Dennis M. O'Brien
- Republican
- 139 Main Capitol Building
PO Box 202169
Harrisburg, PA 17120-2169 - P: (717) 787-4610
- F: (717) 787-1339
- O'Brien's Website
Representative, District 169
| 1 | LAWPAC | $35,500 |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Committee For A Better Tomorrow | $21,940 |
| 3 | Laborers District Council | $16,200 |
| 4 | Pennsylvania State Education Association | $14,600 |
| 5 | Cozen O'Connor PAC & Employees | $13,000 |
About O'Brien's Top Donors
LAWPAC
LAWPAC is the PAC of the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers’ Association. LAWPAC gave $3.7 million to Pennsylvania candidate from 2001-2008, and many of those giving to LAWPAC were trial lawyers opposed to limits on the right to sue. In a 9/30/01 Inquirer article, the Trial Lawyers’ lobbyist Mark Phenecie claimed that LAWPAC didn’t give to judicial candidates because, "We don't want to look like we are trying to influence a judicial election." Yet when a judicial candidate backed by State Sen. Vince Fumo was running for Superior Court in 1999, LAWPAC shipped a $29,000 contribution to Fumo's Committee for a Democratic Majority on Oct. 19. Then on Oct. 22, the Committee for a Democratic Majority shipped a $30,000 contribution to Schiller's campaign. Tracking these kinds of indirect contributions is especially difficult because contributions made in non-election years often don’t have to be disclosed until February of the following year, under Pennsylvania law. Discovering the Trial Lawyer’s entire legislative agenda, beyond defeating limits on lawsuits, is also difficult because Pennsylvania does not require lobbyists to disclose the exact number of the bills on which they have been lobbying.
Committee For A Better Tomorrow
The Committee For A Better Tomorrow is the PAC for the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association. After learning that this PAC had given $1 million to State Supreme Court candidate Jack Panella (D) for his 2009 campaign, Panella’s opponent, Republican Jane Orie Melvin, criticized Panella for engaging in “pay to play” politics. In a 10/27/09 interview with WHYY radio, Orie Melvin also said that justices should recuse themselves from cases involving major campaign contributors. Yet Orie Melvin received at least $125,000 from the Committee For A Better Tomorrow for her own campaign. One way for Pennsylvania to get its judges out of the business of ruling on cases involving campaign contributors would be to establish a system of merit selection. It’s bad enough that major campaign contributors enjoy special access to members of our state legislature. But what recourse does the average citizen who can’t afford to write four- and five-figure checks to political candidates have if their legislature and judiciary are both beholden to their top contributors? For example, a 2009 study by Common Cause/Pennsylvania found that 3 of the top 21 recipients of campaign contributions from casinos from 2001-2008 were state supreme court justices.
Laborers District Council
Comprised of four different unions—the Laborers Local 332, 57, 135, and 413—the Laborers District Council is by far the biggest donor to political candidates in Philadelphia. The LDC was one of the top 5 donors to Mayor John F. Street in his career, according to a 11/13/03 article in the Inquirer, with $539,000 in contributions. In 2007, LDC originally backed State Rep. Dwight Evans in the race to succeed Street, then switched and gave $19,000 to Michael Nutter in the weeks before he defeated Republican Al Taubenberger. Candidates receiving the highest percentage of all their total contributions from the LDC include State Representatives John Myers and Cherelle Parker, for whom roughly one dollar in every four received between 2001-2008 was from the LDC. The LDC is led by Samuel Staten, Sr., who has also served on the state board that recommends lawyers for appointments to Philadelphia’s Common Pleas and Municipal Courts. Staten joined Joseph Ashdale, political director for IUPAT, in bidding for a license to open a Philadelphia casino in 2006. This raises the question of whether LDC itself has lobbied in support of expanding legalized gambling. LDC is not registered to lobby with the state, and Philadelphia does not require lobbyists to register.
Pennsylvania State Education Association
According to its website, “PSEA includes 1,199 local associations, representing teachers, education support professionals, health care professionals, higher education professionals, retired educators and students. We represent teachers in 483 of Pennsylvania’s 501 school districts.” PSEA’s legislative agenda in Harrisburg includes boosting teacher salaries and reserves in their pension fund, boosting school funding, providing for cost-of-living adjustments for PSEA member salaries, expanding opportunities for early retirement, and opposition to a bill that would curtail teachers’ rights to strike. Recent legislation to limit teacher strikes was introduced by State Sen. Robert Mellow after teachers at a school in Lackawanna County struck 4 times in 18 months. If Mellow's bill becomes law, no contract dispute would last into the school year. By the end of summer, teachers and school boards in conflict over contracts would present their cases to a team of arbitrators, who would decide which side's proposal was most fair. The panel's decision would be binding.
Cozen O'Connor PAC & Employees
http://www.cozen.com/