s campaign account and $5,000 from Columbus (Ohio) Mayor Andrew Ginther, among others.
The committees that gave to Mr. Gainey included SEIU Healthcare PA ($5,000); the campaigns of state Reps. Summer Lee ($2,000), Jake Wheatley ($2,500) and Sara Innamorato ($1,000); and the political arm of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 66 ($5,000).
Geographically, less than half of Mr. Peduto’s itemized fundraising amount came from city of Pittsburgh ZIP codes, while about 75% of Mr. Gainey’s
did.
The East End was influential in both candidates’ reports. Through an analysis of their best-performing zip codes, Mr. Peduto raised $26,000 in the Squirrel Hill and Greenfield ZIP code and $12,000 in the Homewood and Point Breeze ZIP code. Mr. Gainey raised $13,000 in the East Liberty and Morningside area and $11,000 in the Squirrel Hill and Greenfield ZIP code.
Mr. Peduto, who started the year with $185,000 in his coffers, spent $166,000 in the first two months of the year and ended February with $300,000 on hand.
“We are meeting our goals, and we anticipate being able to put the resources we need into communicating with voters about the mayor’s accomplishments over the past seven years and his vision to lead Pittsburgh toward a more equitable and sustainable future,” Mr. Harrison said.
Mr. Gainey spent about a fifth as much — $31,000 — and ended the period with $106,000 in his account. He said now that his campaign had built a solid foundation for raising money, it will increase its spending soon.
“The money that we have spent is mainly on our digital platforms, making sure we’re reaching a lot digitally,” Mr. Gainey said. “We will ramp it up now. You’ll see more and more.”
Mr. Moreno, who spent $26,000 in January and February, had about $13,000 on hand.