Uncategorized

Columbus, OH – This week, Bernie Moreno and Matt Dolan reported “multi-million dollar fortunes” as they battle it out in Ohio’s Senate slugfest. Donald Trump also continues to loom large over the field, threatening to throw more gasoline on the primary dumpster fire after Loser LaRose was caught defending Trump-nemesis Mike Pence. 

And it’s been another bad week for Frank LaRose, who continues to be dogged for being Ohio’s biggest loser at the outset of his Senate campaign after State Issue 1 “flopped” and is now being criticized for firing his official press secretary to gain political favor.

Here’s what you missed this week in what has already been called one of the “messiest, “most expensive” and “bruising” primary battles in the country. 

REPORTS SHOW BERNIE MORENO, MATT DOLAN “SITTING ON MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR FORTUNES”

Financial disclosures this week show Bernie Moreno is worth over a hundred million dollars, including properties in Costa Rica, New York City, Washington, D.C., and the Florida Keys – worth between $5.1 million to $24.7 million altogether. 

Disclosures also showed Matt Dolan is worth as much as $41 million and owns “two race horses that fall somewhere in the five to six-figure range.” 

DONALD TRUMP CONTINUES TO LOOM LARGE IN #OHSEN SLUGFEST

After State Issue 1 “flopped” and LaRose was caught red-handed defending Trump-nemesis Mike Pence last week, Donald Trump made it clear he’s watching the #OHSEN Slugfest closely and “any expectation of neutrality is misguided.” 

And this week, LaRose threw more gasoline on the primary dumpster fire when he fired his longtime, official press secretary after critical tweets surfaced about the former president. 

Reminder: Trump has consistently praised Bernie Moreno, who has also secured the J.D. Vance endorsement.

“REALLY, REALLY EMBLEMATIC OF FAILURE:” ONE MONTH INTO HIS SENATE CAMPAIGN, LAROSE CAN’T OUTRUN BEING OHIO’S BIGGEST LOSER

In the wake of State Issue 1’s failure and at the outset of his Senate campaign, Frank LaRose continues to be dogged as Ohio’s biggest loser. Here’s what Ohioans are reading this week about Loser LaRose.

Axios: “LaRose becomes political target after Issue 1 flop”

The Columbus Dispatch: “Secretary of State Frank LaRose put all of his chips on Issue 1… But his bet didn’t pay off. Now, LaRose is barreling into the 2024 U.S. Senate primary with the cloud of Issue 1 above his head.”

The Ironton Tribune: “Instead of barnstorming around the state in support of Issue One, the public would have been better served if LaRose had made his focus the logistics of the special election and conferring with counties to make sure they were in a position to carry out voting.”  

ABC: “But now, after voters defeated the Republican-backed ballot measure, LaRose is left searching for a new campaign message… ‘Anytime something you say is being used by the other campaign, anytime something you say is viewed as so productive that the other side’s putting it in their campaign ads, it’s really, really emblematic of failure,’ Niven said.”

Cook Political Report: “But it was LaRose, who officially announced his candidacy just three weeks before the vote, who became the face in favor of Issue 1. Now, his rivals on both sides are taking advantage… ‘I think LaRose has had a really rough couple of weeks,’ said one national Republican strategist.”

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: 

Cleveland.com’s Brent Larkin on Frank LaRose being Ohio’s biggest loser: “For Secretary of State Frank LaRose, the father of Issue 1, the damage may prove irreparable. The man charged with administering Ohio elections, now a candidate for the U.S. Senate, wasted about $16 million of our money in an attempt to disembowel participatory democracy. Some political humiliations last forever.”

###

Axios: “LaRose became the face of defeat in a 14-point drubbing that cost Ohio taxpayers $20 million.”

State Issue 1’s “flop” is looming over Frank LaRose’s early Senate campaign as he balances being Ohio’s biggest loser while being a “political target” for Republicans frustrated with his missteps and State Issue 1’s failure.
 
Bernie Moreno has criticized LaRose for how he mishandled State Issue 1 and said it was a “preview of what would happen with Frank LaRose at the top of the ticket in 2024.” Trump fundraiser Caroline Wren recently called LaRose’s involvement with State Issue 1 a “total disaster.” One Ohio conservative radio host called on LaRose to resign for “not paying attention to what the hell is going on with his job” while others have criticized LaRose for a “lack of cogent strategy,” and prioritizing his political ambitions instead of his day job.
 

Read more:
 
Axios: LaRose becomes political target after Issue 1 flop
Tyler Buchanan
August 16, 2023

• Republican Frank LaRose had a lot on the line when voters went to the polls on Aug. 8.
• Why it matters: The collision of LaRose’s professional and personal interests has made him a central target across the political spectrum following the demise of Issue 1.
• State of play: Just as Issue 1 was a proxy for November’s abortion rights amendment, LaRose’s support was a proxy for his Senate campaign hopes in 2024.
• Instead, LaRose became the face of defeat in a 14-point drubbing that cost Ohio taxpayers $20 million.
• Ohio Democrats are calling him “Issue 1’s biggest loser.”
• Fellow GOP Senate candidate Bernie Moreno’s campaign called the special election result a “preview of what would happen with Frank LaRose at the top of the ticket in 2024,” per NBC News.
• The Libertarian Party even filed a Hatch Act complaint with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel alleging LaRose’s support for Issue 1 was illegal because of his role as secretary of state.
• His office did not respond to Axios’ questions regarding whether LaRose would actively campaign against the amendment or support Issue 1 if presented another time to voters.

Bernie Moreno worth over a hundred million dollars, including millions in New York, Costa Rica, and Florida Properties; Matt Dolan worth over $40 million, including multiple dressage horses

Senate primary candidates Bernie Moreno and Matt Dolan are both “sitting on multi-million dollar fortunes” as they battle it out in Ohio’s Senate slugfest. 
 
This week, financial disclosures showed Bernie Moreno is worth over a hundred million dollars, which includes properties in Costa Rica, New York City, Washington, D.C., and the Florida Keys – worth between $5.1 million to $24.7 million altogether.
 
Disclosures also showed Dolan is worth as much as $41 million and owns “two race horses that fall somewhere in the five to six-figure range.” Dolan has already loaned his campaign $4 million this cycle after spending $10.6 million of his own money last cycle. 
 
Read more:
 
Cleveland.com: Moreno, Dolan sitting on multi-million dollar fortunes that could bankroll Senate campaigns, disclosures show
Andrew Tobias
August 15, 2023

• Dolan, a Republican state senator from Chagrin Falls, owns assets worth at least $14.5 million and as much as $41 million, according to a cleveland.com / Plain Dealer analysis of a report Dolan and other U.S. Senate candidates filed Monday. Dolan also reported roughly $750,000 to $2.1 million in business and investment income, mostly in the form of dividends, in addition to his $123,500 state salary.

• Moreno, who recently sold his chain of luxury car dealerships, meanwhile reported assets worth at least $25.5 million and as much as $105.7 million. Moreno also disclosed $10.6 million to $13.8 million in income, including $10 million he and his wife, Bridget, made selling Champ Titles, an electronic auto-titling business that Moreno recently said he sold to focus on his Senate run. 
• Dolan and Moreno’s personal financial situations are a sharp contrast with Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, the longtime incumbent Dolan and Moreno each hope to unseat in the November 2024 election.
• Dolan, meanwhile, has loaned his current Senate campaign $4 million, after loaning his campaign $2.6 million in 2022, when he finished third in the Republican Senate primary.
• Dolan’s riches mostly are in stocks and bonds, although he reported having $1 million to $5 million in cash, as well as an investment his wife, Jessica, made in two race horses that falls somewhere in the five to six-figure range. His largest individual investment holding was a stake in 422 Company, Ltd worth $500,000 to $1 million. He also disclosed owning a share of Madison Square Garden, a company owned by the extended Dolan family, worth $30,002 to $100,000.
• Like Dolan, Moreno also reported a wide range of stocks, bonds and mutual funds. Moreno also owns a significant amount of real estate, worth an amount ranging from $5.1 million to $24.7 million. Moreno’s property holdings include a tract of land in Costa Rica worth $1 million to $5 million, and ownership shares of homes in Avon, Columbus, New York City and Washington, D.C., as well as a stake in a home in the Florida Keys worth $2.15 million to $10.75 million.
• Moreno’s report, meanwhile, lacks several memorable assets contained in his last financial disclosure in 2021, including a home in the Bahamas worth $5 million to $25 million and a boat worth $500,000 to $1 million. Moreno, who helped organize a 2018 conference in Cleveland that touted blockchain technology that’s the underpinning for cryptocurrency, no longer owns any Bitcoin, after he previously reported owning an amount worth $100,001 to $250,000.

Columbus, OH – This weekend, Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters was featured on MSNBC’s The Katie Phang Show and American Voices with Alicia Menendez to discuss last week’s victory on Issue One and to look ahead to the stakes of the November election. 

Watch more below from Chair Walters: 

The Katie Phang Show:

On Issue One:
“Ohio voters are supportive of restoring Roe in Ohio. And while Trump did win the state twice, we also know there are other trends at play in Ohio that show that every state in the Midwest, every state in the country is worth fighting for, especially when our democracy is at stake. That’s what Ohio voters did on Tuesday, they showed up and said we won’t go back, we are going to protect our democracy, we will fight to enshrine abortion rights in our state constitution. So on Tuesday we won an important battle, in November we are going to be ground zero for abortion rights in this country.”

On the November election: 
“We have to protect our rights and our freedoms, from our democracy access, all the way to abortion rights to voting rights. All of these flights are intertwined. But most importantly, I think what we see from Republicans is there is nothing they won’t stoop to, to force their extreme policies on Ohioans, on voters across the country. We know that the majority of Ohioans support abortion access, we know that a majority of Ohioans support restoring Roe and believe these same out-of-touch politicians who tried to strip us of our voice at the ballot box also do not belong in the doctor’s office making decisions for Ohio women. So at the end of the day, we take these fights one at a time, as they come. But we know that the tried and true strategy of the Ohio Republican Party is that if you can’t win a fair fight, they try to change the rules. On Tuesday, Ohioans showed them they’ve had enough, and they said, we won’t go back, and we are going to stand firm for abortion rights in Ohio, and continue this work in November.”

American Voices from Alicia Mendendez:

On Issue One:
“We were excited about the outcome on Tuesday night and, to put it simply, what it showed us is that Ohioans care about their democracy. And at the end of the day, like people all across this country, we want fair elections and we want fair choices on important issues, and on this one in particular on abortion, but on everything ranging from labor rights to voting rights to redistricting, which are all at stake in Ohio, both in this election last Tuesday but in the months and years ahead.”

On the November Election:
“Ultimately this is about our freedoms, it’s about our democracy, it’s about making clear the choices in front of Ohio voters, both last Tuesday and what we’ll see this November. Ultimately, I think most Ohioans are on the side of women having the freedom to make their own decisions. They do not want out-of-touch politicians in the doctor’s offices with them and their families as they make difficult healthcare decisions. I think what you’re seeing in Ohio, too, is an electorate that is remarkably sick of the out-of-touch, extreme positions coming out of our state legislature.”

###

Frank LaRose is now Ohio’s biggest loser at the outset of his Senate campaign after State Issue 1, which LaRose made himself the face of, was resoundingly defeated by Ohioans last week.
 
Here’s a sample of what Ohioans are reading today about Frank LaRose: “some political humiliations last forever,” “his bet didn’t pay off,” LaRose has a “cloud of Issue 1 above his head,” LaRose was more focused on his political aspirations than doing his job, “LaRose is left searching for a new campaign message.”
 
More on Frank LaRose being Ohio’s biggest loser at the outset of his Senate campaign:
 
Cleveland.com: Voters saw through Ohio Republican phonies, demolishing Issue 1 and perhaps some political careers: Brent Larkin
Brent Larkin
August 13, 2023

• For Secretary of State Frank LaRose, the father of Issue 1, the damage may prove irreparable. The man charged with administering Ohio elections, now a candidate for the U.S. Senate, wasted about $16 million of our money in an attempt to disembowel participatory democracy. Some political humiliations last forever. 

The Columbus Dispatch: How Ohio Issue 1’s defeat could shake up Frank LaRose’s 2024 U.S. Senate campaign

• Secretary of State Frank LaRose put all of his chips on Issue 1.
• He traveled Ohio to advocate for the measure, even as some argued he should focus more on his day job running the election. He went toe-to-toe with opponents during forums and sat through jeers from audience members who didn’t like what they heard. In many ways, LaRose was the face of the pro-Issue 1 campaign.
• But his bet didn’t pay off.
• Now, LaRose is barreling into the 2024 U.S. Senate primary with the cloud of Issue 1 above his head. His critics have eagerly made him a scapegoat as Republicans search for answers about the Aug. 8 election outcome. One conservative radio host blasted Ohio Republicans for a “lack of a cogent strategy” and said Cleveland businessman Bernie Moreno is the party’s best option to take on Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown next year.
• LaRose’s GOP dissenters blame him for something else entirely: Tying the August ballot question to abortion. At a Lincoln Day dinner in May, LaRose told a room of Republicans that Issue 1 was “100%” about blocking the abortion issue in November. He went on to mention other issues, such as minimum wage, but opponents of Issue 1 clipped his abortion comments for campaign ads.

The Ironton Tribune: EDITORIAL: Voting difficulties could have been avoided 
Editorial Board
August 14, 2023

• In the weeks leading up to voting, he campaigned heavily in favor of the proposed Issue One amendment, so much so that many in the media dubbed him its public face (It also just happened to conveniently occur when he is seeking his party’s nomination for U.S. Senate next year).   
• Instead of barnstorming around the state in support of Issue One, the public would have been better served if LaRose had made his focus the logistics of the special election and conferring with counties to make sure they were in a position to carry out voting.   
• Had the focus been on his job, rather than his political aspirations, maybe the difficulties of Tuesday could have been avoided.  

ABC: Ohio referendum jolts marquee Senate race
Isabella Murray, Tal Axelrod
August 10, 2023

• Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose put Ohio’s Issue 1, a measure that could have ultimately hindered statewide attempts at protecting abortion access, at the center of his recently announced campaign for Senate.
• But now, after voters defeated the Republican-backed ballot measure, LaRose is left searching for a new campaign message.
• “I think the issue for LaRose is, what is the thing that would reinvigorate his campaign? Because Issue 1 was supposed to be the thing,” said David Niven, a political scientist at the University of Cincinnati. “I don’t want to call the crash cart in, but what’s the thing that’s gonna make this a healthy campaign? It’s hard to see what that would be right now.”
• Still, other strategists and critics pointed to what they said were missteps by LaRose that contributed to Tuesday’s results.
• However, at a local event in June, LaRose seemed to say the quiet part out loud, telling the crowd Issue 1 was “100% about keeping a radical pro-abortion amendment out of our constitution,” jolting Republicans’ messaging and shifting the debate toward an issue where Democrats have taken the offensive, even in other red states.
• “Anytime something you say is being used by the other campaign, anytime something you say is viewed as so productive that the other side’s putting it in their campaign ads, it’s really, really emblematic of failure,” Niven said.

Chronicle Telegram: No matter how you do the math, Issue 1 should have and did fail
Rini Jeffers
August 12, 2023

• They found $20 million in our taxes to fund the Republican-driven Issue 1, proposed in part by Secretary of State Frank LaRose. LaRose, whose entire job is to oversee our elections, seems to have taken the heat of this summer to heart by not just wading into partisan politics but diving right into the deep end of the pool.
• I work a lot more with words, with the meanings behind them. Like, for instance, when LaRose said the amendment was “100 percent” about blocking abortion, not about amending our governing document.  

Slate: “The Ohio Republican most championing passage of the issue was Ohio Secretary of State (and Senate candidate) Frank LaRose, who anchored his political future to the vote… LaRose himself screwed up this strategy in June, however, when he said that “this is 100 percent about keeping a radical pro-abortion amendment out of our constitution.” LaRose’s Senate rivals are pouncing on him for screwing up the messaging; LaRose is saying that those rivals—Matt Dolan and Bernie Moreno, who are both quite wealthy—didn’t spend enough to try to pass the measure.”