Gerry Lenfest is Tom Corbett’s Second-Biggest Donor

The Inquirer reports that Gerry Lenfest—one of the paper’s co-owners, for now at least—has given $250,000 to the re-election campaign of Gov. Tom Corbett.

The generous gift to the embattled incumbent Republican drew notice because, in the political world, Lenfest is known mostly as a supporter of Democratic politicians. After all, he was the majority bankroller of the mayoral campaign of U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.) in the 2007 cycle.

Lenfest, who is part-owner of the company that publishes The Inquirer, said in an interview Saturday he gave to Corbett because the governor approved a $30 million grant for the proposed Museum of the American Revolution from the state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program.

Lenfest has been a major fund-raiser and donor to the $375 million center, and in 2009, he pledged $5 million, in addition to the $5 million he had already given, to see it become a reality.

In fact, there’s already a lot of money floating around the Pennsylvania gubernatorial campaign:

Corbett raised $6.8 million, with his biggest contributions from Philadelphia cable TV mogul and philanthropist H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest and the Washington, D.C.-based Republican Governors Association, which is headed by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Lenfest gave $250,000 and the RGA gave $210,000.

Among the Democrats, state Treasurer Rob McCord raised $6.6 million, including 2013 activity in another political committee, $1.3 million left over from his 2012 campaign for treasurer and $1.7 million in personal loans.

U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz reported just over $6.5 million in contributions. … Democrat Tom Wolf, a York businessman, chipped in $10 million of his own money on his way to raising more than $13 million — far more than any of the other candidates.