Joe Gale Vs. Jeff Bartos II
Here Comes Another Smackdown
PoliticsPA reported on Wednesday (February 17) that “Jeff Bartos, a real estate developer who was the GOP Lt. Governor nominee in 2018, filed a statement of candidacy this week with the Federal Elections Commission for U.S. Senate.”
On Tuesday (February 16), serveral sources reported that Montgomery County GOP Commissioner, Joe Gale, had announced that he was running for governor, and that his younger brother, Sean Gale, had declared himself to be a candidate for the same U.S. Senate seat for which Bartos appears to be running (a seat currently held by Pat Toomey, who is not seeking re-election).
There has been little love lost over the last six years between Bartos and the Gale Brothers, although their disharmony didn’t erupt out into the open until 2018, when Bartos and Joe Gale were both seeking the GOP nomination for Lt. Governor.
At that time, Bartos had one huge advantage that helped him win the nomination over Gale. Bartos was old enough to serve as Lt. Governor (He was born in 1972), and Gale was not. Gale would not have turned 30 before the time of the Lt. Governor’s inauguration in January of 2019. And he was unable to convince a Commonwealth Court Judge that the Senate president pro tempore could handle the duties of Lt. Governor until Gale turned 30, in March of 2019.
Gale blamed Bartos for backing the legal effort (which Gale descirbed as a “frivolous and desperate attempt to violate my constitutional rights”) to remove him from the ballot.
2019 – A Series Of Coincidences Involving Jeff Bartos, Dark Money Funds and a Vicious Mail Campaign Against Joe Gale; paid for by mysterious donors.
In 2019, when Gale was running for re-election in the Republican Primary, he tapped Sean to be his running mate. Officially, the Montgomery County Republican Committee (MCRC) had declared the race to be an Open Primary (no endorsement), but that didn’t stop some of MCRC’s leadership from supporting the Gales’ opponents, Fred Conner and Dean Eisenberger.
Joe Gale came in second in that race, earning him the right to be one of the Republican candidates in the general election, but Sean got knocked out, running in fourth place. Fred Conner, who in Joe Gale’s eyes is also “of the swamp,” came in first.
That set the stage for Joe Gale and Conner, who even though theoretically, they were on the same team, to run against each other in the general election.
Ultimately, Gale succeded in taking third place in the general election, which was good enough for him to keep his job as Minority Commissioner.
Gale’s number one talking point during the general election, was about what he considered to be the dirty politics of the MCRC – that caused his brother to lose in the primary.
And there is some evidence that Gale’s allegations against the Liz Havey led MCRC (he still hasn’t stopped complaining about them) are justified.
As previously reported here, in August of 2020, SpotlightPA ran a story (“A Dark Money Mystery”) about the Pennsylvania Growth and Opportunity Fund. SpotlightPA described Growth and Opportunity (the fund) as “a dark money fund.”
The Spotlight article revealed public filings showing that in 2019, Lower Merion Commissioner Scott Zelov contributed $6,000 to the fund. They also reported that Jeff Bartos, from Lower Merion, who ran unsuccessfully for Lt. Governor in 2018, was on the fund’s board. A search of the Pennsylvania Campaign Finance Database shows that Bartos contributed $18,500 to the fund in 2019. SpotlightPA also called attention to a $15,000 contribution to the fund from the Horsham Republican Party. The Horsham GOP is led by Anthony Spangler. Spangler is also Secretary/Treasurer of the Montgomery County Republican Committee (MCRC).
It should be noted that in 2015, Zelov won the MCRC endorsement, but lost to Gale in the Montco GOP Primary for County Commissioner. Gale won that race by labeling Zelov a RINO, and by calling attention to Zelov’s support of Planned Parenthood. So Zelov might have had a score to settle against Gale.
And Bartos might have also had a score to settle with Gale. Just a week before the 2018 general election, Gale viciously attacked Bartos.
How do you figure that a sample ballot helped elect 3 Democrats to the Supreme Court? Not only do you assert this, but you do so in boldface. yet without any facts that support such a conclusion. Everyone on PA was deluged with mail, phone calls, TV and radio ads. What proof do you have that this one mailing swung an election?