Shapiro outraises Mastriano in final weeks of campaign

Democrat Josh Shapiro’s campaign spent a staggering $28 million on his bid for Pennsylvania governor over the past three months, new campaign finance reports show. 

That total eclipsed spending by Republican nominee Doug Mastriano, who has struggled to amass support from high-profile donors despite national attention on the race.

Reporters Stephen Caruso, Angela Couloumbis, and Katie Meyer have more insights into the latest campaign finance filings. 

As part of our commitment to covering this critical election and making sure Pennsylvanians are informed, Spotlight PA this week launched a new Election Center website. It features a voter toolbox with key dates, an interactive sample ballot, a campaign finance tracker, and a form to get in contact with our reporters.

It also includes a link to our issues coverage, including a new explainer of where Mastriano and Shapiro stand on crime and justice issues, and our comprehensive voting guides, including this one on how to become a poll worker. 

Also, Charlotte Keith explains how to apply for a Pennsylvania property tax rebate or rent rebate. As her most recent investigation showed, fewer people are qualifying each year because of stagnant income limits.
 

"It’s a transparency bill. I can suck up my dislike for the man."

—State Sen. Katie Muth (D., Chester) on her support for accountability legislation introduced by GOP gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano

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» A complete guide to Spotlight PA’s investigations of Pennsylvania’s flawed medical marijuana program

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Our monthslong investigation into employment protections for medical marijuana patients began with an email about a failed drug test.

After a drug screening indicated he had used marijuana, Philadelphia Gas Works employee Todd Douglas told me he faced a troubling choice: Give up a doctor-approved drug that provided pain relief, or risk his job. As our reporting explained, Douglas fought the drug test and won. Other medical marijuana patients weren’t so lucky.

When I started working on the investigation, two questions surfaced: How many people find themselves in Douglas’ situation? And what happens to them?

There’s no simple answer, but I used a number of techniques to understand the issue. I interviewed a lot of advocates and attorneys, of course. But I knew not everyone would want to talk — and confidentiality agreements could pose problems for some if they did. We wanted to understand those situations, too.

I analyzed about 20 medical marijuana employment cases, filed dozens of open records requests, and reviewed thousands of pages of public records. All of these steps were necessary to understand how decisions made by lawmakers in Harrisburg and Washington, D.C., affect hundreds of thousands of patients across the state. Here's a look at some of the tools we used to understand the scope and the stakes in Pennsylvania.

Federal court lawsuits: RECAP Archive is a searchable collection of millions of documents from federal court cases. I used the collection to find Pennsylvania lawsuits with the phrase “Medical Marijuana Act,” which netted about 30 cases. I then read each case to figure out whether the dispute was over an employment issue. That narrowed the pool down to about a dozen. 

RECAP didn’t have all the case records, so Spotlight PA paid for additional documents directly from the federal court system. The records we bought are now available on RECAP for anyone to view for free. 

State court lawsuits: The state’s court system lets you search the content of opinions from appellate courts, so I looked for ones with potentially relevant phrases. Searching for “Medical Marijuana Act,” for instance, led to more than 60 results. I then went through each case and found a few that dealt with workplace issues, including the rights of medical marijuana patients to collect unemployment benefits. 

Open records requests: Most of the employment disputes I found in court records involved private companies, but some included public agencies.

I obtained employment records, drug and alcohol policies, and even a few settlement agreements using the state’s Right-to-Know Law. In one of those cases, a fired worker agreed to keep the settlement “strictly confidential” — or face legal action.

What’s next: We’re still investigating. I’ve recently heard from doctors, patients, and others who described problems with the state’s medical marijuana program. And I want to hear from more. You can reach me at emahon@spotlightpa.org or at 717-421-2518.

I’ve stayed in touch with Douglas, too. The day the investigation was published, he wrote to me that it was “tough to see other people being jammed up over this.” He hopes his story can help patients get some clearer protections. —Ed Mahon, Spotlight PA

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