Jeff Brown and the super PAC that backed his mayoral run are suing the Philadelphia ethics board

Former Philadelphia mayoral candidate Jeff Brown and a super PAC that spent millions to back his unsuccessful bid have sued the city’s Board of Ethics, alleging that the agency used its power to undermine his candidacy.

The suit stems from events during the Democratic primary campaign last spring, when the board sued the super PAC and a related nonprofit, both called For a Better Philadelphia, alleging its staff illegally coordinated with Brown and his campaign. The group agreed in April to stop spending money to influence the outcome of the election.

Brown, a longtime ShopRite proprietor, was initially seen as a frontrunner for the Democratic nomination despite it being his first run for office. But following the board’s allegations and a series of unrelated campaign missteps, Brown finished in fifth place.

He and For a Better Philadelphia filed their complaint this week in the city’s Court of Common Pleas, alleging that the board and its executive director, J. Shane Creamer Jr., filed a baseless lawsuit “designed solely” to damage their reputations and interfere with the election. It says the board’s claims were part of a “harassment campaign” and were made to generate media attention, including in The Inquirer. (The Inquirer is not a party in the suit.)

» READ MORE: The Philly ethics board dropped its case against the ‘super PAC’ that backed mayoral candidate Jeff Brown

Brown, For a Better Philadelphia, and lawyer David Maser, chair of the PAC, are each seeking a “name clearing hearing” that they say is necessary to repair their reputations.

The new lawsuit was first reported by Billy Penn.

The board is a five-member panel appointed by the mayor and enforces city laws on matters such as campaign finance and lobbying. Brown’s lawsuit focuses largely on Creamer, saying that he was biased against For a Better Philadelphia because it was a “dark money” group, meaning donations were routed through a nonprofit and donors names did not need to be made public.

Creamer, who is named as a defendant in the suit, declined to comment.

In a statement, Brown said Creamer “used every tool at his disposal, including leaks to the media and a frivolous lawsuit, to target our campaign and slander me personally.”

“Most importantly, he irreparably and irresponsibly damaged the credibility of the agency he was charged with leading,” Brown said.

For a Better Philadelphia said in a statement that they brought the suit “not to relitigate the election, but to ensure that there are consequences for those who put their personal crusades above the integrity of the democratic process.”

When the board filed its initial complaint against For a Better Philadelphia last spring, it said the group illegally coordinated with Brown because he raised money for it in the months before he officially launched his mayoral campaign in November 2022. Under city law, independent expenditure committees or super PACs can raise and spend unlimited amounts of cash as long as they do not coordinate with candidates or campaigns they’re supporting.

In 2018, the board issued an opinion saying illegal coordination can occur at any point in the year leading up to an election, even if it happens before the candidate enters the race.

But Brown and For a Better Philadelphia maintained that the opinion doesn’t carry the weight of law and that they couldn’t have illegally coordinated while Brown was fundraising because the campaign didn’t yet exist. Their lawyers argued that legal conduct can’t be later deemed as illegal simply because someone runs for office.

They sought to have the suit dismissed, and in September, Common Pleas Judge Joshua Roberts agreed, ruling against the board and saying it engaged in “a bit of sophistry” by relying on an overly broad interpretation of its own regulations.

The board initially said it would appeal Roberts’ ruling, but in December, it announced it would drop the case and amend its own regulations to clarify the rules.

Brown and For a Better Philadelphia also claim in their suit, without evidence, that Creamer leaked private information about the investigation to Inquirer reporter Sean Collins Walsh and former Inquirer reporter Chris Brennan, both of whom wrote about the ethics inquiry.

According to the suit, Creamer “maintains a close relationship with reporters from The Inquirer,” and that “this symbiosis has resulted in Creamer trading confidential board information to Inquirer reporters in exchange for flattering and gratuitous news coverage.”

Gabriel Escobar, The Inquirer editor and senior vice president, said in a statement that “it should surprise no one that reporters have sources nor that sources share information, which seems to be the great revelation here.”

“To impute from this act of journalism that something nefarious took place, or to suggest that there was some sinister complicity, is wrong and absurd,” he said.