Governor Kasich Personally Directed Public Relations Firm With Task of Raiding Ohio Turnpike, Received $170,000 in Taxpayer Compensation To Spend Year Scheming Changes

Ohio Democrats Prevail In the Face of Republicans’ Unprecedented Attack Ads, Redistricting, and Record Campaign Lies

COLUMBUS  - On Election Day, Ohioans soundly rejected a Republican agenda built on extremism and lies, and delivered historic wins to Democrats. The people of Ohio spoke at the polls, clearly showing they want public servants that are responsive to their needs and who focus on making progress rather than simply pushing hyper-partisanship. Voters supported President Obama, Senator Sherrod Brown, and other progressive candidates because they put politics second and took care of Ohioans, most noticeably when Democrats boldly bet on Ohio and the American worker and rescued our auto industry.

“The 2012 election marks the first time since Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1940 victory that a presidential candidate received more than fifty percent of Ohio voters’ support twice,” said Ohio Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern. “And these historic wins occurred up and down the ballot, from the President, to the Senate, State legislative races, and even State Supreme Court. Senator Brown was able to overcome an unprecedented $40 million dollars spent against him in attack ads because of the infrastructure we put in place for him, and because he was simply right on the issues. Despite a redistricting period controlled by the opposing party where three of our State House incumbent seats were eliminated, we won races that were supposed to be out of reach, and overcame a 3-1 financial disadvantage to re-elect a Democrat to the State Senate. And for the first time in a generation, Democrats won a Supreme Court race that we were never thought to win.

Following a bruising 2010 cycle, the results of our efforts are incredibly clear. The Ohio Democratic Party is back, and anyone that stands in the way of progress, including Governor John Kasich, is on notice.”

Our victories proved that the Ohio Democratic Party is back, that we are strong, that we are united, and that we have the momentum. And this momentum will carry us to victory once more just two years from now in the critical 2014 elections.

HOW WE DID IT: Some Amazing Voter Contact Metrics

The Ohio Democratic Party, Organizing for America, and our coordinated campaign partners worked together in an unprecedented manner:

• Combined, OFA and ODP recruited and engaged more than 20,000 volunteers all across Ohio.
• We also sent more than 33 million pieces of mail supporting our candidates to homes across the state.
• We raised and spent nearly $50 million this cycle toward our effort to push Ohio forward.
• ODP/OFA hired more than 700 people in 5 regions across the state.
• During our 4 day GOTV effort, we filled more than 55,220 volunteer shifts.
• Overall, we attempted 16,261,643 voter contacts, and completed 2,713,898 conversations with Ohioans at the door or on the phone.
• This includes 4,183,534 attempts on the doorstep and 934,584 conversations on the doorstep, and 9,332,104 attempts on the phone and 967,385 conversations on the phone.
• Between the Ohio Democratic Party and the President’s Ohio campaign, more than 170 field offices were opened across the state with more than 750 paid staff dispersed to every corner of Ohio intent on securing victories for President Obama, Senator Sherrod Brown, and Democrats up and down the ticket.

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Secretly-Funded Attack Groups Have Spent More Than $30 Million On Ads Against Sherrod; More Money Than Any Senate Candidate In Country Has Faced

COLUMBUS, OHIO – Sen. John McCain, whose landmark campaign finance legislation was gutted by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United vs. FEC ruling – allowing secretly-funded third party groups to spend unlimited amounts on ads, without disclosing their donors – campaigned with special-interest darling Josh Mandel, yesterday.

When asked by the Toledo Blade to comment on the court’s ruling, and the torrential downpour of outside money keeping candidates like Josh Mandel competitive in races like Ohio’s, here’s what McCain had to say:

“I think it’s been a disaster. There is money coming in from places we never knew where it came from. And I guarantee you there will be scandals … and corruption, and then there will be reform.”

Secretly-funded special interest groups run by Karl Rove, the billionaire Koch brothers and other anonymous donors have spent more than $30 million on ads against Sherrod, on Josh Mandel’s behalf. No senate candidate in the country has faced a larger barrage of third-party money.

“There’s a reason that secretly-funded third-party groups have poured more than $30 million into Ohio airing false, negative ads against Sen. Brown in an effort to send Josh Mandel to Washington – it’s because they’re looking for a rubber stamp in Washington and they’ve found their man in Josh Mandel,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesman Andrew Zucker. “Mandel surrogates like Sen. John McCain are right – reform is desperately needed in order to prevent scandals and corruption through the same broken political rules that have kept Mandel competitive despite his opposition to the auto rescue, opposition to Sherrod’s bipartisan jobs bill that would punish China for cheating trade laws and the reality that he can’t be trusted to fight for Ohio jobs.”

COLUMBUS, OHIO – After refusing to directly state his opposition to the auto rescue for more than a year, even after calling Sherrod Brown “un-American” for leading the charge to pass the auto rescue package, Josh Mandel admitted during the first debate that he would have voted against the auto rescue had he been a U.S. Senator.

During the third debate, when asked if, under any circumstance, he would have supported intervention to rescue the auto industry and protect 850,000 Ohio jobs, Josh Mandel shockingly said:

“Back then I would have followed a different process. I would have allowed the private sector process to take hold like every day in America, that happens. And I believe, if we would have done that, these auto companies would have come out even stronger, and these blue-collar men and women who work for the auto companies would have come out more, would have come out stronger.”

WATCH: Josh Mandel Triples Down On Opposition To The Auto Rescue.

Despite the fact that General Motors, Chrysler, Ford and virtually every newspaper in America have stated repeatedly that there was no private financing available to allow GM and Chrysler to restructure, this is now Josh Mandel’s argument – that doing nothing would have better protected 850,000 Ohio jobs… which were protected as a result of the auto rescue.

“Josh Mandel is more than happy to defend the jobs of the unqualified political cronies staffing his Treasurer’s office, but when it came down to the auto industry, Josh would have voted to let it die without a single care for the 850,000 Ohio workers whose jobs it helped to protect,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesman Andrew Zucker. “Josh Mandel knows full well that no private financing was available to extend to General Motors and Chrysler, and his ideological opposition to the auto rescue is the starkest example yet that he’s unfit to represent Ohio and can’t be trusted to fight for Ohio jobs.”

BACKGROUND

Former GM Vice Chairman:  “The Banks Were Even More Broke Than We Were.  Who Had The Money?”  In February 2012,The Detroit Free Press wrote “Former General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz on Friday sharply criticized Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, defending the rescue of GM and Chrysler as a ‘necessary government intervention.’  ‘He thinks we didn’t try’ to borrow money from the banks, Lutz said. ‘The banks were even more broke than we were. Who had the money?’”  [Detroit Free Press,2/18/12]

Bipartisan Congressional Oversight Panel:  Private Financing Was Not Available For General Motors And Chrysler In 2008.  In October 2012, The Los Angeles Times wrote “The bipartisan Congressional Oversight Panel, the government-appointed watchdog for the $700-billion Troubled Asset Relief Program … said in a January 2011 report that private financing was not available for General Motors and Chrysler in late 2008. The panel said ‘the circumstances in the global credit markets in November and December 2008 were unlike any the financial markets had seen in decades. U.S. domestic credit markets were frozen in the wake of the Lehman bankruptcy, and international sources of funding were extremely limited.’”  [Los Angeles Times, ellipses added, 10/22/12]

Without Government Financing, Chrysler And GM Would Have Been Forced To Cease Production, Close Their Doors And Lay Off Virtually All Workers.  In a February 2012 op-ed published in The New York Times, longtime Wall Street Executive and lead adviser on the Obama administration’s auto task force, Steven Rattner, wrote “In late 2008 and early 2009, when G.M. and Chrysler had exhausted their liquidity, every scrap of private capital had fled to the sidelines.  I know this because the administration’s auto task force, for which I was the lead adviser, spoke diligently to all conceivable providers of funds, and not one had the slightest interest in financing those companies on any terms. If Mr. Romney disagrees, he should come forward with specific names of willing investors in place of empty rhetoric. I predict that he won’t be able to, because there aren’t any.  Without government financing — initiated by President George W. Bush in December 2008 — the two companies would not have been able to pursue Chapter 11 reorganization. Instead they would have been forced to cease production, close their doors and lay off virtually all workers once their coffers ran dry.”  [New York Times, op-ed, 2/24/12]