District attorney candidates report pre-primary spending
According to the campaign finance reports submitted to the Fayette County Election Bureau on Friday, the candidates for Fayette County district attorney have spent a combined total of $67,261 in the race to secure the Democratic nomination in the May 19 primary.
Connellsville attorney Richard Bower is challenging District Attorney Jack R. Heneks Jr. for the Democrat nomination. Barring a successful write-in campaign by an outside candidate, the winner of the primary will go on to take the office after the general election in the fall.
Between the first of the year and May 4, Bower reported spending $34,790 on the campaign, including $1,641 of his own money mainly spent on fees for renting digital sign space, and $33,149 spent through his campaign committee, BowerNow.
In the same time period, Heneks reported spending $32,471. He personally contributed $10,565 to the election, and the Committee to Keep Jack Heneks DA spent $21,906.
Heneks’ campaign committee collected $24,840 in monetary contributions, and $756 in in-kind services. The committee began with a $579 balance from the previous reporting period, and finished $61,088 in debt.
In the last four months, Bower’s committee took in $10,150 in monetary contributions, and $3,400 in in-kind donations. Bower’s committee began with a balance of $35,693 brought forward from the last reporting period, and finished with the same figure in the unpaid debt column.
The details in the reports indicate Heneks was the only candidate to receive contributions from political committees. The Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 354 out of Youngwood gave Heneks’ committee $500, Friends of Al Ambrosini gave $200, and the Committee to Re-elect Pete Daley contributed $100.
Heneks’ campaign committee also listed 48 donations of less that $250, for a total of $5,715. Also listed were 13 donations of more than $250 each, for a total of $8,300. The committee counted the $10,565 in loans from the candidate among its contributions.
Of the nine assistant district attorneys in Heneks’ office, three made contributions to his committee. Heneks also took in donations from several other attorneys outside his office, including three from other counties.
The bulk of Heneks’ expenditures were on advertising. The committee reported spending $16,401 on materials like signs, mailers, billboards, shirts, buttons and pens. Money spent on sponsorships and similar advertising totalled $1,040. Another $3,465 went to campaign functions, mainly a “meet and greet” held at Duck Hollow in April. The committee also paid $1,000 to a polling service in State College in March.
Fundraising for BowerNow included seven donations of $250 or less, for a total of $1,150. The committee accepted four donations in amounts greater than $250, for a total of $9,000, including a $5,000 contribution Bower made from his own finances.
Expenditures paid by BowerNow went exclusively to West Media out of Latrobe, for radio and print advertising, a website, signage, and hand-outs like pens and emery boards.