Billionaires take aim at key Pennsylvania Supreme Court race
The Keystone State will see some important elections on Tuesday, November 6, including a mayoral election in Philadelphia and a race for a seat on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
In the Philly race, Democratic nominee Cherelle Parker is almost certain to win and become the city's first female mayor; Democrats have a 7-1 voter registration advantage in the deep blue city, where a Republican hasn't won a mayoral race since Bernard Samuel in 1947. But the statewide Supreme Court competition, which finds Democrat Dan McCaffery against Republican Carolyn Carluccio, race is shaping up to be a nailbiter.
In his November 2 column, the Philadelphia Inquirer's Will Bunch takes a look at the big money behind Carluccio — including billionaire Jeff Yass.
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"Yass is not the only billionaire wagering on a GOP victory next week," the liberal columnist explains. "Another $735,000 in anti-McCaffery attack ads has been paid for by Fair Courts America, a group funded by Illinois billionaire Richard Uihlein to elect right-wing judges. ProPublica — the same newsroom that broke the Justice Thomas scandal wide open — has chronicled Uihlein's support for extremists like failed Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano, and for what it calls 'anti-democracy causes.'"
Attack ads from McCaffery's campaign have been hammering Carluccio relentlessly on the abortion issue.
"I doubt that Yass cares much about the issue making the most noise in this election — abortion rights — but I imagine he cares quite a bit about having a court that won’t rule for organized labor or against big oil and gas," Bunch argues. "ProPublica recently chronicled how Yass aggressively fought to lower his taxes by an estimated $1 billion, even suing the IRS in federal court. If Yass' tax strategies are ever litigated in Harrisburg, does he really desire judges 'who apply the law as written' — or something else?"
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Read Will Bunch's full Philadelphia Inquirer column at this link.
