DV Journal

(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.”

The Beatles said “money can’t buy me love,” but it definitely comes in handy when you are running for statewide office in Pennsylvania.

Campaign fundraising reports filed with the Federal Election Commission show the biggest names in the Senate race have collectively raised more than $25 million. In the governor’s race, candidates have raised a total of more than $16 million.

Millionaire Republican candidates Dr. Mehmet Oz and David McCormick are already duking it out on the airwaves in the GOP Senate primary.

Meanwhile, the sole Democrat running for governor, Attorney General Josh Shapiro, has already raised some $13.4 million, more than enough to blanket the same airwaves in the general election.

So, do candidates with smaller purses have a chance?

Political consultant Jeff Jubelirer with Bellevue Communications Group says it will be difficult for those with smaller war chests to get their message before the public, especially in Pennsylvania, a large state with multiple media markets.

But there are plenty of caveats and politics can always be surprising.

Jeff Jubelirer

For example, despite his numerous TV ads, Dr. Oz doesn’t seem to have made many inroads among the party insiders who vote in the regional straw polls, Jubelirer noted. And most of Oz’s money is from his own wallet or his family’s. The Oz campaign had $5.8 million as of Dec. 31, 2021.

“These committee members are the people in some respects,” said Jubelirer. “They’re heavily involved in party politics, but they’re not bigwigs, per se.” Jubelirer said he does not see Oz getting much grassroots support.

“Sean Hannity doesn’t count,” Jubelirer said.

McCormick grew up in western Pennsylvania, but until recently was running a Connecticut-based hedge fund. He is expected to draw on his vast wealth, as well as his connections in Donald Trump’s political organization. And he is already spending big on TV ads, as well as bringing in national support like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

Montgomery County businessman Jeff Bartos has come in first in most of the regional straw polls, but his campaign financing trails Oz, McCormick, and Carla Sands, a wealthy former ambassador who is largely self-funding her campaign. Bartos is also self-funding, which should keep him competitive. Sands had $4.2 million as of Dec. 31, records show. Bartos had $3.3 million in his campaign coffers at year’s end.

Between Oz and McCormick, “I think McCormick is the one who has shown he’s more formidable,” said Jubelirer.

Bartos, however, also benefits from name recognition and grassroots contacts, having run for statewide office before in a bid to be the lieutenant governor.

On the Democratic side, Senate candidate Lt. Gov. John Fetterman has $12 million and the fundraising lead. Congressman Conor Lamb, who appears to be the favorite of the party establishment, including Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, had $3.9 million. Montgomery County Commissioners Chair Val Arkoosh had $2.6 million but announced Friday she was suspending her campaign. And Philadelphia state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta listed $1.5 million at year’s end.

“The sort of conundrum that Democrats are facing, even when Biden was running in 2020, is electability,” said Jubelirer. The state leadership “believes Conor Lamb is more a traditional Democrat or moderate.” And Lamb won in an “extremely competitive” Pittsburgh area congressional district, too.

“He’s not as far to the Left as Fetterman,” said Jubelirer.

While Josh Shapiro has the luxury of running essentially unopposed, the opposite is true for the large cast of would-be governor candidates lining up on the Republican side.

In this race, too, Jubelirer believes there are tiers of candidates. Delaware Valley’s Dave White and Bill McSwain are the front of the pack, along with former Congressman Lou Barletta, state Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, and possibly state Sen. Doug Mastriano.

White, a former Delaware County councilman who owns an HVAC business, had $3.2 million in his coffers at the end of the year, while McSwain had $1 million. But McSwain recently received the backing of the Commonwealth Partners Chamber of Entrepreneurs, which has $20 million to spend, enough for McSwain to ink a $6.8 million ad buy through the May 17 primary. Pittsburgh lawyer Jason Richey also made a major investment in his own political fortunes, lending his campaign $1.43 million for a total of $1.6 million raised.

But both former Congressman Lou Barletta and Mastriano are well known among GOP primary voters and are strong supporters of former Trump, an attribute that plays well with the party’s base.

“We are so thankful for the thousands upon thousands of Pennsylvanians who have invested with a donation to our Governor victory campaign,” said Mastriano, whose report was filed late. “Most of these are first-time donors to any race for office. We are the only ones with a true grassroots army of supporters and volunteers that literally spans from Erie to Philadelphia.”

Corman, meanwhile, raised $3 million and has $2.7 million in cash on hand.

“Pennsylvania Republicans are going to need a candidate who can raise money and be competitive – and I’m that candidate,” Corman said. “While being among the last to join the race and facing the challenge of raising funds over Thanksgiving and the Christmas season, we quickly raised millions of dollars.”

And Barletta’s yearend reports showed he had raised somewhat more than $1 million with $244,920.78 cash on hand.

“Lou did not self-fund or loan his own campaign money like some others,” said his spokesman Tim Murtaugh.

However, Jubelirer said, “with so many Republican candidates running, the question is, who is going to break through?”

“The issue with all of these primaries is that we have a plurality system in Pennsylvania, not a majority system like Georgia,” said Robin Kolodny, chair of the political science department at Temple University. In majority systems, candidates must win 50 percent of the vote plus one in order to become their party’s nominee. Often run-off elections are required.

In Pennsylvania, a primary election winner is the candidate who receives the greatest number of votes, even if he or she does not win an outright majority of votes cast.

“So, if there are many candidates in a race, then local consolidation matters a lot since one candidate can win in a crowded field with deep, but not wide support. However, that doesn’t normally bode well for the general election. Remember Ron Klink? Didn’t think so.”

Klink won a six-way Democratic primary for Senate in 2000 with 41 percent of the vote. He lost the general election to Republican Rick Santorum.

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