PAC that spent $1.7 million in PA-7 Democratic primary may have violated campaign finance law, FEC complaint says
Lead Left PAC, which spent more than $1.7 million to influence the outcome of the 7th Congressional District Democratic May 19 primary, appears to have violated federal campaign finance regulations by spending money on ads created by two “shell companies,” according to a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission.
The complaint – filed May 14 by Campaign Legal Center, a Washington, D.C., democracy watchdog group – also references the PAC’s similar efforts in congressional primaries in Texas and Nebraska.
In total, Lead Left, which reportedly has Republican connections, spent more than $3 million over 20 days in May leading up to the primaries.
In the 7th District, the super PAC paid for TV ads and campaign materials to attack candidates Ryan Crosswell and eventual winner Bob Brooks while supporting Lamont McClure. McClure, who finished third behind Brooks and Crosswell, was unaware of the PAC or its intentions before the ads began. Federal election law prohibits a PAC from coordinating its expenditures with a candidate’s campaign. The PAC never mentioned the fourth candidate, Carol Obando-Derstine.
Suspected GOP-connected TV ad attacks Brooks, Crosswell, supports McClure
Lead Left’s website, which consists of one page, proclaims that “Lead Left PAC stands against MAGA extremists who will infect our country with Donald Trump’s agenda. … We will stop at nothing to keep Donald Trump from stealing our country from us.”
Despite the anti-Trump message, the PAC has Republican connections, according to news reports.
Punchbowl News reported on May 8 that Lead Left’s website contained metadata connecting it to WinRed, a Republican online campaign contribution portal.
Lead Left attempted to influence the 7th District primary as well as those in Nebraska’s 2nd District (May 12) and Texas’ 35th (May 26 run-off) by boosting underdog candidates to ostensibility make it easier for Republicans to win in November.
“What they seem to have in common are candidates that for one reason or another the folks behind Lead Left have identified as worthy of their support probably because they would present an easier choice to defeat … in the general election,” said Saurav Ghosh, the Campaign Legal Center’s director for federal campaign finance reform who filed the FEC complaint.
In seeking comment for this story, Armchair sent emails to Lead Left’s email addresses listed on its FEC statement of organization form. One email was returned as undeliverable, and the PAC did not respond to an email to the second one.
Lead Left’s ads and flyers alleged Brooks and Crosswell never stood up to Trump while McClure as Northampton County executive did. During the primary campaign, Brooks and Crosswell repeatedly criticized Trump and the 7th District’s Republican incumbent Ryan Mackenzie.
Brooks is a longtime union member and president of Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association. Crosswell was a federal prosecutor until 2025 when he resigned to protest the Justice Department’s decision to drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
The 7th District, which comprises Carbon, Lehigh and Northampton counties and a small portion of Monroe, is among a handful of districts nationwide that can determine which party controls the House in 2027. The election is considered a tossup.
A ‘bipartisan problem’
Ghosh said Lead Left follows a game plan typical of super PACs that “meddle” in elections by not disclosing contributors before an election.
That strategy is used by Republican and Democratic groups, he said in an interview with Armchair Lehigh Valley.
“This is an incredibly common tactic … It’s the kind of dirty trick to cover up who’s influencing elections,” he said. “The nature of dark money, the nature of using these kinds of tactics to conceal spending from voters, it’s a bipartisan problem. Certainly both sides have been engaging in this kind of activity.”
He explained how PACs use the system by taking advantage of campaign finance deadlines:
PACs register with the FEC close to an election and begin spending money to attack and/or support candidates. They file the required expenditure reports (known as 24- and 48-hour reports) in the days before an election. However, the next filing deadline for a report that includes income isn’t due until after the election. The next monthly deadline to report May’s income and expenditures is June 20.
Ghosh said voters don’t receive key information – who is funding the campaigns.
“All of that is information that voters have a right to know when they’re deciding how to vote, and this type of pop-up super PAC and the concealing of spending really undermines that fundamental right,” he said.
How Lead Left operates
Lead Left registered with the FEC as an independent-expenditure-only super PAC on April 24, about two weeks before the Nebraska primary and three weeks before Pennsylvania’s primary.
The address on its FEC organization statement is 2241 North Monroe St., #1447, Tallahassee, Florida, which is a Staples store; Staples offers a virtual mailbox – in this case #1447 – through iPostal1, which on its website says people can “register your business, create a professional image, and protect your privacy with a real street address in a location you choose.”
Tammie Cannon is identified as the treasurer, whose address is the same Tallahassee address as Lead Left. Cannon does not provide a phone or email address. The PAC provides two email addresses – leadleftpac@gmail.com and hello@leadleftpac.com.
On May 7, the PAC filed the first of 17 expense reports over three weeks that reflect a total of $3.1 million spent on three congressional campaigns.
The money for TV ads, campaign literature and text messaging went only to two firms – Piruzi LLC and OTG Media LLC, according to its FEC reports.
The Campaign Legal Center’s complaint said Piruzi was incorporated in Wyoming on April 10, two weeks before Lead Left registered with the FEC. Cannon, Lead Left’s treasurer, is also listed as Piruzi’s organizer and incorporator. The company has two addresses, one of which is the same Tallahassee address as Lead Left.
“Piruzi appears to have no online presence, is not a registered business in Florida and does not appear to have provided services to any other federal committee,” the complaint said.
OTG Media, the complaint said, was incorporated in Virginia on April 29 – five days after Lead Left registered with the FEC. A generic registered agent filed the paperwork; such agents are used when someone doesn’t want to reveal a personal or business address.
The complaint described Lead Left’s spending to newly formed companies as “a rapid-fire series of events that is simply not credible.”
Lead Left’s monthly FEC report for April is filled with zeroes for expenditures and income. The deadline for the monthly May report is June 20.
Ghosh said Lead Left’s failure to disclose income sources, while troublesome, is not illegal.
What may be illegal, he said, is how the money was spent.
“The complaint we filed actually focuses on the other side of the coin – the spending side – because that’s where we believe Lead Left actually violated the law,” Ghosh said.
He alleged Piruzi and OTG Media are “shell companies” that funneled the money to other companies who produce the ads and campaign materials. It’s highly unusual for new companies to provide the kind of campaign services the two companies did. By not revealing subcontractors, Lead Left conceals who does the work, he said.
“The biggest red flag is the fact that they are newly established LLCs that are reported providing this wide variety of services,” he said. “Most of the established users that do media placement [and] political consulting tend to work with one party or the other. So having the actual vendors reported on the FEC reports would provide a pretty big hint about who’s actually behind it,” Ghosh said.
The primary elections
No single factor affects an election. That said, only one of Lead Left’s candidates won.
In Nebraska’s 2nd District, political activist Denise Powell, favored by Lead Left, won the Democratic nomination over state Sen. John Cavanaugh by two percentage points in a three-way May 12 primary.
In Texas’ 35th Congressional District, Johnny Garcia won a May 26 run-off with nearly 64% of the vote to win the Democratic nomination over Maureen Galindo, whose candidacy was promoted by Lead Left.
And Brooks, who was attacked by Lead Left, won the 7th Congressional District Democratic nomination with 41% of the vote.
FEC at a standstill
The Campaign Legal Center asked the FEC, if it determines that Cannon as Lead Left’s treasurer violated the Federal Election Campaign Act, to levy civil penalties.
However, the FEC does not have a quorum – only two of the six commissioner positions are filled – so it cannot act on any complaint, Ghosh said.
President Trump earlier this year nominated two Republicans to serve as commissioners. The nominations sit with the Committee on Rules and Administration, which has yet to schedule confirmation hearings. If the two nominees would be approved by the Senate, the FEC commissioners would have a quorum.