At $82 million, Pennsylvania governor's race broke spending record

Reported spending in this year’s Pennsylvania race for governor hit a record $82.3 million, as the last two contenders filed their post-election campaign-finance reports.

Gov.-elect Tom Wolf, a Democrat, and his Republican rival, Gov. Tom Corbett, spent about $9 million between them in the final five weeks of the campaign, the reports show. Mr. Wolf spent $4.6 million and Mr. Corbett $4.3 million during that period.

Mr. Wolf outspent Corbett by $32.5 million to $28 million. Three losing candidates in the Democratic primary raised and spent just less than $22 million.

One number stood out in the latest reports: The $100,000 that Mr. Wolf’s campaign contributed to one of those Democratic rivals, Katie McGinty, three days after the Nov. 4 election. The payment erased her campaign debt.

A former state environmental secretary, Ms. McGinty will be Wolf’s chief of staff.

The governor-elect “didn’t want there to be an appearance of any conflict of interest or for Katie to have to spend time retiring campaign debt,” Wolf transition spokesman Jeffrey Sheridan said Thursday.

Mr. Sheridan said Mr. Wolf is asking donors to pay for the transition and will disclose their names, rather than using the $250,000 in taxpayer funds set aside for the purpose.

This year’s gubernatorial campaign surpassed the $69.6 million record set in the 2002 race, when Ed Rendell won a competitive Democratic primary and dispatched Republican Mike Fisher, then state attorney general, in the fall. Mr. Rendell remains the all-time individual campaign spending champion at more than $40 million.