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TOP STORY

1. Fetterman Raises $11M in 2Q

It was quite a second quarter for John Fetterman.

He captured the Democratic nomination for Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate seat, while suffering a health scare, and saw his campaign raise $11 million in the three-month period.

The figure set a PA fundraising record for the most money any Senate candidate has raised in one quarter.

The campaign reported that it received donations from over 200,000 unique donors, including 139,000 first-timers. The official report will not be available until Friday, at the latest. That is the deadline for quarterly reports to be submitted to the Federal Elections Commission.

“This is going to be one of the most expensive campaigns in the country, and we need all the support we can get to compete,” said Brendan McPhillips, campaign manager for Fetterman.

RELATED

• John Fetterman Raises $11 Million for Campaign As PA’s U.S. Senate Race Takes Off. “In the three months spanning his victory in the Democratic primary and the first stint of his general election campaign for one of the country’s most important U.S. Senate seats, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman raised $11 million, a record-breaking number his campaign said, which is indicative of the expensive affair the race is shaping up to be.” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
• Fetterman Rakes in $11 Million in Second Fundraising Quarter. Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman’s (D) Senate campaign on Tuesday announced that it had raised $11 million in the second fundraising quarter of 2022. (The Hill)

• Fetterman Hauls in $8.3 Million in the Month and a Half After Pennsylvania Primary. “The state’s Democratic Senate nominee on Tuesday announced that he raked in a massive $11 million during the April-June second quarter of 2022 midterm fundraising. Fetterman’s team spotlighted that $8.3 million of that haul came after the lieutenant governor easily won the Democratic Senate primary on May 17.” (Fox News)

HARRISBURG

2. Department of State Files Lawsuit Against Three Counties

The Pennsylvania Department of State today filed a lawsuit against three Commonwealth county governments for not properly certifying vote tallies from the May 17 primary election.

The state’s top elections agency sued Berks, Fayette and Lancaster counties in Commonwealth Court, describing them as “outlier counties.”

The lawsuit stated that “three county boards of elections are holding up final certification of Pennsylvania’s 2022 primary election because they refuse to send the Acting Secretary of the Commonwealth (Leigh Chapman) certified returns that include every ballot lawfully cast in that election. This Court should order the three county boards that are delaying resolution of the 2022 primary election to send to the Acting Secretary certifications reflecting all lawfully cast ballots.”

RELATED

• State Election Officials Sue Lancaster, Berks, Fayette Counties Over May Primary Certification. “The Pennsylvania Department of State filed suit Tuesday to try to force Lancaster and two other counties to submit a single set of May 17 primary election results that include mail-in votes that arrived in undated envelopes.” (LNP)
• Pennsylvania Sues 3 Counties, Including Berks, Over Counting Mailed Ballots. “Pennsylvania’s elections agency has sued three Republican-controlled county governments on Tuesday — Berks, Lancaster and Fayette counties — seeking to force their election boards to report primary results that include ballots with undated exterior envelopes. Those ballots have been the subject of several other lawsuits.” (Reading Eagle)

ELECTIONS

3. Mixed Reactions From Officials to New Funding Stream

Pennsylvania lawmakers approved $45 million in new election funding that could significantly change how elections are run in the state.

However, there are strings attached and many election officials are not pleased, despite the additional funds coming their way.

“It’s ill-conceived legislation that, really, it’s just awful. If they wanted to give us more money, they should have just given us more money, no strings,” said Philadelphia elections chief Lisa Deeley.

In a decentralized system, counties run elections and county governments fund the offices. With the passage of Act 77, costs have soared and where the funding comes from for new machines, printing of mail ballots and other new challenges is under fire in Harrisburg.

RELATED

• New PA Election Rules Will Make Things Worse. The state’s new budget calls for $45 million to help counties run their elections, including roughly $4.75 million for Allegheny County. That’s good. But the rules of the “election integrity grant program” that counties must accept to receive the money are ineffective and counterproductive. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

NEWS

Around The Commonwealth

• Here Are 5 Things to Know About What Wolf’s Final Budget Delivers. “The recently enacted state budget is the most comprehensive budget-related legislative package that Harrisburg has delivered in a long time,” said state Rep. Stan Saylor (R-York), chair of the House Majority Appropriations Committee. “Quite simply, it is a budget that puts the needs of the people before the needs of the government.” (Beaver County Times)

• Multiple Resignations Accepted at Tioga Borough Meeting. “A contentious and controversial meeting ended with the acceptance of multiple resignations from Tioga Borough, following a week that cast the small town into the national spotlight following the hiring of Timothy Loehmann, the officer who shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio, in 2014.” (Williamsport Sun-Gazette)

• Pennsylvania Funds Three New State Parks, Locations Yet to be Determined. “Pennsylvania’s governor tweeted he had “big news” on Tuesday, announcing the state budget passed in recent days includes funding for three new state parks.” (TRIBLive)

• PA Bars and Restaurants Can Amplify Sound, But Only So Much. “Restaurants that sell alcohol, and other venues with state liquor licenses and live entertainment, got a gift from Pennsylvania this week: loudspeakers.” (Delco Times)

Commentary

• The Future of Reproductive Rights in PA. (Christina Proctor, Observer-Reporter)
• How Far Will PA Republicans Go to Limit Constitutional Rights? (Patrick Beaty, Pennsylvania Capital-Star)
• The U.S. Supreme Court Is On Trial (Brent Budowsky, The Hill)
• The Clairvoyance of Thurgood Marshall On the Question of Roe (Wendy B. Scott, Philadelphia Inquirer)