The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) highlighted how Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) and his family have engaged in “cynical self-dealing” and “graft.”
Casey first ran for Senate in 2006 on a “wave of reform,” promising to “end a culture of scandal and self-dealing” in D.C. Casey then unveiled an ethics plan at the restaurant formerly owned by disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Now, Casey is fighting to get reelected for his fourth term in office, where he will face questions about his family’s relationship with his official position as senator. NBC News reported:
There’s a brother who registered to lobby for a semiconductor manufacturer soon after Casey supported a bill to expand opportunities for the industry. There’s another brother whose law partner helps Casey recommend federal judges and whose firm’s employees have donated more than $225,000 to Casey’s campaigns, according to Federal Election Commission documents. And there’s a sister whose printing company has received more than a half-million dollars’ worth of work from Casey’s campaigns, records show.
The NRSC is now highlighting this relationship between Casey’s family and his work as the senior senator from the Keystone State.
“It’s called the Casey Cartel. Because, like Biden, Bob Casey gets elected, and his family gets richer,” an ad from the NRSC states.
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The NRSC also launched CaseyCartel.com, which aims to highlight many of these reportedly troubling concerns.
“Bob Casey and his family have displayed a pattern of corruption that should infuriate Pennsylvanians,” NRSC spokesperson Philip Letsou said in a written statement. “Pennsylvanians are struggling to get by but career politician Bob Casey’s top priority seems to be enriching his family.”
The New York Post wrote in March 2023:
Sen. Bob Casey’s campaigns have funneled more than half a million dollars to a printing company owned by his sister and brother-in-law, raising ethics questions about a family business arrangement spanning more than 20 years. Casey (D-Pa.), 62, has spent more than $500,000 on services from Universal Printing Company over the course of his nearly three-decade political career — more than $200,000 of which was paid between 2005 and 2022 by Bob Casey for Senate, Inc., according to Federal Election Commission filings.
Politico wrote in February 2023:
CASEY’S BROTHER REGISTERS TO LOBBY: Patrick Casey, the brother of Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. Bob Casey who joined Dentons Global Advisors Government Relations last year as a partner, registered to lobby in the fall, and reported lobbying the Senate on issues ranging from implementation of the CHIPS and Science Act to online travel policies last year, disclosures show.
The senator has championed the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act to produce more semiconductors in America.
Casey said in a recent ad, “Ninety percent of our advanced semiconductor chips were being made in Asia, creating havoc in our supply chains and raising costs. That’s why I worked with Republicans and Democrats to pass the CHIPS and Science Act — to produce our own chips right here in America.”
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However, according to a recent release detailing CHIPS Incentives Awards, the Keystone State was not one of the recipients of the grants to help produce more semiconductors in the state.
“Not a single chips plant has been announced in PA — no semiconductor plants, no hydrogen hub for western PA. Casey did nothing to get [the CHIPS and Science Act] passed and did nothing to get any chips produced in PA,” a staffer for Dave McCormick, the Republican challenger to Casey, said in a statement in June.
The Post explained in August 2023:
Sen. Bob Casey’s political campaign has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from his brother’s personal injury law firm over the past 15 years — and the lawmaker has tapped one of its partners to help him nominate federal judges. Attorneys and staff at Philadelphia-based Ross Feller Casey, LLP, have donated $222,566 to Bob Casey for Senate since 2008, federal election filings show, of which more than $85,000 arrived this past April — the largest contribution to date…Casey (D-Pa.) also has twice picked one of those partners, Robert Ross, to co-chair a panel that helped confirm dozens of federal judges in the Keystone State.
Broad + Liberty wrote in October 2023:
In May, Sen. Bob Casey celebrated $200,000 in grant funding to a health and human services nonprofit near Scranton — one that has used Casey’s brother-in-law as a state-based lobbyist. While there’s no evidence that the relationships involved an improper quid pro quo, it’s yet another example of Casey’s family relationships intersecting with his regular business as a senator. It’s the kind of intersection that could be viewed as even the appearance of a conflict of interest, an appearance which most elected officials studiously strive to avoid.
“Bob Casey promised to change Washington. Two decades later, it’s clear Washington has changed him. The Casey Cartel’s decades of graft and cynical self-dealing are catching up to them and voters don’t like what they see,” Letsou said.