O'Connor outpaces Gainey in campaign fundraising ahead of Pittsburgh mayoral primary

Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor is far outraising incumbent Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey amid a heated Democratic primary battle for the mayor’s office.

O’Connor in January raised nearly $465,000, according to campaign finance reports. Gainey brought in about $24,000.

Overall, the Gainey campaign has about $237,000 cash on hand, compared to about $681,000 for O’Connor.

Gainey’s fundraising struggles may be serious cause for concern for his campaign, said Alison Dagnes, a political science professor at Shippensburg University in central Pennsylvania.

“When the challenger starts really outraising an incumbent, normally that kicks the incumbent’s butt into gear and says to them, you need to start fundraising big,” she said. “The narrative of big fundraising alone, just the narrative, is a major advantage for O’Connor. What those numbers say is people like him, he’s got a lot of cash to spend, and the argument is going to go that this is a sign Gainey’s on the ropes.”

O’Connor in a statement said he was grateful for the overwhelming support he’s received so far.

“Our campaign is powered by people from all walks of life, and it’s a reflection of the broad coalition we’re building to create a brighter future for our city,” he said.

When an incumbent can’t keep pace fundraising, Dagnes said, it can signal that people are displeased with the way things are going. Gainey, she said, should be focusing his campaign on convincing people the city is on the right track.

“If your opponent is raking in twice, three times as much money as you are, it underscores the idea there are problems,” she said.

But Gainey told TribLive he wasn’t surprised that big donors may not back his reelection bid.

“We knew going in that we (weren’t) going to have the big donors,” he said Tuesday.

The mayor said he believed his efforts to force developers to include affordable housing in their projects soured that industry, and his ongoing fight to get the city’s major nonprofits to pay taxes or payments in lieu of taxes may have halted their willingness to back his campaign.

“But we do have some plans we’re doing to ensure we’re very competitive,” he said.

Gainey declined to elaborate.

Joe DiSarro, a political science professor at Washington & Jefferson College, said the campaign finance reports seem to spell trouble for Gainey.

“The incumbent has serious political problems among his base,” DiSarro said. “If the base is not contributing, that means that those who put him in power are regretting it. It is very significant for an incumbent to be that far down in fundraising, and I would say it’s going to be a very difficult campaign.”

Retired police officer Tony Moreno, one of two Republican candidates for mayor, reported raising no cash in January. His rival in the GOP primary, local business owner Thomas West, brought in about $4,000.

The more cash a campaign has on hand, Dagnes said, the more it can advertise and win over potential voters. An incumbent, she said, already has the advantage of extra name recognition and media attention while in office. But campaign ads can sway voters and steer storylines ahead of election day.

“Voters want to be wooed,” she said. “They want to be courted. They want to be told that an elected official is asking them for their vote. The way you do that is through campaigning — and one of the ways you campaign is through fundraising.”