The PL, the party of former president Jair Bolsonaro, has transferred R$ 91.6 million to its Senate candidates since the campaign began. The total is nearly double the R$ 48.2 million handed out by the PT, the party of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The figures come from a survey by Folha de S.Paulo published on Wednesday, based on the parties' campaign finance filings with Brazil's electoral court.
The PL money reached 30 candidates across 24 of Brazil's 27 states and territories. Folha reports it is the party with the most Senate candidates funded by its national leadership and the widest reach. The PT divided its money among 18 candidates in 15 states plus the Federal District. Nine of the 15 Senate candidates who received the most money from national party offices belong to the PL. The spending is concentrated in the Southeast: São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais account for nine of those 15 names.
The largest single transfer went to Simone Tebet of the PSB, who is running for one of São Paulo's two seats, with R$ 6.5 million. Close behind is André do Prado of the PL, a candidate in the same state, with R$ 6 million. The PL also holds the biggest slice of the Fundo Eleitoral, the public fund that finances Brazilian campaigns: R$ 881.7 million, about 17.8% of the total. The PT has the second largest share, R$ 615.4 million.
Why the Senate matters
Brazilians vote on October 4. This year 54 of the Senate's 81 seats are up for renewal, the largest number since 2018. Each state and the Federal District elect two senators, who serve eight-year terms. There are 315 candidates, 32 of them sitting senators seeking reelection. The PL fielded 33 names; the PT, 19, according to the news site Poder360.
Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro, the PL's presidential nominee, each want at least 34 allies in the chamber, Poder360 reports. That means the PT must elect 27 senators and the PL 17. Folha links the party's spending push to Bolsonaro's attacks on the Supreme Federal Tribunal, Brazil's top court. Advisers to Lula believe a right-wing Senate majority would raise the odds of an impeachment case against a justice and make it harder to pass the government's agenda, according to Poder360. The Senate's rejection of Jorge Messias, Lula's nominee to the court, exposed the weakness of the government's base in Congress.
Senate President Davi Alcolumbre has said the chamber "is not an organ of correction for the STF" and that opening impeachment proceedings against a justice would create "one more" problem for Brazil. No Supreme Court justice has ever been impeached in the country.
The accounting does not end on election day. Final campaign finance reports are due up to 30 days after the vote. Elected candidates who fail to file cannot receive their diplomas while they are in default, under rules cited by the g1 news portal.