Carolyn Carlucci, the Republican candidate for Pennsylvania Supreme Court is running an ad that begins with Carluccio herself saying “Here come the big money boys, with their nasty lying attack ad.” As she says that, we see three presumably shady-looking (unidentified) rich guys standing in front of what appears to be the Montgomery County Courthouse.
Then Carluccio comes on camera to tell us what a tough-guy prosecutor she was. She lays out her stellar resume as the video flips back and forth between her and the actors who were hired to play the part of rich guys. And then she wraps the ad by saying she’ll apply the law fairly. Who can argue with that?
The actors hired by Carolyn Carluccio to look like “Big Money Boys”
Presumably the “Big Money Boys” refers to the big contributors paying for for her opponent Dan McCaffery’s ads (if you were watching the rise and fall of the Phillies post-season run, you probably know there were a ton of ads attacking Carluccio).
These are the top contributors to McCaffery’s campaign:
- Committee for a Better Tomorrow: $450,000
- Pennsylvania AFL-CIO: $250,000
- Association of Trial Lawyers of America: $200,000
- Laborers’ International Union of North America: $150,000
- American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees: $100,000
- SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania: $75,000
- Plumbers & Steamfitters Local Union 420: $50,000
- United Steelworkers: $50,000
- Planned Parenthood Action Fund: $50,000
- Pennsylvanians for Judicial Fairness: $25,000
If the Big Money Boys are victimizing poor Carolyn, can we presume that small donors entirely fund her campaign? Maybe, except for one rather large donor called the Commonwealth Leaders Fund.
According to Spotlight PA, “Much of that money can be traced to libertarian billionaire Jeff Yass, co-founder of the stock trading company Susquehanna International Group and an advocate for alternatives to public schools.”
If you add up Commonwealth Leaders Fund/Yass’s contributions to the Carluccio Campaign the total amount of money contributed is $4,368,363.37