Group with at least $20M to spend looks for candidate for Pennsylvania governor to endorse

Morning Call by Marc Levy, December 8, 2021

HARRISBURG, PA. — The biggest single campaign donor in this year’s race for a seat on Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court is now aiming to endorse a candidate for governor and, with $20 million in a bank account, it could be a transformative endorsement. Members of the double-digits-deep field of Republican candidates say they have interviewed with board members of the group — Commonwealth Partners Chamber of Entrepreneurs — in hopes of getting support or an endorsement. A relative newcomer to Harrisburg’s deep ranks of advocacy organizations, the group’s political action committees have become a conduit for campaign cash from billionaire Jeffrey Yass, who is perhaps the biggest force now in underwriting Republican campaigns in Pennsylvania. One of the group’s political action committees reported an eye-popping $20 million in its account as of Nov. 22. That is thanks to $27.5 million in transfers the past two years from another group that has reported receiving over $30 million directly from Yass in roughly the same stretch. For comparison, upward of $65 million was spent on the last race for governor, in 2018, according to campaign reports filed with the state.

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