(This article first appeared in Broad + Liberty.)
State Senator Jimmy Dillon, a Philadelphia Democrat, has dozens of questionable expenses in his official state spending reports as well as his campaign account, such as summertime gas fill-ups along the Jersey shore, expensive floral purchases, and expenses at bars and restaurants on Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve — but he isn’t talking about them.
Dillon is from Northeast Philly, a place in which politics can sometimes mirror the great Shakesperan or Greek tragedies, where family dynasties rise and fall, and an Achilles heel will most certainly reveal itself and undo even the most well-armored politician.
In Jimmy Dillon’s case, his ascent to his senate seat is due to his brother’s downfall. The elder brother, Shawn Dillon, by all accounts diligently worked his way up the Democratic party ladder serving as a ward leader and more before finally getting his due, the nomination to the Pennsylvania 5th District for a special election when the long-serving John Sabatina moved on to a judge’s bench.
But a paperwork error in 2022 quickly undid all those years of effort, so Shawn Dillon and the party nominated his younger brother Jimmy, a former basketballer at Notre Dame who then began running his own youth basketball clinics in the city. With head-spinning speed, Jimmy Dillon went from youth basketball coach to state senator, seemingly with no appetite or preparation for a life of politics.
With such a short nomination process in 2022, little, if anything, was known about Jimmy. But now the paperwork questions belong to him, not his brother.
Dillon is one of the few state senators who avails himself of a state-leased vehicle for his travel. The exact amount of the lease is unclear. One expense report shows a lease payment of $390. However, two other lease payments ranged as high as $650. Furthermore, documents unearthed by the Pennsylvania Senate Republican Campaign Committee (PASRCC) show Dillon fueling up his vehicle several times in the last three summers on a taxpayer-backed account near the Jersey shore. The fuel-ups totaled over $400.
All of those expenses previously described were assigned to his official state spending accounts, but his campaign finance reports raise questions as well.
Dillon spent at least $1,900 on flowers in 2023 and ‘24, an unusual campaign expense. The PASRCC also points to some questionable purchases at dining establishments or bars. His campaign records show a $1,000 expense at Macaroni’s on Christmas Day, 2022. In 2023, he had a campaign meeting on New Year’s Eve at an Irish sports pub for $40.00. In September of 2023, he spent a little over $40 on a “meeting” in South Bend, Indiana, roughly one mile from his alma mater, Notre Dame.
(Screenshots from PA campaign finance website. Other floral expenses came through other companies such as NE Flower Boutique and Condolences.com)
On top of all this, the PASRCC has also excavated a document from 2010 showing Dillon being fired from the Pa. Department of Revenue as a district lottery representative. The reasons for the dismissal are redacted in the document. The letter does say Dillon had two “pre-disciplinary” conferences in the months leading up to his firing, but that the “explanation you [Dillon] provided was unacceptable, therefore, this discipline is warranted.”
Requests for comment to Dillon’s campaign as well as through his senate office were not returned.
Dillon faced another scandal earlier this month when Delaware Valley Journal broke news of racially charged social media posts on Dillon’s X account that used an ethnic slur. Dillon explained the posts by saying his account was accessible to many people through his work as a basketball coach.
“As a coach, I work with kids to teach them how to play basketball and learn skills both on and off the court,” NBC 10 reported Dillon as saying. “I’m not a big social media guy. If a basketball player who works with Hoops 24-7 posted something like this more than a decade ago, it’s the first I’ve heard about it, and it doesn’t reflect my values. My focus has been and will continue to be standing up to MAGA extremists and protecting women’s reproductive rights. Nothing changes that.”
The posts were taken down at almost the same time the first news stories were breaking.
DVJ also broke news about Dillon “facing an outstanding warrant from the state of New Jersey for failure to pay his fines for traffic offenses and failure to appear in court.
“Voters need to know that Senator Jimmy Dillon uses taxpayer funds to fuel up at the Jersey Shore for his vacations. It’s an irresponsible and inappropriate use of taxpayer funds, all while his constituents had to pay for higher gas prices when he opposed stopping the automatic gas tax increases,” said PA SRCC communications director Michael Straw.
“With inflation hurting Pennsylvanians, many are having trouble affording their own vacations, and now they have to pay for Jimmy Dillon’s too. Jimmy Dillon shouldn’t be a Senator, he’s not cut out to manage anything appropriately, not even his own social media accounts.”
