THE NEW MATH, CONTINUED FROM PG. 09
PofE T the
NOV. 29 thru DEC. 2, 2012 26 COOKIE TOUR STOPS indicated on map below with black spots.
11 TAKE A BREAK STOPS
WEEK
indicated on map below with gray dots.
UNIQUE HOLIDAY GIFTS to pick up or add to your wishlist.
COOKIE MALL Saturday bake sale to benefit community groups
For more information or to download
a tour map, please visit www.lvpgh.com More questions? Call 412.683.6488.
2012 TOUR MAP THIS IS A FREE & FAMILY FRIENDLY EVENT!
Trolley stop & limited parking: Sat. only.
SAMPLE COOKIES while supplies last. Cookie Stop hours vary by location. SPONSORED BY
Kasper This adoptable Tabby gets along with dogs and other cats. He likes to help out in Animal Friends’ offices, especially when he gets to sit in a lap!
Cookie Mall, trolley stop & limited parking: Sat. only.
10
PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 11.21/11.28.2012
Fatimah Muhammad
tainly creates a perception of broad-based strength where it may not exist: It looks like support from all these very idealisticsounding names, when they may just be subsidiaries of a parent group.” And the problem with such “crypto-PACs,” as Kaufmann calls them, is “you have a PAC called Citizens for a Glorious Pennsylvania, and all you have is a treasurer’s and a president’s name, so you don’t know much about it.” Malcom Glenn says the proliferation of such committees reflects a broad coalition of voucher supporters. “These organizations are part of a broader reform movement, and some have a more specific focus,” he says. Joe Watkins, who founded Students First in 2010 and left it earlier this year, agrees. “I don’t think it’s unusual for political-action committees to support other groups,” he says. “Different groups work with different populations.” But the voucher groups seem especially close-knit. For example, state records show that Commonsense and the “For a Better PA Fund” share the same chairperson: Sheila Flickinger. Flickinger is a staffer at the state House Republican Campaign Committee; she did not return calls for comment. And the network features some strange bedfellows. In August, for example, the “Democrats for Education Reform” reported giving $10,500 to another new group, the Association of Concerned Taxpayers, which CONTINUES ON PG. 12
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is a Harrisburg lobbyist, Patricia Welty, but she directed calls to Fighting Chance’s spokesman, Jamie Santora. Santora did not return calls for comment. But Students First and Fighting Chance both give money to many of the same politicians — and to an array of smaller PACs, many of which were established only this year. Those new groups have cryptic names like Public Education Excellence, For a Better PA Fund and Commonsense for the Commonwealth. City Paper reviewed records for nine such groups: Students First and Fighting Chance were the largest, if not the only, sources of support for all of them. Most of these groups were comparatively small, and concentrated solely on the Roebuck/Muhammad race, but others are active statewide. State Rep. Mark Mustio (R-Moon), for example, received $9,000 from three different groups: Students First, Fighting Chance and Commonsense — even though the latter two organizations rely almost entirely on the first for their funding. In all, the groups tracked by City Paper have contributed more than $1.5 million to 157 state politicians. Nearly all were legislators, though Students First gave Gov. Tom Corbett $25,000. Nearly three dozen statelevel politicians received $10,000 or more; eight of them received more than $50,000. Those totals don’t include polling and other expenditures — including mailings like those attacking Roebuck — that could benefit favored candidates, but which can’t be traced through state records. Contributions to Republicans outweighed those to Democrats by $806,500 to $742,080; most Democratic recipients were black officials from the Philadelphia area. (Many are said to have political ties to Williams, though he declined comment.) Shifting money around between committees “isn’t illegal, but ‘shell game’ might be a good description,” says Barry Kaufmann, executive director of Harrisburg watchdog group Common Cause. “It cer-
Trolley stop & limited parking: Sat. only.