2 Democrats raise hundreds of thousands of dollars in bids to unseat Scott Perry, far outpacing rivals

Two candidates for the Democratic nomination in Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District jumped out to a big early lead in the so-called money primary, according to a round of campaign finance reports filed this week.

Retired U.S. Marines Corp aviator Mike O’Brien and former WGAL news anchor Janelle Stelson both crashed through the six-figure threshold in off-year fundraising last fall, with O’Brien raising $414,360 to lead the field. Stelson placed second with receipts of $282,214.

Both also finished the year with more than $100,000 cash on hand.

None of their challengers, on the other hand, raised more than $65,000. And U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, although seen as the most vulnerable Republican incumbent in the state, reported that his campaign raised almost twice as much as all the Democrats combined.

The year-end reports, which covered fundraising through Dec. 31, 2023, offer yet another peek into the national interest in the 10th.

To put this race in perspective, O’Brien’s total through December surpasses — just barely — the total fundraising for the 2022 campaign by that year’s 10th District Democratic nominee, Harrisburg city council member Shamaine Daniels.

He’s also drawing a lot of contributions from across the country: A breakdown of itemized contributions to the O’Brien campaign shows nearly 65 percent are from out-of-state donors.

O’Brien’s campaign did not shy away from that in a news release about its fundraising efforts this week, saying the result speaks to his ability “to build a wide coalition of local and national supporters to defeat” Perry.

O’Brien entered January with $186,352 on hand; followed by Stelson committee’s $140,288.

Daniels, Carlisle School Board member Rick Coplen and former WITF executive Blake Lynch have formed a clear second tier in the early primary fundraising, according to the Federal Election Commission filings, which were due Jan. 31.

Coplen, a retired Army officer, raised $63,196 through December. Lynch posted $54,483, and Daniels, $51,081. Lynch, who joined the race in late October, had the most cash available at the end of the year, with a balance of $21,890.

The year-end reporting period was the first in which all members of the current field had joined the race. The vast majority of contributions to all the Democratic candidates have come, so far, from individual donors.

This House race has provided a clear case in point in the past that effective messaging can matter a lot.

In 2018, retired Army officer-turned-Lutheran pastor George Scott sprinted to the top of a crowded Democratic primary field with the help of an eye-catching ad in which he demonstrated his support for an assault weapons ban by dismantling and tossing the parts of a semi-automatic rifle into an open fire.

The good news for the candidates in this year’s race is that most do seem to be capable of raising the money to do at least some level of messaging like that. In 2018, Scott’s total spending on that primary season media buy was less than $60,000.

This year, it can be argued that O’Brien and Stelson needed to make a little heavier investment up front, since both are so new to the midstate electoral politics scene.

Stelson has good name identification with the general public by virtue of her nightly appearances on local television. But she had never been politically active until this year, and only switched her party registration to the Democratic Party in 2022.

O’Brien, meanwhile, is a Montgomery County native who pretty much decided to retire in south central Pennsylvania about the same time he decided to run for Congress. He and his wife are building a new home in Hampden Township, Cumberland County.

Coplen and Daniels, meanwhile, have both been frequent flyers on local ballots in recent campaign cycles, and Lynch, a former director of community engagement for the City of Harrisburg, recently rolled out an endorsement from Harrisburg Mayor Wanda Williams.

Most of O’Brien’s early spending has been going to a Maryland-based consulting firm for text-messaging services and other digital consulting. He also paid $16,000 for video consulting services, presumably attached to his campaign roll-out last summer.

Stelson has spent $45,000 on digital advertising, and $15,600 for video production.

Both candidates also have paid staff.

At the other end of the spectrum, businessman James Broadhurst has reported raising just $10,615 through the end of the year, and Camp Hill resident Bob Forbes said he has not raised enough funds to meet the $5,000 floor that requires an FEC filing.

Forbes, a retired Army Sergeant who said he’s wanted to run an intentionally grassroots effort and offer a vision representation without beating people up for money, said he does enjoy the daily texts he’s getting from his rivals as they make their respective pitches.

Perry, past chairman of the conservative Freedom Caucus, has been targeted by Congressional Democrats several times since Pennsylvania’s House districts were reshaped by court order in 2018, primarily on the belief that he was too far right for the recast district.

But in 2024, the Democrats seem particularly energized by Perry’s emergence over the past two years as within that top-tier of GOP Congressmen anxious to wield their limited power in service of former President Donald Trump’s efforts to stay in power despite his 2020 electoral defeat.

Perry, multiple Congressional investigations have shown, was active in:

• Promoting an 11th-hour replacement Attorney General who would help weaponize the U.S. Department of Justice in Trump’s efforts to stay in power;
• Pushing a last-ditch plan to get direct testimony from Trump allies before Congress on Jan. 6, 2021 —-the date of the final certification of Biden’s electoral college win — about allegations of electoral fraud.
• Trying to get Pennsylvania’s legislators to try to decertify his home state’s results, which came in as an 81,000-vote Biden win.

Even so, Perry has thus far demonstrated rock-solid popularity with his Republican base, and the latest FEC filings signal to Democrats how fierce a fight their eventual nominee will face. In his year-end filing, Perry’s campaign committee said it raised $1,578,000, with $547,158 cash on hand.

The 10th District, as a reminder, is a state capitol-region seat that consists of all of Dauphin County, most of Cumberland County; and the northern half of York County.