After it first came out in August 2024 that Falls Township Board of Supervisors Chair Jeff Dence (D) failed to disclose hefty campaign contributions, two things didn’t change: County election officials left him alone about it — and he kept getting money he would not report.
The Independence’s parent site Broad + Liberty discovered Dence disclosed none of $36,500 he received from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers’ federal political action committee since 2021. The IBEW PAC’s own campaign finance records show that amount has now grown to $53,200 because Dence has accepted new donations in the last sixteen months.
Despite state law requiring candidates to periodically list donations they receive, the Bucks County Election Board never contacted Dence about the issue, according to an open records request the county granted The Independence last December. The board is chaired by County Commissioner Bob Harvie (D), a former running mate of Dence’s who served alongside him as a Falls Township supervisor. Federal records show they once had a joint committee called Friends of Harvie and Dence.
Dence and former Falls Township Supervisor Jeff Boraski (D) are both members of IBEW Local 269 based in Trenton, New Jersey. That local is a subject of a multi-year inquiry by the Federal Bureau of Investigation into allegations that Falls officials delayed permitting at the IBEW’s behest to pressure businesses to hire union workers. In 2022, Levittown Now reported that Harvie testified before a grand jury convened as part of the probe.
From 2020 to 2024, Boraski neglected to file any campaign finance disclosures containing $27,850 in IBEW cash. County records show the election board finally contacted Boraski last year to direct him to file the reports. He did so, listing most (but not all) of the union’s donations, and stating he paid about two-thirds of the money he raised to himself as “reimbursements.”
The Independence filed a request for receipts showing the supposed campaign expenses for which Boraski “reimbursed” himself. After he asked the election board for an extension to respond, he missed his extended February deadline, and elections staff said they referred the matter to the Bucks County District Attorney. New District Attorney Joe Khan (D) did not respond to an email asking if he has also looked into Dence’s mounting campaign finance omissions.
Despite those omissions becoming public knowledge in 2024, the federal IBEW PAC gave Dence $10,000 more in December of that year and another $6,700 in November 2025. Just as he hasn’t reported this money as it comes in, he hasn’t described how he spends it, leaving the public in the dark about how he has benefitted from it.
Exactly how he accepted it in the first place is also unclear.
Though his current committee is called “Friends of Jeffry Dence,” the IBEW instead reported contributing to “Friends of Jeff Dence,” a separate PAC that was headquartered nearby but at a different address. In winter of 2021, Dence closed that committee. It’s therefore unknown whether Dence deposited the IBEW money into the same bank account associated with his defunct PAC or whether he put the cash in his current campaign account. Either way, state law obligates him to report the money.
Dence did not respond to an email asking about the donations. Neither did his campaign chair, Erin Mullen, a Democrat who serves as vice chair on the Falls Township Board of Supervisors. Neither did the IBEW itself. And neither did Harvie, despite the promises his Democratic Bucks County commissioners majority has made about improving the transparency of county campaign records.
“Since taking office in January 2020, this administration has sought ways to pull back the curtain on county government to make it more accessible for residents, taxpayers and voters,” County Commissioners Chair Diane Ellis-Marseglia (D) said in June 2024.
She then notified Bucks residents that all forthcoming campaign finance reports filed by local committees would appear online. That system is now up and running now, and it’s very informative — when candidates actually declare their campaign finance data.
This much, if little else, is clear: The IBEW has provided a torrent of money to Falls Township Democrats over the years, much more than would be typical in a municipality of about 35,000. Federal records indicate the labor PAC has given $250,700 to Dence’s campaigns since 2009 and $82,850 to Boraski’s since 2012.
As a point of comparison, federal records show since 2015, the same IBEW PAC has donated $205,750 to Shapiro for Pennsylvania, the committee for Josh Shapiro’s campaigns for attorney general and governor. Although the time window for the Shapiro donations is slightly smaller compared to Dence, the IBEW federal PAC has donated more to this small-town supervisor than it has to someone who would eventually wield the power of two of the commonwealth’s top offices.
Mullen and Tim Loteckie, the commissioner who succeeded Boraski, also have gotten substantial IBEW donations. So did Bob Harvie’s local committee, which federal records show took in $94,500 from the PAC since 2011. Two years earlier, the committee he shared with Dence got $9,000 from the union. Now a candidate for Congress hoping to unseat Representative Brian Fitzpatrick (R-01) in November, Harvie’s hasn’t received any money from the national IBEW through his federal campaign committee. That PAC did, however, get $250 from Friends of Jeffry Dence last August.
While Harvie’s campaign has thrust Dence’s problems into public discussion, the supervisor won’t see the issue subside next year. His current six-year term ends then, forcing him to decide whether to seek reelection.
Bradley Vasoli is the senior editor of The Independence.
