But the top fundraisers swept every judicial race in 2021.

On Election Day, voters in Pennsylvania elected four new judges across three state-level elections. Two of the elections featured one-on-one competitions between Republicans and Democrats, while the third race featured four candidates — two Republicans and two Democrats — battling for two seats on the Pennsylvania commonwealth court.

The headline from these elections was the recount in the commonwealth court race. The final results of the recount are now official on the Pennsylvania Department of State website, and Transparency USA has the complete picture of the campaign finances backing these races. Here’s how each candidate’s fundraising and expenditures impacted their results on election day.

Commonwealth Court Judge Winners: Stacy Wallace (Republican) and Lori Dumas (Democrat)

Stacy Wallace and Lori Dumas are the newly-elected judges for the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court. According to Ballotpedia.org, Wallace is an attorney in private practice and was previously a staff attorney with legal aid society Northwestern Legal Services. Wallace was also previously a law clerk with the Court of Common Pleas of McKean County and the Superior Court of Pennsylvania. Dumas has been a judge of the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas since 2003, according to Ballotpedia.

Wallace and Dumas took the top two spots from a four-candidate field that also included incumbent Republican Andrew “Drew” Crompton. The election results were remarkably evenly spread across all four candidates in this race, with Dumas and Crompton within half of a percent of one another, triggering a statewide recount. The recount numbers upheld the initial results, showing Wallace with 26.56 percent of the vote and Dumas with 25.42 percent.

Commonwealth Court Judge Election Campaign Finance (1/1/2020 – 11/22/2021)

	Stacy Wallace (R)	Drew Crompton (R)(i)	Lori Dumas (D)	David Spurgeon (D)
Amount Raised	$669,458	$658,608	$740,135	$572,383
Top Donor	Republican Party of Pennsylvania ($296,356)	Commonwealth Leaders Fund ($74,254)	PA Democratic Party ($244,089)	PA Democratic Party ($35,000)
Total Expenditures	$172,505	$460,659	$424,698	$363,981
Loans	$20,000	$0	$0	$40,000
Votes Received	1,355,445	1,274,899	1,297,253	1,175,974
Cost Per Vote (Expenditures/Votes received)	$0.13	$0.36	$0.33	$0.31

Superior Court Judge Winner: Megan Sullivan (Republican)

Republican Megan Sullivan is the newly-elected Pennsylvania Superior Court Judge. According to Ballotpedia.org, Sullivan’s prior experience working as a deputy attorney general in the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, as an assistant district attorney and supervisory district attorney in Chester County, and as the assistant general counsel for West Chester University. Sullivan won the seat in an open race that included Democrat Timika Lane.

Superior Court Judge Election Campaign Finance (1/1/2020 – 11/22/2021)

	Megan Sullivan (R)	Timika Lane (D)
Amount Raised	$1,198,707	$802,586
Top Donor	Republican Party of Pennsylvania ($373,836)	Com for a Better Tomorrow ($250,000)
Total Expenditures	$639,571	$638,786
Loans	$0	$0
Votes Received	1,476,527	1,277,180
Cost Per Vote (Expenditures/Votes received)	$0.43	$0.50

Supreme Court Justice Winner: Kevin Brobson (Republican)

Republican Kevin Brobson has been elected to serve as the newest justice for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. A Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court judge, Brobson has also worked as an attorney in private practice in the Harrisburg area and previously served as secretary and chairman of the State Judicial Conduct Board. Brobson defeated Democrat Maria McLaughlin to claim the seat in the general election.

Supreme Court Justice Election Campaign Finance (1/1/2020 – 11/22/2021)

	Kevin Brobson (R)	Maria McLaughlin (D)
Amount Raised	$3,310,630	$2,577,211
Top Donor	Commonwealth Leaders Fund ($1,894,887)	Com for a Better Tomorrow ($850,000)
Total Expenditures	$1,320,372	$1,719,639
Loans	$10,000	$0
Votes Received	1,395,461	1,370,580
Cost Per Vote (Expenditures/Votes received)	$0.95	$1.25

Key Takeaways from Pennsylvania Campaign Finance:

1. After recount, Dumas blocks clean sweep of judicial races by Republicans

Republican candidates claimed victory in every race but one, despite being outraised in some of the contests. The commonwealth court race elections two judges from a pool of four. The victory by Democratic candidate Lori Dumas came after a vote recount (automatically triggered by the narrow margin between incumbent Republican Drew Crompton and herself). The recount results upheld Dumas’ victory over the incumbent, making her the only Democrat to win a statewide judicial race this year. The court balance now stands at a six to three majority for Republicans.

2. Top fundraisers won their races

All four candidates who won the judicial elections were top fundraisers in their races. Republican Megan Sullivan outraised Democrat Timika Lane in the race for Superior Court Judge. In the commonwealth court race, Dumas raised more money than Wallace, but both newly-elected justices outraised their defeated opponents. Still, the Republican candidates won in both of those races, despite being down in the fundraising game.

3. Familiar top donors dominate races

A small group of donors appeared on several of the candidates’ financial reports as their top contributors in the three races on the ballot. For Republicans Drew Compton, Megan Sullivan, and Kevin Brobson, the most prolific donor was the Commonwealth Leaders Fund. Meanwhile, Com for a Better Tomorrow was the biggest donor to Democrats Timika Lane and Maria McLaughlin. Other top donors in these races included the Republican Party of Pennsylvania for Stacy Wallace and the PA Democratic Party for Democrats Lori Dumas and David Spurgeon.

A complete overview of donations and expenditures for each of the candidates in these Pennsylvania judicial races can be found here. Click on the name of any candidate for more details. Subscribe to get the latest campaign finance data as soon as it becomes available.

David Black

Committee for Candidate David Black

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