Doylestown Dems’ public fundraising relationship with local business reveals double standard

For three months after a state investigation led Doylestown Democrats to refund campaign donations from three businesses, the party continued to advertise its fundraising partnership with one of them. 

Philadelphia-area companies have faced intemperate backlashes over far more tenuous — and legally sound — dealings with Republicans and conservatives. 

Earlier this year, the Doylestown Republicans filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Department of State’s Bureau of Campaign Finance and Lobbying Disclosure over the Democrats’ acceptance of $1,700 in total from three small businesses in 2024. In response, the state agency confronted the local Democratic committee, which represents party members in Doylestown Township and Doylestown Borough, about the contributions. The party consequently returned the money to the corporate donors. 

Article XVI of the Pennsylvania Election Code states, “It is unlawful for any… corporation, incorporated under the laws of this or any other state or any foreign country or any unincorporated association, except those corporations formed primarily for political purposes or as a political committee, to make a contribution or expenditure in connection with the election of any candidate or for any political purpose whatever except in connection with any question to be voted on by the electors of this Commonwealth.”

Two weeks ago, the Doylestown Republicans filed another complaint with the state campaign finance office alerting it to the Doylestown Democrats’ persistence in advertising the party’s financial cooperation with Evolution Candy in downtown Doylestown.

“Evolution Candy now carries Doylestown Democrats Candy!” a page on the Democratic Party’s website read. “Doylestown Democrats have partnered with Evolution Candy… to help raise awareness of our Democratic values… and raise some money! When you buy a bag of candy. [sic] 50 cents goes to support Doylestown Democrats. Show your support for us and a local business that shares our values!”

The Democrats’ failure to take the page down for an extended time period does not prove that the arrangement with the candy shop continued after the commonwealth concluded its initial investigation in March. Neither Evolution nor the party responded verbally to requests for comment; the Democrats removed the webpage shortly after The Independence emailed them last week. 

While a local for-profit entity proudly announced it was backing Democrats, leftists publicly and furiously denounced other area businesses merely for serving as venues for Republican and right-leaning groups. A bar, restaurant, hotel, or other commercial enterprise renting space to a political organization is a common and nonpartisan practice.

Yet, when Conshohocken Brewing’s King of Prussia location rented space to the Montgomery County Republican Committee in 2019, numerous liberals caterwauled online about the brewery’s decision and promised not to visit it again. The bar quickly promised to reject any future rental requests from political associations. 

“Conshohocken Brewing Co. and it’s [sic] 150 plus employees strive to promote the values of inclusion, diversity and respect,” the brewery said in a statement at the time. “Given the current political climate and to ensure we keep with those values, Conshohocken Brewing is no longer reserving space to political organizations, regardless of party affiliation.”

The Montgomery County-based news site MoreThanTheCurve editorialized that progressives’ bitterness over Conshohocken Brewing’s rental to the GOP and the bar’s backpedaling in the face of cancel culture was “a sad state of affairs.” 

Montgomery County leftists squealed again in 2023 when the Lansdale-based Local Tap served as a venue for a regional chapter of the conservative Moms for Liberty. Complainers condemned the bar’s owner for appearing in a photograph with many of the group’s members, but Local Tap has also reportedly allowed left-wing nonprofits to use its space for events.

One man took to a Lansdale-oriented Facebook page to blast the Moms for Liberty members as shrill, officious women who “would all like to speak to the manager,” perhaps not appreciating that comment’s irony. One woman remarked, “What in the live laugh love is this atrocity[?] Won’t be supporting Local Tap anytime soon[,] that’s for sure.” Two hundred and twenty-eight other comments also appeared on the same post, almost all of them negative. 

Regarding Evolution Candy’s political action on behalf of the Doylestown Democrats, Doylestown Republicans Communications Chair Ed Sheppard said he doesn’t blame the neighborhood sweets shop for making an unlawful donation. After all, small merchants don’t typically pore over the Election Code. 

“Local retailers, they’re usually small businesses owned by one or two people,” he told The Independence. “These folks are not experts on campaign finance law. It’s really on the party for approaching a retailer to do something that the party should have known was illegal, because I’m not expecting a candy shop to know the ins and outs of campaign finance law; their job is to run that business and provide those products to the community, so I don’t blame them.” 

Sheppard’s view of the Democratic committee’s behavior is a different story.

“It’s fairly obvious that when the elected Democrats in Doylestown see a resident or business with money, they won’t rest until, be it by tax or donation, that money is in their pocket,” he said, referencing the property tax increases that new Democratic Chair Judy Dixon and her colleague Dan Wood supported as Doylestown Township supervisors.

Bradley Vasoli is the senior editor of The Independence.