In 16th, Merkl-Gump gets $195,000 boost from state Senate Democrats
Senate Democrats in Harrisburg are throwing their support behind Bradley Merkl-Gump in the 16th Senate District race, giving his campaign nearly $195,000 in cash and in-kind contributions to help him win Tuesday’s primary and take on incumbent Republican Jarrett Coleman in November.
The infusion put Merkl-Gump, a Bucks County teacher and school board member, far ahead in fundraising of Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley, his May 19 Democratic opponent.
Pinsley’s latest state campaign finance report lists a $1,000 contribution from the International Union of Elevator Constructors Local 84 PAC and $8,860 from the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, which he said he will donate back in return for the production of campaign materials. He also said he transferred about $20,000 from his federal campaign committee, part of the money he had raised when he briefly ran in the 7th Congressional District race.
Meanwhile, Coleman, who is unopposed on the GOP ballot in seeking his second four-year term, grew his cash holdings to $1.1 million this spring and had $551,843 left as of May 4 after expenditures, according to a campaign finance report filed with the Pennsylvania Department of State. His campaign finance page also contains notice of a $40 fine for filing his report on May 12 – past the May 8 deadline.
Overall, Merkl-Gump raised $204,883 in cash with the bulk of those contributions coming from political committees tied to Senate Democrats as well as from the state Democratic Party, according to his campaign finance reports.
The Senate Democratic Campaign Committee gave Friends of Bradley Merkl-Gump $100,000 in cash and $24,928 worth of in-kind donations as of May 4 for media buys.
His campaign received an additional $70,000 in cash from the campaign committees of seven state senators, including $20,000 from Bucks lawmaker Steve Santarsiero (10th), $10,000 each from Senate minority leader Jay Costa (43rd), Christine Tartaglione (2nd), Vincent Hughes (7th) and Maria Collett (12th) and $5,000 each from Lehigh Valley lawmakers Nick Miller (14th) and Lisa Boscola (18th). Costa, Santarsiero, Tartaglione, Hughes, Collett and Miller are members of the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee’s caucus.
Meanwhile, the state Democratic Party gave him $11,976 in cash and $76,390 worth of in-kind donations for the production and mailing of campaign materials.
His campaign spent $132,466 with $32,909 going to MDW Communications for digital buys and texting and a $91,494 donation going to the state party, essentially covering the costs of the mailers the organization produced for his campaign. He had $60,439 left on May 4.
The 16th extends from northern Lehigh County and along its western edge to upper Bucks County.
Merkel-Gump’s financial support from Senate leaders means they believe he has a better chance of defeating Coleman on Nov. 5 in a district where 46% of the voters are Republican, 35% Democrat and 19% independent or third party.
Merkl-Gump, 39, is a history teacher in Montgomery County’s Perkiomen School District. He was elected to the Pennridge School Board in 2023 when five Democrats won all five seats. The wins followed the board’s decision to hire a consultant linked to a conservative Christian college to rewrite the district’s curriculum. Democrats have since grown their board majority to 8-1, showing the base of support Democrats have in the area.
Pinsley has run in the 16th twice before. He had an unsuccessful bid in 2022, garnering 57,844 votes to Coleman’s 68,344 votes, and also fell short in 2018 against former incumbent Republican Pat Browne, who got 48,897 votes to Pinsley’s 46,200.
Pinsley noted he was twice elected county controller and was previously elected to the South Whitehall Township Board of Commissioners, proving his ability to win in Lehigh County.
Merkl-Gump’s Senate-related donations came in the wake of a straw poll taken in February by Democratic committees in Bucks and Lehigh on whether it would be best served to have one Democrat on the primary ballot.
At the time, Richlandtown Mayor Wayne Codner and Allentown business owner Juan Vargas also were in the race. They later dropped out: Codner because he didn’t see a clear path to victory, and Vargas due to time constraints involved in running.
In the end, the two committees did not back a candidate in the primary, which is the usual practice when an incumbent isn’t on the primary ballot.
The senators have no such obligation. Merkl-Gump’s campaign said he appreciates the senators’ backing.
“Bradley’s been honored to receive support from Democratic leaders who deeply understand the challenges our region faces, and see in Bradley a champion for lowering costs, fighting MAGA extremism, and standing up for working families,” campaign spokesperson Brendan Welch said in an emal.
Pinsley told Armchair Lehigh Valley that the Senate Democratic leadership tried to pressure him into not running.
“This is exactly how the establishment operates. They claim neutrality in primaries, then pick the winners and losers behind closed doors before voters ever get a say. They want a candidate who owes them, not one who owes the people in this district. The whole point of a primary is to let voters decide, not to let a handful of failed democratic party leadership in the capital decide for them,” Pinsley said in an email.
Merkel-Gump’s financial support from Senate Democrats, particularly Santarsiero, has become fodder for opposition mailers being sent by the newly formed Protecting Our Democracy.
The PAC is chaired by Joseph Calla, owner of Capital Vending Co. in Harrisburg, which supplies coin-operated amusement devices used in skill games. Douglas Rickards of Harrisburg is listed as the treasurer for Protecting Our Democracy and Operators for Skill, which gave Coleman $120,000 last year and $305,000 this year. Calla and Rickards could not be reached for comment.
Coleman is opposed to taxing skill games, saying in a July op-ed that such a levy would financially hurt social clubs that serve veterans.
In a series of fliers, Protecting Our Democracy urged voters against voting for Merkl-Gump, saying he was tied to “party bosses” and noting his support from Santarsiero. A flier mailed last week showed an image of the Israeli flag and called Santarsiero a “party boss” and someone who “puts Israel before Pennsylvania taxpayers.”
Under Pennsylvania’s campaign finance calendar, candidates and committees who spent money prior to May 4 were supposed to file reports. Protecting Our Democracy’s first flier was mailed at the end of April. The state department said it had not received a report from the PAC as of Friday afternoon.
Santarsiero issued a statement on Thursday calling the flier antisemitic and asking Pinsley and Coleman to denounce it.
“... the mailings have perpetuated a well-known antisemitic trope, accusing me – a convert to Judaism – of being an ‘Israel First” party boss, due to my support of the right of the Jewish People to have a homeland (for the record, I do not support either Benjamin Netanyahu or his right-wing government and do support the creation of a Palestinian state). The use of the term Israel First is antisemitic because it buys into the lie that Jews cannot be trusted to be loyal Americans, since their first loyalty is allegedly to Israel,” the statement said in part.
He said Pinsley refused to do so while Coleman has not responded. Coleman could not be reached for comment. Welch said Merkl-Gump agrees with Santarsiero that the mailer is anti-semitic, saying it is harmful.
Pinsley took issue with Santarsiero’s characterization of the mailer.
“As a Jewish American, I have not seen anything in this mailer that I would personally label antisemitic,” he said in an email.
He also said Santarsiero never reached out to him and that he denounced the mailers at a forum and in social media.
Charles Malinchak contributed to this report.