“Astroturf Jane,” “Help Him With Fundraising,” And Opportunist: How Republicans Spent The Week Attacking Their #OHSEN Candidates
October 29, 2021
October 29, 2021
Happy Friday, and welcome to “Buckeye Brawl,” a weekly newsletter from the Ohio Democratic Party highlighting the nasty, chaotic, and expensive Republican primary for Senate. This out-of-control primary is making conservatives “deeply worried” about the prospects of Republicans losing this seat.
As the Republican Senate primary continues to sink lower and lower, these GOP candidates are injecting even more nasty personal attacks, more chaos, and more money into this race. We’re here to help you keep track of all of it.
Here’s what you may have missed:
NEVER TRUMPER AIRTIME. After months of J.D. Vance being called a “Never Trumper” by Josh Mandel (which we’ve documented), Mandel allies went on air with a nearly $1 million buy hitting Vance for his anti-Trump past. Moreno surrogate Ric Grenell said of the new Vance ad, “Don’t get duped, Ohio. Read his lips.” Mandel surrogate Brigitte Gabriel shared the ad, tweeting, “Never-Trumper JD Vance in his own words.” It’s almost like the nasty attacks from Buckeye Brawl went straight to TV!
TWEET DELETER. Matt Dolan decided to take a shot at Vance, who has famously deleted his anti-Trump tweets to cover up his record, saying that he doesn’t delete his tweets during the CCV forum Sunday. Dolan tweeted (forever, will not be deleted), “Unlike others, I don’t delete my tweets. I’m a transparent public official.” It’s ok, Matt, we would prefer you delete your tweets as well!
VANCE AN OPPORTUNIST? Mandel’s spokesperson Jillian Anderson defended the new Club for Growth ad that attacks Vance for his anti-Trump statements. Responding to a user who said he didn’t care about blind allegiance to Trump, she tweeted, “It’s not about aligning w Trump or not it’s about honesty vs opportunity.” We couldn’t agree more that Vance is a political opportunist who will do or say anything to win this primary!
SNARK AIN’T ENOUGH. Gibbons and Moreno camps had a back and forth during the CCV forum Sunday. First, Gibbons senior advisor Michael Biundo tweeted, “Bernie Moreno apparently has done everything first or is the only one to have done it. Lol.” Emily Moreno felt the need to respond, apparently tweeting, “Glad that you found the YouTube link from New Hampshire! Is this how you help your candidate? Snarky Twitter posts with zero likes or retweets? Free advice: help him with fundraising.” Biundo responded with “This only gets you 1%…” Both Gibbons and Moreno could use help fundraising since they both had to loan themselves millions of dollars each last quarter in order to continue their pathetic campaigns.
ASTROTURF JANE PAYS INTERNS TO STAND IN THE RAIN. Some Republican political consultant (?) thought it would be funny to tweet “Pays for interns to stand in the rain. Pays for tweets and endorsements from Bernie Kerik. Classic Astroturf [sic] Jane.” We think he’s referring to this tweet from Axios reporter Lachlan Markey, who tweeted, “On Aug 3, Ohio Senate candidate Jane Timken’s campaign paid $5k to ex-NYPD chief Bernie Kerik for “communications consulting.” That night, Kerik tweeted about her for the first time. Then he started talking her up on Ohio talk radio. Then he joined her for a “Back the Blue” rally.” The only way a millionaire like Timken can get support is buying it so this makes perfect sense!
RINOS ENABLING DEMOCRATS. Mandel debuted a new version of an old attack – that Vance and Timken are RINOs who are helping Democrats. He said in a Breitbart interview, “We need America First fighters who have the guts and the backbone to say that. No more of these squishy establishment RINOs who are enabling just enabling the left and the Democrat cheating in the elections.” Mandel continues to attack Vance and Timken and label them as establishment RINOs. In an interview with the Butler County Republican Party, Mandel said he is running to rid the Republican Party of RINOS like Jane Timken and J.D. Vance. He went on to call them both “squishy establishment RINOS” and said he wants them out of the GOP altogether. He’s said squishy establishment RINOs are attacking the Judeo-Christian bedrock and now they are helping Democrats apparently. Mandel sure won’t let up on this one!
Thanks for reading along – that’s all for the Buckeye Brawl this week. If you have questions, my email is [email protected]. Have a great Halloween weekend!