PHILADELPHIA — In early May, Republican Party insiders in Pennsylvania were scrambling behind the scenes to thin the field in the governor’s race and unify around a single candidate — anyone, basically, but Doug Mastriano. Money was transferred. A poll was commissioned.
Their thinking was that Mastriano, a state senator who assisted in Donald Trump’s attempts to reverse the outcome of the 2020 election, was too extreme and unseasoned to take on Attorney General Josh Shapiro, then the presumed Democratic nominee, in November.
The plan failed spectacularly. Mastriano, later endorsed by Trump, destroyed the eight other candidates.
But a lot can change in a few months.
On Wednesday evening, for example, a Republican leader from suburban Philadelphia who was at the center of those pre-primary machinations is holding a barbecue fundraiser for Mastriano.
And a conservative PAC bankrolled by billionaire Jeffrey Yass has booked about $9.3 million in television ad time, with the first round of ads targeting Shapiro. That group, too, had worked against Mastriano in the primary, spending about $13 million in a failed bid to stop his nomination.
Both developments are signs of a possible détente between Mastriano, 58, a retired Army colonel, and the Republican establishment — at least within the party’s pro-business, small-government wing.
Andy Reilly, a Republican national committeeman and former head of the Delco GOP, is co-hosting the Mastriano barbecue along with Liz Preate Havey, chair of the Montgomery County Republican Committee.
The menu: ribs, dogs, burgers, beer. Tickets: $100 to $5,000. Location: not without an RSVP first.
Reilly said on Tuesday that Republicans should “take a second look” at Mastriano, whom he described as a “straight shooter.”
“Doug is for limited government and protecting Pennsylvanians’ freedoms,” he said. “I do abide, for the record, by the old Ronald Reagan adage: that someone you agree with 80% of the time is your friend.”
While it is not at all unusual for party leaders to eventually support a nominee they’d opposed in the primary, the turnaround with Mastriano is particularly dramatic. Wednesday’s fundraiser is being coordinated by PA Opportunity PAC, chaired by Reilly. That same PAC paid for the last-minute poll to identify a Mastriano alternative in the primary.
In early May, as The Philadelphia Inquirer previously reported, Reilly wrote to people connected to the leading GOP candidates: “As of now we are looking at this being advisory. However, I believe it would be best to commit to go with the candidate who is closest to M [Mastriano] and rally behind him or her.”
On Tuesday, Reilly said he was acting as an “honest broker” among the other candidates, and was not personally spearheading the anybody-but-Mastriano scheme. He said his PAC funded the poll only after a disagreement over how the other candidates’ campaigns would split the costs.
Meanwhile, Mastriano is benefiting from new anti-Shapiro ads bought by a PAC affiliated with Commonwealth Partners Chamber of Entrepreneurs. In the primary, the group had backed former U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain for the Republican nomination before a last-minute switch to former U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta. McSwain finished third in the primary, while Barletta came in second.
The ad focuses on inflation and crime, and links Shapiro to President Joe Biden, whose approval rating has plummeted, calling them both “career politicians.”
An early poll shows Mastriano and Shapiro in a tight race, despite a significant imbalance in resources. Mastriano had just $400,000 in his campaign bank account as of June 6 while Shapiro had more than $13 million.
Mastriano, for his part, has made some attempts at healing intraparty wounds that are still fairly fresh.
Appearing on 1210-WPHT-AM Monday afternoon, he spoke about winning “a tough primary” while being “outspent 16-1″ by his fellow Republican candidates.
“I took a lot of hits from a couple of candidates with a lot of money, a lot of ads, a lot of mailers against Doug Mastriano,” he said. “I did keep the primary clean. I honored Ronald Reagan’s ‘11th commandment,’ that thou shall not speak ill of other Republicans.”
A review of now-deleted Facebook Live videos that Mastriano recorded before the primary undercuts that assertion.
In one video, he complains about “swamplike activities of some of the establishment folks” in Montgomery County, while in another he speaks of a “conspiracy from the swamp, from the establishment,” referring to the efforts to coalesce behind an alternative Republican candidate.
Other deleted videos feature Mastriano discussing a “corrupt” GOP establishment in Pennsylvania, and his belief that members of his party are working against him because they secretly “have this disdain and hate for veterans.”
The Mastriano campaign did not respond Tuesday to a request for comment about Wednesday’s fundraiser or the state of the race, nor has it responded in recent weeks to other requests from The Inquirer or most media outlets.
The nominee appears, however, to be taking some initial steps toward transitioning from a primary to a general election strategy, including on abortion, an issue he described during the primary as “the No. 1 issue.”
On WPHT, Mastriano seemed to temper his no-exceptions opposition to abortion. Pressed on the issue by radio host Dom Giordano, he complained about “messaging,” and insisted the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade left decisions about abortion up to the residents of the state and their elected representatives in the General Assembly.
“In many ways, my personal views are irrelevant in the effect that I can’t do anything with abortion because it’s codified in law,” Mastriano said, noting the procedure is still legal in Pennsylvania. “That’s in the hands of the people. That’s a fact. That’s not a dodge. That’s exactly how it works.”
Similarly, on Fox News last weekend, Mastriano told host Brian Kilmeade: “The issue of abortion is not up to Governor Mastriano. … The people of Pennsylvania get to decide what abortion and life looks like in Pennsylvania.”
Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, has vetoed three abortion bills during his time in office.
During an April debate, Mastriano said that his administration would “move with alacrity, with speed” if Roe was overturned and that he would start by signing so-called “heartbeat” legislation. As a state senator, he has introduced such legislation, which would effectively ban abortion after about six weeks.
The Republican-controlled legislature earlier this month approved a proposed constitutional amendment that would explicitly state the document doesn’t guarantee any abortion-related rights. If it passes again in the 2023-24 legislative session, it could go before voters as early as the May 2023 primary.
Mastriano’s primary win prompted the launch earlier this month of two independent-expenditure political action committees, run by Republicans, seeking to help Shapiro win in November.
A national super PAC, the Republican Accountability Project, said it will spend $2 million to oppose Mastriano. A state super PAC, Republicans 4 Shapiro, has denounced the Republican nominee as “unacceptable” and dangerous.
Mastriano has dismissed those groups with a common political slur, “RINOs,” or Republicans in name only, while claiming to have support from elected Democratic leaders who want him to defeat Shapiro. Mastriano made that claim twice this month, in a podcast and again in a Republican Party meeting, offering no details or proof either time.
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