A new TV ad accuses Sen. Bob Casey of using his political office to enrich his family, challenging Mr. Casey’s corruption-fighter persona in one of this year’s marquee Senate races.
The ad by the Senate Republican’s campaign arm hit Mr. Casey, a Pennsylvania Democrat seeking a fourth term, for allegedly playing a central role in a “pay-to-play scheme” and other suspicious deals that netted hundreds of thousands of dollars to his siblings and their business enterprises.
“It’s called the Casey Cartel,” the narrator in the ad said. “Because, like Biden, Bob Casey gets elected, and his family gets richer.”
It underscores the high stakes in this year’s Senate races in which Democrats are fighting to preserve a one-seat majority. In Pennsylvania, polls show Republican challenger Dave McCormick gaining some ground but Mr. Casey maintains a commanding double-digit lead.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee’s ad pooled together a string of news reports about members of Mr. Casey’s family appearing to cash in on the lawmaker’s political clout. In 2022, Mr. Casey’s brother, Patrick Casey, registered to lobby the Senate on behalf of a semiconductor manufacturer, which Politico first reported. His brother’s disclosure statement noted that Patrick Casey’s work was focused on semiconductor policy in the U.S. and the implementation of the CHIPS and Science Act, which passed earlier that year with Mr. Casey’s support.
A spokesperson for the senator told NBC News that his brother did not lobby his office, and noted that Mr. Casey supported a 2007 law that prevents family members from lobbying Senate offices. The spokesman said Mr. Casey “abides by that law.”
Mr. Casey also received $255,000 in campaign donations from Ross, Feller, Casey, a personal injury law firm co-founded by his brother, Matt Casey, the New York Post reported. Mr. Casey also used the services of Robert Ross, another co-founder of the law firm, to lead committees to screen candidates for federal judicial nominations.
The same newspaper also reported that Mr. Casey’s various campaigns over the years, including a failed campaign for Pennsylvania governor, paid Universal Printing Co., a printing service owned by his sister Margi McGrath, about $600,000.
Hiring a family member is legal but only if the family member is providing a bona fide service and the payments are the fair market value of those services.
Another instance came last year when Mr. Casey celebrated $200,000 in grant funding to Maternal & Family Health Services in Pennsylvania, a nonprofit that listed his brother-in-law Patrick Brier as a state-based lobbyist.
The Philadelphia-based news outlet Broad + Liberty reported that Mr. Brier registered to lobby for the nonprofit six months before the grant was dolled out, but could only lobby at the state level.
The NRSC’s ad paints Mr. Casey in the same light as President Biden, who Republicans accuse of using his political clout to fuel business deals for his son Hunter Biden and other family members.
“Bob Casey promised to change Washington. Two decades later, it’s clear Washington has changed him,” said NRSC spokesperson Philip Letsou. “The Casey Cartel’s decades of graft and cynical self-dealing are catching up to them and voters don’t like what they see.”
The Washington Times reached out to the Casey campaign for comment.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
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