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April 29, 2022

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.
In the home stretch of one of the ugliest nominating contests in the country, 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.

There was a lot of chaos this week, so here’s what you may have missed:

WHO’S A FRAUD? The Club for Growth and J.D. Vance and his allies are at “total war” with each other following Trump’s last-minute endorsement of Vance. This week, Club for Growth aired a new ad slamming Vance for his anti-Trump comments and saying Trump “is getting it wrong with J.D. Vance” and calling Vance a fraud. After new reporting from The New York Times’ Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns revealed Josh Mandel admitted to establishment Republicans (including Mitch McConnell’s allies) he was parroting Trump’s absurd rhetoric to court Trump and his voters, Don Jr. renewed his attacks on Mandel, calling him a “establishment RINO fraud.” If all of this sounds familiar, it’s probably because Vance spent last year talking about how he would have to “suck it up and support Trump” – and was actually recruited by Mitch McConnell to run for U.S. Senate in 2018. To paraphrase Cleveland.com columnist Brent Larkin, the only time the GOP Senate candidates are correct is when they are attacking each other.

TRASHING OHIOANS. The pro-Mandel USA Freedom Fund released a new attack ad calling J.D. Vance’s comment that he “[doesn’t] really care what happens in Ukraine” is “music to Putin’s ears.” The ad then reminds Ohioans that Vance “wrote a book trashing Ohioans as hillbillies, then sold his story to Hollywood.” Vance is also facing scrutiny for his comments in Hillbilly Elegy blaming Ohioans for their jobs being outsourced to China. Coastal elite J.D. Vance sure can’t escape his past comments.

CAVALIER AND RECKLESS. A new radio ad from Patriotic Veterans Inc. went for the jugular with Vance’s Ukraine comments. The ad says, “Well, J.D. Vance, Americans do care about what happens in Ukraine. Women being raped, children being killed, five million refugees… Your cavalier and reckless comments about the war in Ukraine show you are not ready for the U.S. Senate.” The business ties to Russia don’t help either.

FAILED CAREER POLITICIAN SQUISH. The Pro-Vance Protect Ohio Values PAC aired a new ad lambasting Mandel as a “failed career politician squish,” attacking Mandel as a “two-time loser who will sell us out” who once campaigned with the likes of Kasich, Romney, and McCain (?). The ad conveniently omits that Vance called himself a Never Trumper and was courted by Mitch McConnell to run for U.S. Senate.

CLOWNS. Political shapeshifter Silicon Valley Vance said without a single shred of self-awareness, “You never try to be someone else. You’ve got to be yourself. I think that’s one of the mistakes, by the way, that a lot of these clowns make against me in the primary. They haven’t learned anything from the substance (of) how Trump governed. They try to act like Trump, but you’re not Trump.” J.D. Vance grew a beard and changed his entire personality from Never-Trumper to Trump acolyte to further his own political career. All we can say is, takes one to know one.

GET MYSELF CANCELED. Jane Timken, somehow still running for Senate, continues to nip at the heels of the rest of the U.S. Senate candidates (bless her heart). She told Dayton 24/7 News, “I’m not going to Washington DC to try to get myself canceled on social media or make a name for myself.” True – she won’t be going to Washington D.C. at all as a U.S. Senator from Ohio!

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 weekend!

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For Immediate Release:
Friday, April 29, 2022

Frank LaRose Is Still A Phony

“Perhaps standards change when your own political future is on the line.”

Columbus, OH — In case you missed it, Frank LaRose is so desperate to lose a Senate race in 2024 that he will do anything to remain relevant in the radical Republican Party, while jeopardizing election integrity for all Ohioans. This morning, the Columbus Dispatch is taking LaRose to task, showing his flip flops on everything ranging from Donald Trump to election security, once again proving that LaRose is only looking out for himself.

“Trump also asserted with no basis that ‘our elections are a laughing stock’ around the world and lied: ‘They used COVID in order to cheat in the election by sending millions and millions and millions of fake ballots all over the place’ and Democrats ‘want those mail-in ballots where they can cheat like hell,’ writes Darrel Rowland for the Dispatch.

“Apparently, none of that met LaRose’s criteria as ‘loose talk about fraud” or ‘claiming we don’t count votes’ or ‘allegations of attempts to cheat or to steal an election.’ Perhaps standards change when your own political future is on the line,” concluded Rowland.

“Ohio simply cannot trust Frank LaRose to look out for anyone but himself. LaRose is a political phony who will gladly sell Ohioans down the river all so he can lose a Senate race in two years,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Matt Keyes.

Read more on how LaRose is trying to manipulate Ohio voters here and below

• Indeed, early in his tenure he pledged to call out false assertions and misinformation about voting and elections, regardless of party. He backed that up by criticizing dubious statements by President Donald Trump and then-Ohio GOP Chair Jane Timken, as well as then-Democratic Chair David Pepper and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown.
• In February 2020 he said it is “deeply irresponsible” to share conspiracy theories about the integrity of elections. “Nobody’s immune from what I just said, that It is irresponsible to fear monger about elections administration.”
• More recently, LaRose has sharply criticized a Democratic elections bill in Congress and challenged statements by President Joe Biden. In December, LaRose called on the president to apologize for a “misleading” statement: “Scaring voters by claiming we don’t count votes is highly irresponsible. Even worse, it further degrades trust in our democracy.”
• But during the 2020 presidential campaign, LaRose grew quieter with his GOP critiques as Trump’s unfounded claims grew louder about “massive fraud” associated with the upcoming election, especially with mail-in voting – used reliably without serious problems in Ohio for years. And there was stone-cold silence from LaRose after Trump’s falsehood-filled April 23 rally at the Delaware County fairgrounds.

• A sampling of some of the former president’s false statements from the rally:
  • In assertions that already have been widely discredited, Trump called the 2020 vote “a fake, phony election” and falsely claimed “they found corruption in the 2020 election, the likes of which nobody has ever seen.”
  • He did not tell the truth when he said: “The truth is I ran twice, I won twice,” nor when he claimed, “The fact is the election was rigged and stolen, and now our country is being destroyed.”
  • Trump also asserted with no basis that “our elections are a laughing stock” around the world and lied: “They used COVID in order to cheat in the election by sending millions and millions and millions of fake ballots all over the place” and Democrats “want those mail-in ballots where they can cheat like hell.”
• Apparently, none of that met LaRose’s criteria as “loose talk about fraud” or “claiming we don’t count votes” or “allegations of attempts to cheat or to steal an election.”
• Perhaps standards change when your own political future is on the line.
• The only people LaRose criticized after the Trump rally were Democrats. 
• Which of Trump’s voting proposals does LaRose support? He won’t say.
• A little more than five months into his first year as secretary of state, LaRose told a June 2019 elections officials meeting in Columbus that he wouldn’t be endorsing anyone in the 2020 presidential election.
• Fast-forward to the political whirlwind last weekend. Trump endorsed LaRose in an email at 1:45 p.m. Saturday, and at 4:43 p.m. the campaign of Trump’s newly announced favorite in Ohio’s U.S. Senate race, J.D. Vance, announced that LaRose had endorsed Vance. Hours later, Trump verbally endorsed both men in his fairground’s speech.

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Columbus, OH — Before he decided to run for U.S. Senate, J.D. Vance deflected blame from President Barack Obama and bad trade deals, and argued that Ohioans should take personal responsibility for decades of disinvestment and economic hardship in the state.

In 2016, Vance trashed Ohioans in Hillbilly Elegy, writing, “We talk about the value of hard work, but tell ourselves that the reason we’re not working is some perceived unfairness: (Barack) Obama shut down the coal mines or all the jobs went to the Chinese. These are the lies we tell ourselves to solve the cognitive dissonance.”

While J.D. Vance had no problem demeaning and disparaging the place he came from in pursuit of fame, or collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars for book royalties and a cushy Netflix deal, his narrative no longer aligns with his political aspirations. So in typically fraudulent fashion, J.D. Vance can’t explain why he blamed Ohioans for their jobs being shipped to China. 

When asked about his past comments yesterday by The Vindicator’s David Skolnick, Vance tied himself into a pretzel trying to explain his comments. He said, “On the one hand, we have to have personal responsibility, whatever the circumstances are in our life…So you have to have two thoughts in your head at the same time. You can believe in personal responsibility and also believe that our leaders really screwed up.” For Vance, having two thoughts at the same time is standard operating procedure —a well-documented hedging strategy from a Silicon Valley venture capitalist seeking to have it both ways wherever he can. 

“As soon as he had the chance, J.D. Vance left Ohio behind for California and made a fortune trashing Ohioans and even blaming workers for jobs outsourced to China. Maybe if Vance spent more time in Ohio, instead of chasing the approval of his fellow coastal elites, he’d understand the pain of thousands of workers across Ohio who lost their jobs and livelihoods,” said Michael Beyer, a spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.  

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Before he decided to run for U.S. Senate, Silicon Valley Vance was cashing in with Big Tech. 

Silicon Valley Vance made many of his millions working for a Big Tech billionaire who has donated $13.5 million to a super PAC that is supporting his campaign. According to CNBC, “a great deal of his [Vance’s] income came from ventures linked to Thiel and other tech investors.” His salary from the Thiel-backed Narya Capital was $408,106 and he valued “other” Narya-related income at more than $1.1 million.

Silicon Valley Vance also made over $125,000 with the Rise of the Rest Fund, a venture capital fund backed by AOL founder Steve Case, former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, former Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman, the Waltons, and the Kochs. 

Without a shred of self-awareness, Vance tweeted last year, “Establishment Republican apologies for our oligarchy should always come with the following disclaimer: ‘Big Tech pays my salary.’”

To take a trip down memory lane to 2017, Vance said while hobnobbing at The Aspen Institute, “I was at an event not too long ago where I saw Jeff Bezos and I was wearing a shirt that said Cincinnati across my chest because I was hoping to send a subliminal message to Jeff that if he needs a new Amazon headquarters come to southwestern Ohio.”

“Most Ohioans trying to make ends meet don’t have the luxury of doing it like Silicon Valley Vance, who left Ohio behind to make a fortune in Big Tech. Ohioans are much smarter than Silicon Valley Vance—they see through his hypocrisy and know he is a puppet of Big Tech,” said Michael Beyer, a spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.  

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For Immediate Release:
Wednesday, April 27, 2022

Dave Yost Ignores Pleas of Alleged Rape Survivor

Columbus, OH — This week, the Sandusky Register reported on Dave Yost’s refusal to respond to a woman who is trying to get her alleged rapist prosecuted. Yost used the woman’s alleged rapist as a key witness in a case in which Yost accused another woman of lying about being raped. Yost lost that case, and before trial, two other women accused Yost’s key witness of raping them. Yet, Yost has refused to answer questions about when he’ll take any action to investigate the manner and won’t respond to pleas from the alleged victims for legal action against the man who has been accused by multiple women of sexual violence.

From the Register: “Will you utilize the same amount of time and money seeking justice for me as you did my attacker?” she (the alleged victim) asked Yost.

As Yost continues to stonewall justice, his refusal to even respond to the alleged victim shows a unique brand of coldness that reflects how Yost has conducted himself as Ohio’s Attorney General.

Read more on the case from the Sandusky Register here and below:

• Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost won’t say whether he’ll respond to a woman who asked for his help in getting her alleged rapist prosecuted, a man Yost promoted as his chief witness last year in a felony trial of another woman he wrongly alleged lied about being raped.
• Yost has never explained why he sought felony charges against the other woman or how he could have misread that situation so poorly that a judge dismissed the charges after a two-day trial in December. The judge determined the woman never claimed she was raped, only that an unwanted sexual encounter occurred after a drinking party.
• It also was learned prior to the trial that two other women filed complaints against the same man, Yost’s chief witness. In a court motion, assistant attorney general Drew Wood, who works for Yost and was the special prosecutor, filed a motion seeking to bar the other women from testifying.
• In a court filing, Wood wrote that the other women who filed rape complaints might receive justice someday, but it was not clear if the Attorney General’s office would ever pursue it on their behalf.
• Yost has steadfastly refused to answer any questions for months about why he pursued the false rape case before it commenced and since the charges were dismissed. Before trial, he said it would be inappropriate since the case was pending. Since then, however, after the trial finished, he’s offered no response of any kind.
• Advocates contend Yost’s decision to prosecute a woman for making a false report will have a chilling effect on victims of sexual assault, who likely will be even more reluctant to come forward fearing that if a prosecutor doesn’t believe them they could get prosecuted.
• Carol O’Brien, Yost’s chief prosecutor who manages the prosecutions unit at the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, also has ignored concerns about how the false rape case was handled, and about how Yost’s office treats the other women who filed complaints.
• It’s unclear what kind of training Wood, O’Brien and Yost have when it comes to cases involving violence against women.

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