Allegheny County Council races typically attract less attention (and less money) than contests for other local offices. But with a dearth of other high-profile contests on the ballot this fall, eyebrows have been raised at the five-digit sums being spent in District 4, where campaign-finance records suggest Democratic incumbent Pat Catena may face a surprisingly spirited challenge from Republican challenger Bob Doddato.
Doddato, an accountant and member of the North Fayette Township Board of Supervisors, has raised $43,000 as of mid-September — far surpassing the totals raised by any other Republican challenging for a council seat this season. On paper, Catena has raised $67,880 this year – but that total is swelled by $50,000 he loaned to his own campaign. Catena has raised just $17,880 from outside sources, less than half of Doddato’s haul.
“I was told from the get-go that if you’re challenging an incumbent and the county council president, you need to plan to spend $75,000,” Doddato said. That’s roughly on par with the campaign budget for an uncompetitive state House seat. “That was my goal.”
Since the last reports were filed, Doddato estimates his fundraising total has since risen closer to $50,000. It’s all going towards boosting turnout among likely Republican voters, he said.
“There is no county executive race, no governor’s race, no presidential race” on the ballot to bring voters to the polls, he observed. “It’s all about mobilizing voters, sharing about my records,” using mailers, signs, text campaigns, and digital ads. His campaign aims to send one to two pieces of mail per week in the lead up to the election.
Catena told WESA he wasn’t concerned by the fundraising disparity. He had a $17,000 head start thanks to money raised from previous campaigns, and said that “checks are still coming in.”
“I’m always in campaign mode,” Catena said. “Always out and about in the community.”
The community in question includes some of the county’s westernmost suburbs, such as Carnegie, McKees Rocks, and North Fayette. And since Catena last ran for the seat in 2021, its lines have been redrawn in a redistricting process following the last Census. According to one internal Democratic analysis, the newer district favors Democrats by roughly 6 percentage points – roughly half the party’s advantage under the old map.
‘We’re fighting for those votes’
By modern political standards, five-digit sums are laughably small: In the 2023 county executive race, the combined fundraising of the two major-party candidates eclipsed $3 million. But serving on council is a part-time job that brings with it an annual stipend of just $10,939 each year, and the District 4 totals are notably large compared to other council fights on the ballot.
In District 1 next door, another seat Republicans hope to flip, the candidates have so far raised only four-figure sums. The candidates running in a special election for an at-large seat representing the entire county have so far raised less than $30,000 combined.
But Republicans, who are currently clinging to just two seats on the 15-member council, see a chance to reverse a long losing streak in county government.
“We are on the ground there and we’re fighting for those votes,” said Republican Committee of Allegheny County chair Jason Richey.
He said Republicans are investing in local committees, whose members will door knock, canvas, and support candidates — and convince their neighbors to vote for Republicans.
Richey said. “We’re making sure that every municipality in Bob’s district has a ground game.”
And Republicans have money to spend. The party raised more than $365,000 as of June — nearly four times the Democrats’ $95,000 raised during the same period. The GOP has also been outspending the Democrats more than 2-to-1 so far this year.
Democrats have a sizable built-in advantage: a two-to-one advantage in voter registration countywide. But the GOP is trying to bring the fight to communities that haven’t seen much competition in the fall, fielding a slate of candidates in Pittsburgh city council races as well.
Tom Duerr, a Democratic campaign organizer and former county councilor himself, acknowledged Doddato had raised a sizable amount of money for a county council race. Still, he said, “I’m not sure if it’ll be enough to overcome the political environment we’re seeing this year.”
Duerr noted that Democrats have been outperforming Republicans in off-year elections, when overall voter turnout is lower. He said that toppling a Democrat would require bringing out a critical mass of Republican voters and convincing registered Democrats to vote against one of their own. That, he said, would cost six-figure expenditures — “an amount of money no one would ever donate to a county council race.”
Unions have been among the most active donors so far. Catena received $1,000 each from the Pennsylvania Laborers’ District Council and labor unions representing carpenters and cement masons, as well as $2,500 from steamfitters and donations in smaller increments from ironworkers, plumbers and Teamsters.
Meanwhile, Doddato also received some union support – the Laborers appear to have contributed $5,000 to him as well – but the bulk of his money appears to have come from area business owners, many of whom donated $1,000 or $2,500.
Doddato said he might invest some of his own money into the campaign before the race is over. But he says the fact that Catena did so means Democrats “sense a real threat. He knows this is serious. It’s going to be a tight race.”
Catena countered that the contest is “just a race,” and he was unfazed by the competition.
“I’ve been in politics for a long, long time,” Catena said. “I’ve had opponents before and I’m sure I’ll have opponents again.”
The election is Nov. 4.