Only group running anti-Shapiro TV ads bows out; Union League disunity over DeSantis award

Pile this onto the heap of recent bad news for Doug Mastriano — the only group funding television ads to help the Republican nominee for governor in Pennsylvania just walked away.

That conservative political action committee, Commonwealth Leaders Fund, appears suddenly charmed by the Democratic nominee, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, and his cautious embrace of school vouchers.

Shapiro has been gradually rolling out his position on legislation that would allow public school dollars to be given directly to families to pay for private school tuition or other educational services since the start of September, just as the Commonwealth crew started scaling back spending on ads critical of him. Clout hears the ad spending, which still had $3.2 million to go until the general election, stopped this week.

Remember Clout’s rule on coincidences: We don’t believe in them.

Matt Brouillette, who runs Commonwealth Leaders Fund, declined to say if Shapiro’s position on the “lifeline scholarship” legislation caused the PAC to shift spending to state legislative races. Commonwealth’s very deep pockets are filled by Pennsylvania’s richest man, billionaire Jeff Yass, who has dumped millions into school voucher efforts.

A Shapiro spokesperson said he and the campaign has had no contact with Brouilette or his PAC. The campaign declined to say if Democrats in the legislature had pushed back on his support for the bill.

Mastriano, a state senator, supported the legislation in Education Committee votes in June.

Shapiro offered support for the legislation, which passed in the state House in April with most Democrats opposed, in a Sept. 1 response to news and opinion outlet Broad & Liberty. He added similar language to his campaign website on Sept. 9 and expressed support for the “concept” at a campaign stop on Sept. 17, while discussing “flaws” in the legislation.

Brouilette, who typically assails Democrats on social media, drew attention to Shapiro’s support in a pair of tweets on Sept. 17 and 21.

Mastriano and the Commonwealth crew were always a bad fit. The PAC’s ads critical of Shapiro didn’t even mention Mastriano by name, instead urging voters to support “the Republican ticket.”

Commonwealth spent $13 million in the May primary, trying to prevent Mastriano from becoming the nominee. Brouilette cautioned then — and again this week — that Mastriano seems unable to win on Nov. 8.

Mastriano, who has always trailed Shapiro in fund-raising, on Tuesday reported having $2.5 million in the bank as of last week. Shapiro had nearly $11 million in his account, even after spending nearly $28 million this summer, including for television ads critical of Mastriano.

The Union League of Philadelphia will present its highest honor, a gold medal, to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Oct. 13. That has prompted disunity among the 160-year-old club’s members.

DeSantis, a likely Republican contender for president in 2024, sparked controversy this month when he flew Venezuelan migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in a hey-look-at-me political stunt that has prompted a civil lawsuit and a criminal investigation.

Clout obtained a flurry of letters from club members to Union League president Craig Mills, calling for the event to be canceled. Some members vowed to resign unless the club changes course.

One letter came from William Hangley, a local law firm founder who called DeSantis “a man who has made political and territorial disunion his stock in trade” and “has shown only contempt” for oppressed people, in direct contrast to the Union League’s original mission.

“Exactly what quality or tradition of our League is he thought to emblematize?” wrote Hangley to Mills, also an attorney.

“I think the guy’s a bully,” Hangley told Clout. “I think he says whatever he thinks will get him noticed. That seems to work for a lot of people these days.”

The Union League was founded in 1862, during the Civil War, to support President Abraham Lincoln and his policies. Lincoln received the club’s first gold medal in 1863, described then as something “to be conferred on men who were regarded as deserving well of their country.”

Clout had questions. The Union League did not have answers.

“The Union League is a private club,” Mills told Clout. “And this is a private event.”

The club has sung that song before.

The 2006 gold medal ceremony was cloaked in secrecy because the recipient, then-U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, was controversial as opinion turned against the war in Iraq. Some club members objected to the honor and others, arriving at the event in tuxedos and ball gowns, were jeered by antiwar protesters.

The Union League deployed similar secrecy two years later when Rumsfeld’s boss, then-President George W. Bush, received the club’s gold medal.

Despite the controversy, Clout hears the DeSantis event — with tickets going for $160 at the already pricey club — is sold out and has a wait list for people hoping to attend.

DeSantis stirred controversy in Pennsylvania last month, appearing at a Pittsburgh rally for Mastriano despite calls from religious groups to cancel since the Republican nominee for governor had paid $5,000 for consulting from Gab, a social media site notorious for antisemitic content.

In Pittsburgh, DeSantis hammered home conservative culture war complaints, declaring, “We can never, ever surrender to woke ideology.”

Mastriano has vowed to make Pennsylvania “look like the Florida of the north” if he is elected governor.

Clout provides often irreverent news and analysis about people, power, and politics.