Serious fundraising kickstarts 2020 Democratic primary in Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District

Democratic congressional hopefuls Tom Brier, left, and Eugene DePasquale.

Democratic congressional candidate Tom Brier, left, has staked his claim in the money primary against rival and state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale.Charles Thompson

A Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District has gotten off to a fast fundraising start, and his name is... Tom Brier.

While state party leaders spent much of the winter and spring coaxing state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale into the race for the newly-competitive Capitol Region seat, Brier, the “other guy” in the Democratic race, has quietly been building a significant war chest of his own.

Recently-filed Federal Election Commission reports reflecting contributions through June 30 show the attorney and Hershey resident has raised $201,335 since entering the race, and he entered the summer with nearly $164,000 in cash on hand.

If Brier can continue raising funds at that pace, it means DePasquale - the well-established York-based politician who has already flooded the zone with top Democratic Party endorsements since entering the race last month - could find himself in a competitive primary race next year.

Both Democrats seek to unseat incumbent Rep. Scott Perry, R-Carroll Township, York County, who is widely expected to seek a fifth term in 2020.

Brier’s results to date are notable for several reasons: At age 27, he is making his first run for any public office, and though he is a Hershey native who attended and graduated from Dickinson College, he is far from a household name in the region.

DePasquale, who only formally entered the House race July 1, has filed no campaign finance reports for his congressional bid to date.

His campaign’s spokesman Bud Jackson, however, said Friday DePasquale is already well on his way to building the organizational and grassroots support he needs to show he is the Democrats’ best choice to defeat Perry.

Jackson said he expects DePasquale’s funding reports through the remainder of the year will back that argument up.

Brier, an attorney who last year gained notice regionally and beyond for his book “While Reason Slept" on what he sees as America’s gradual slide away from its founding Constitutional objectives, jumped into the race in March.

He has already done the first thing he needed to do as a candidate: He made hay while he had the field to himself.

With $194,335 in individual contributions, Brier has already out-raised all of the four Democratic primary candidates who ran against Perry in 2018. The eventual winner of that race, Lutheran pastor and retired Army officer George Scott, raised $90,000 through his entire primary campaign.

A closer look at Brier’s fundraising report shows that $133,964 of his $194,335 in individual contributions has come from Pennsylvania donors. It appears that about $55,000 of that came from contributors who live or work in the 10th.

Brier attributes his early out-of-district support to general Democratic Party enthusiasm for taking on Perry, as well as his cultivation of friends and acquaintances from his legal career, college and law school.

As impressive as all that is, the mountain will only get steeper from here.

For one thing, it may be a challenge for Brier to keep the funding taps open now that DePasquale has entered the race.

The sitting auditor general is seen as something of a dream candidate for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee here. He’s the winner of two statewide races, a one-time York County state legislator and a guy who until now has been legitimately on the short list of names of potential future Democratic gubernatorial candidates.

And Perry’s campaign, which is facing its own primary challenge from announced candidate Bobby Jeffries, has already raised $314,446 in the current cycle, with $300,843 on hand.

It’s a challenge that Brier says he is determined to tackle head-on.

Brier told PennLive Friday that he has 30 fundraising events scheduled through the next six weeks. From them, he hopes to produce his best fundraising quarter yet on the way to having about $500,000 on hand for the heart of the primary campaign.

The fact anyone’s even giving to a Democratic Congressional candidate in 2019 is another manifestation of how the new district maps imposed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court last year have changed midstate Democrats’ attitudes toward seeking U.S. House seats.

Where once these races were actively avoided by top-tier Democrats, Scott - who is not running in 2020 - showed the political world Democrats can be viable in the new 10th, which covers all of Dauphin County, the eastern half of Cumberland County, and the northern half of York County.

Scott garnered 48.7 percent against Perry, signaling to Democrats who were hanging back last year that the 10th is much more competitive than the districts it replaced - in fact, only one of Pennsylvania’s 18 U.S. House races was closer last year.

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