Left to right: Steve Irwin, Jerry Dickinson and Summer Lee. (Photo illustration by Natasha Vicens/PublicSource)
A state lawmaker and a law professor who each owe student loan debt are going up against an attorney who owns four houses and a golf course.
by Charlie Wolfson, PublicSource
The Democratic primary election to replace retiring Congressman Mike Doyle is full of contrasts. The three-way race in the 12th congressional district features the moderate and progressive wings of the Democratic party, and a clash between Western Pennsylvania’s Democratic establishment and a wave of younger, diverse politicians who have gained momentum in recent years.
Three major candidates — establishment-backed attorney Steve Irwin, progressive state Rep. Summer Lee and Pitt Law professor Jerry Dickinson — will compete for the party’s nomination on May 17.
The candidates’ policy differences have been limited in debates and media appearances, but biographical differences have stood out. Among them: The candidates each live in dramatically different financial realities.
Irwin, a 62-year-old white man from Squirrel Hill, is far and away the wealthiest candidate in the race. He holds between $4.4 million and $17.9 million in assets, according to a financial disclosure he filed with the U.S. House, including several real estate holdings, bank accounts and retirement plans. (Candidates disclose each asset as a range, not a precise amount.) He disclosed a $240,000 salary from his law firm, Leech Tishman, and between $47,000 and $150,000 in income from rent and investments.
Irwin’s campaign declined an interview request for this story. Lee said in an interview that her election would be a necessary departure from the norm in U.S. government.
“Our government is typically run by rich white men. That’s just a fact,” Lee said. “We’re seeing the wage gap widening between the super-ultra-rich and the average American. We’re seeing a federal government that has not moved on the minimum wage in over a decade. We’re seeing housing inequality, we’re seeing a lack of investment in infrastructure … precisely because those folks are just not impacted by it.”
Lee, a 34-year-old who was elected to the state House in an upset in 2018 and would be Western Pennsylvania’s first Black congresswoman, disclosed no assets other than an undetermined payout from the state employees’ pension plan, and no income other than her $90,000 state House salary. She also owns a home in Swissvale, and public records show she bought it for $155,000 in 2021.
Dickinson, who ran unsuccessfully against Doyle in 2020 and would also make history as the region’s first Black congressman, disclosed between $16,000 and $65,000 in retirement accounts and a University of Pittsburgh salary of $165,000. He bought his Swissvale home in 2018 for $355,000.