Rob McCord raised about $3.5 million from donors in 2013. A $1.7 million self-loan and rollover from his State Treasurer campaign brought him to more than $6 million on hand.
His is the second biggest campaign account in the Democratic primary for Governor behind businessman Tom Wolf, whose $10 million self-loan helped propel him to $11 million on hand.
Campaign finance reporters became available this week for both McCord’s old committee for his Treasurer campaigns and the new committee for his gubernatorial bid.
His old committee rolled $2.6 million into the new one, which included $1.7 million leftover from his 2012 Treasurer campaign.
McCord was campaigning for Governor long before his official announcement in September, and the Treasurer committee spent $256,000 on staff, consultants and polling.
He spent an additional $211,000 via his gubernatorial committee, bringing last year’s total to $401,000 – about 11% of what he brought in for 2013.*
McCord, a former venture capitalist, tapped his rolodex. Former Sallie Mae exec Al Lord gave $500,000. Fellow investor Charles Hadley loaned $100,000 and gave $50,000. Geoff Sayre-McCord, a professor at UNC Chapel Hill, loaned $200,000.
Many of McCord’s contributions came from labor unions, including $250,000 from the PA State Corrections Officers Union PAC, $75,000 from the Local 66 International Union of Operating Engineers, $60,000 from AFSCME Local 13 and $50,000 from IBEW 5.
McCord was his own biggest supporter: he loaned his campaign $1.7 million. About $1.26 million of the loan was new for 2013; the old committee repaid McCord $440,000 in loans he had made for previous campaigns.
*McCord raised $1.9 million directly to his gubernatorial campaign committee and $1.6 million in 2013 to his Treasurer campaign committee. McCord is term-limited as Treasurer, so donors presumably knew they weren’t contributing to a re-election bid.
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5 Responses
@13thDistDem
My point is we need some serious reform in our campaign finance laws because politics has become a game for rich people to play. How can a somebody like McCord or Wolfe relate to the working class when they can afford to loan themselves millions of dollars to run for governor. Then we have Congress which is a playground of millionaires including Schwartz. And too add to that you have these rich donors who’s interest are taken more seriously by elected officials because they help to finance these campaigns. So no wonder these people are so out of touch with reality while they’re in office because they literally live in a different world. I’m sure there are plenty of community activists all across the state who are much more qualified and can do a better job as Governor than McCord, Schwartz and Wolf but can’t afford to pay to play. Which again goes back to my point for the need to reform campaign finance laws.
To clarify, I’mm not saying that we should inherently trust money. Be skeptical, but big checks don’t necessarily indicate the worst.
Look, there’s nothing wrong with self-funding in and of itself. It’s unfair to criticize candidates for playing the game that is laid out for them. The truth is that campaigns are expensive, and you need one of two things: a big wallet; or a big roladex. Preferably both.
Just because Wolf/McCord/McGinty have given and loaned money doesn’t mean they are bad people. As Democrats, we have to learn to stop distrusting money.
That said, it’s a shame it takes so much money to run for office. We should look into fixing that, but we shouldn’t demonize people who play the game we’ve set up for them to play.
look at that smirk on his face in his pictures.he looks just like a rich republican.1.7million he gave to his own campaign. another one running who thinks he can buy an election. news flash to many poor and middle class people in pa to buy that. katie mcginty is looking better and better.
This crop of Democratic candidates is extremely disappointing. So basically we have a bunch of rich jerks trying to buy the governor’s mansion for themselves and then they gather up their rich buddies to help them out. Democrats are just a bad as Republicans on this. What we need is public financing of campaigns and then we would get a crop of candidates working in the public interest rather than appease their donor base. The only reason why McCord and Wolf are in the race is because they can pay to play and in doing so they make a mockery our democracy.