A political action committee supported primarily by Gov. Rendell stands accused of circumventing city campaign-finance rules and failing to disclose contributions to, among others, three of five Democratic candidates in the 2007 Philadelphia mayor's race.

The Philadelphia Board of Ethics went to court Tuesday to compel the PAC - Pennsylvanians for Better Leadership - to pay $30,000 in fines and amend its campaign-finance reports to show the missing information.

"You have a politically connected and well-funded PAC that has been operating outside of the law by failing to make the required disclosures," said Shane Creamer, executive director of the ethics board. As a result, he said, "The public hasn't had an opportunity to understand what this PAC has been doing."

The lawsuit, which the ethics board filed in Common Pleas Court, alleges 20 violations committed in 2007. The board did not allege any wrongdoing by Rendell, a Democrat, who donated $160,000 to the PAC in 2007.

Specifically, the suit cited 13 instances in which the PAC did not reveal $49,000 worth of donations it made to city, state, and federal candidates. Among them were U.S. Rep. Bob Brady (who received $5,000 on March 1, 2007); U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah ($2,000 on March 9, 2007); and state Rep. Dwight Evans ($10,000 on March 1, 2007). All were candidates in the Democratic mayoral primary.

The Lehigh Valley area's U.S. House members secured $11.4 million in spending projects in 2008 for clients of the PMA Group, an embattled lobbying firm under investigation for possible illegal campaign contributions.

The "earmarks," compiled by the government watchdog Taxpayers for Common Sense, came as the five members -- Democrats Patrick Murphy, Allyson Schwartz, Tim Holden and Paul Kanjorski and Republican Jim Gerlach -- collected a combined $90,000 from the firm's political action committee and its employees and their family members in the 2007-2008 election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

They weren't alone. The firm, whose offices were raided by the FBI last year and plans to cease operations in March, according to reports, gave $3.3 million to House members through its PAC and contributions from employees and their family members between 2001 and 2008, Congressional Quarterly reported Thursday.

Campaign money raised for local elections sometimes gets spent in unusual places -- like Europe.

Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato and Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl each spent money meant for electioneering on trips to Europe last winter, according to campaign finance reports filed this month. Both traveled with their wives, and tapped the money provided by supporters to cover costs not picked up by organizations that paid for official parts of the trip.

The $1,033 spent on European travel by Mr. Onorato's campaign, and the $1,911 by Mr. Ravenstahl's political committee, were the farthest-flung expenditures reported from a year that saw many local officials deciding how to use campaign funds to go to events like the Democratic National Convention. The disclosures also come on the heels of Mr. Ravenstahl's and Mr. Onorato's use of campaign money to go to Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa.