Corbett campaign enjoys $500,000 funding advantage

HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett is heading into the general election cycle with a half-million dollars more in the bank than his challenger to spend on his reelection campaign.

Corbett, a Republican, had just over $1.1 million to spend, as he raked in recent contributions from several wealthy donors, including a $100,000 contribution from a cigar maker scion and part-owner of the Philadelphia Phillies.

The figures are from the campaign finance reports that Corbett, along with every other candidate for a state office, was required to file with the state elections bureau by the end of Thursday.

The reports cover the five weeks through May 12.

Corbett is running against Democrat John Morganelli, the Northampton County district attorney. Morganelli said he had about $618,000 to spend.

"We're pleased with where we're at," Morganelli said. "I think it will be competitive."

Auditor General Jack Wagner, who is running for re-election against Republican Chet Beiler of Lancaster County, had slightly more than $370,000 to spend on his re-election campaign.

Democrat Rob McCord, a retired venture capitalist who is running for the open state treasurer's job, had $345,100 after spending heavily to win the party's three-way primary race on April 22. He reported a campaign debt of more than $1 million, although practically all of it was from his won pocket.

McCord, of Montgomery County, is running against another Montgomery County resident, Republican Tom Ellis, a public finance lawyer with Ballard Spahr Andrews and Ingersoll LLP.

In the five-week period, Corbett raised $346,200, including a handful of large donations.

The biggest came from John S. Middleton of Bryn Mawr, a Philadelphia Phillies part-owner whose family-owned cigar maker, John Middleton Inc., was purchased by tobacco giant Altria Group Inc. for $2.9 billion last year.

Corbett also received $50,000 apiece from retired suburban Pittsburgh waste-disposal magnate John G. Rangos Sr., Bryn Mawr philanthropist John M. Templeton Jr., who heads a foundation that encourages thinking about science and spirituality, and the Republican State Leadership Committee, a national GOP fund-raising group that funnels money to state and local elections.