Pennsylvania’s 8th congressional district is now one of the most expensive House races in the country, costing upwards of $28 million as of Wednesday, despite many voters saying their minds are set.
Out-of-state committees, including the Congressional Leadership Fund and NRDC Action Votes, have out-spent both Democrat incumbent Matthew Cartwright and Republican challenger Rob Bresnahan, most of it on negative ads.
Cartwright is running for his seventh term in Congress where he represents a district that Trump won in 2016 and 2020, one of only a handful of Trump-winning districts where a Democrat won a House seat. Republicans declared the race a top target as part of an effort to increase their thin majority in the House of Representatives.
“Negative campaigning works in that it stays with the voters. They remember it more so than positive campaigning, at least that’s what research has shown,” said Jean Harris, professor of political science at the University of Scranton. She noted that preliminary research shows negative campaigning has a particularly harmful impact on women’s voter turnout, a critical demographic in this year’s election.
Election spending has increased dramatically since 2010 when a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, deemed that money spent on electioneering, including by corporations, should be protected under the constitutional right to free speech and therefore unlimited. This ruling opened the floodgates for political action committees’ fundraising and spending, with the limitation that they must not work directly with election candidates.
“It’s quite unfortunate that this Citizen’s United case has led to this kind of spending on campaigns,” said Jean Harris. “They [the candidates] really can’t control the tone or what is stated and so it can become that much more hostile and negative and the candidates can’t be held accountable for it,” she added.
Registered independent Jenn Johnson-Hamer, 40, from Swoyersville, Pa, says the ads don’t work, “because most of them are just attacks on whoever their opponent is instead of actually telling you the benefits to vote for them.”
Bill Torbeck of Dunmore, Pa., who intends to vote for Bresnahan, says all the spending hasn’t changed his mind about anything. “Nobody likes the money going in, nobody agrees with it,” he said.
Total election spending is projected to top $15.9 billion nationwide this year, according to campaign finance tracker Open Secrets. In an election where the price of food and housing, the rate of inflation, and other kitchen table issues have dominated discourse, Republican and Democrat voters in Pennsylvania’s 8th district are questioning how that money could be better spent.
“I feel like there’s a little bit of insincerity in spending millions and millions of dollars to get yourself elected when realistically speaking that millions and millions of dollars would be better off being spent on the constituents in the districts they’re representing, because right now our lives kind of suck,” said Democrat Jason Belack from Avoca, Pa, adding that he thinks the money spent has very little impact.
West Pittston resident and Bresnahan supporter Stephen Marr is pragmatic. “It is what it is and until we have election reform, you’ve got to fight money with money,” he said.
Cartwright campaign spokesperson MG Darmody, when asked about the millions of dollars spent on both sides, said “Rep. Cartwright has spent his career standing up for working people.”
“The choice facing northeastern Pennsylvania could not be clearer.” she added. The Bresnahan campaign declined to comment.
