Article Summary –
Billionaire Jeffrey Yass, worth over $49 billion, has invested $5.5 million in TV ads and mailers supporting Republican Dave Sunday in Pennsylvania’s Attorney General race. Yass, a proponent of school vouchers, aims to influence the election against Eugene DePasquale. DePasquale’s campaign alleges that Sunday failed to disclose these contributions, suggesting an attempt to hide them. Sunday’s platform focuses on reducing gun crime and the opioid crisis, while DePasquale emphasizes reproductive rights.
Jeffrey Yass Spends Over $5 Million to Influence Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Race
Pennsylvania’s richest billionaire, Jeffrey Yass, is attempting to influence the Attorney General’s race by investing $5.5 million in York County’s Republican District Attorney Dave Sunday, who faces former Auditor General Eugene DePasquale in the election.
“I don’t know Jeff Yass, but I can’t imagine he’s just writing that check to give to the [Commonwealth Leaders Fund] and there’s no reason for it,” DePasquale said in an interview with The Keystone.
“All you have to do is read that Philadelphia magazine article that just came out, where it talks about what Yass wants. The strings that Yass wants for that money.”
Yass, a proponent of school vouchers and charter schools, has become a significant Republican mega-donor, supporting right-wing candidates in Pennsylvania and nationwide.
Last month, he explained to Philadelphia Magazine why he supports defunding public schools.
“As students flee [to schools of their choice], those government schools would have to shut down,” Yass said. “And that’s a good thing. If a school cannot fix itself, if it does not adequately educate its children, if it shortchanges the families it is supposed to serve, it doesn’t deserve to be open.”
According to Forbes, Yass’ net wealth grew from $27.6 billion in April 2024 to $49.6 billion by September 2024, largely due to his TikTok investments.
The spending in support of Sunday includes TV ads and mailers funded by the Commonwealth Leaders Fund, a political action committee primarily funded by Yass, and were authorized by the Sunday campaign.
DePasquale’s campaign noted that Sunday failed to disclose the advertisements as an in-kind contribution on his most recent campaign finance reports.
“There is no universe where Dave Sunday’s campaign didn’t know the value of these contributions,” Carver Murphy, DePasquale’s campaign manager, told Spotlight PA.
“They were part of the transaction and certainly have records of it. Ad disclosures make that information public. They weren’t waiting on notification of the contribution from [Commonwealth Leaders Fund], they were trying to hide it.”
“Thankfully, voters have another, better choice,” Murphy said. “Eugene DePasquale doesn’t work for Jeffrey Yass, and he’s not beholden to any one billionaire donor.”
Sunday is campaigning on lowering gun crime and combating the opioid epidemic, according to Spotlight PA, while DePasquale is running on protecting reproductive rights and using the office to advocate for the commonwealth.
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