Uncategorized

Columbus, OH – A new Cleveland.com cartoon from Jeff Darcy tears into “more recently a San Francisco, California transplant” J.D. Vance for his “nearly broke” campaign and his comments that women should stay in “violent” marriages for the sake of the kids — “lumping Vance in with other struggling, underperforming GOP candidates” like Herschel Walker and Dr. Oz “as reasons Democrats have good chance of not only retaining the Senate, but may expand their margin.”

Cleveland.com: J.D. Vance money, poll woes: Darcy cartoons – Cleveland.com
Jeff Darcy
July 31, 2022

• Wouldn’t be surprised if J.D. Vance played Friday’s Mega Lotto billion dollar draw. Last quarter fundraising and news reports showed his campaign is nearly broke and in dire need of a Mega Lotto jackpot win or second bailout from California Mega donor Peter Thiel.
• “The J.D. Vance campaign is broke” -The Daily Beast.
• “His campaign is totally broke” – Gabby Orr, CNN
• “JD Vance May Need Another Peter Thiel Bailout” – Bloomberg

• Peter Thiel is a billionaire tech entrepreneur, co-founder of PayPal. During the primary, Thiel had given the Vance campaign $10 million. He was also an original investor in the venture capital fund managed by Vance, Narya.
• Since then, venture capital fund manager and Senator wannabe Vance has struggled to generate the smaller bread and butter campaign contributions. At one point he had to provide his campaign with a personal bridge loan of up to $700,000.
• “Vance showing some low fundraising numbers” – Jonathan Lemire, Politico, MSNBC
• Last quarter fundraising reports show Vance’s campaign spent more than it took in. He’s down in the polls too, at best Vance is tied with Rep. Tim Ryan in now red state Ohio.
• National news reports are routinely lumping Vance in with other struggling, underperforming GOP candidates endorsed by Donald Trump, primarily Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania/N.J. and Herschel Walker in Georgia.
• Contributing to Vance being lumped in with Oz and Walker, was coverage of Vance having said that even violent marriages should be maintained because marriage is “sacred” and for the sake of the kids. Vance had made the comment in September during a presentation at a California Christian high school.
• Although an Ohio native, who recounted his upbringing in his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy”, Vance is more recently a San Francisco, California transplant.
• The Vance, Oz and Walker races are pointed too as reasons Democrats have good chance of not only retaining the Senate, but may expand their margin so they no longer have to kowtow to Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin.
• Rep. Ryan’s series of TV ads have been so well done and effective, some Ohio voters mistakenly have thought he’s a Republican. Apparently believing he’s a primary opponent of Vance, who won the brutal Republican primary with the late endorsement of Trump after running in 3rd/4th place behind Josh Mandel, Mike Gibbons and Matt Dolan.
• Vance’s fundraising problems may explain why his campaign has been generally silent, especially in response to Ryan’s damaging ad offensive.
• Along with Republican strategists, Ohio and national political analyst continue to underestimate Ryan and misread Ohio voters, in large part because the state elected Republican Governor Mike DeWine, Ohio’s Republican General Assembly leadership, Rep. Jim Jordan and Sen. Rob Portman, whose seat Vance and Ryan now seek. They’ve continually overlooked that the same state elected and re-elected Sherrod Brown to the U.S. Senate.
• Before being elected to the U..S. Senate, Ohio elected Brown to state offices and the U.S. House for decades. Brown has long been far more liberal than Ryan. Ryan got his political start working for the late Rep. Jim Traficant, who was Ohio’s original cartoonish Congressman before Jordan.
• As Ryan’s demonstrating, Traficant also had crossover appeal to Republicans. Regardless of their being either liberal, center or center-right on the Democratic spectrum, Brown, Ryan and Trafficant all shared an ability to speak for working class and rural Ohioans.
• Fortunately for Vance, Ryan is not a Tuesday primary opponent of his, otherwise on Wednesday, not November, Vance could begin writing his “Hillbilly Campaign Eulogy.”

###

Vance: “We’re definitely going to be on TV, I think probably sometime in July.”

Columbus, OH – Amidst bad fundraising and questions from conservative talk radio hosts if Vance is ever even in Ohio, J.D. Vance tried to assure conservative talk radio host Mark Blazor that his campaign would start running TV ads in July. Welcome to August, J.D.!

At the 12:13 mark, Vance told Mark Blazor, “We’re definitely going to be on TV, I think probably sometime in July.” Well, July has come and gone and there are still no TV ads. Sad!

The reason Vance’s campaign isn’t on TV is likely because they are broke and their campaign has neglected to return the phone calls of many Ohio donors. Nearly three months into the general election, Ohio Republicans are still “waiting for Vance to show up,” and frustrated that “he’s not campaigning hard enough.” One GOP source told Daily Beast that “when the fundraising numbers came out, it’s full-on panic now.” Ron Verb, a conservative talk radio host, offered Vance the advice that he “better get off his ass, figure out why he isn’t raising more money, why the Republican Party isn’t behind him raising money.”

This isn’t the only lie J.D. Vance has been caught in lately about his floundering campaign. Recently, J.D. Vance tried to shrug off his poor fundraising non-efforts by saying (falsely) that Rob Portman was outraised 3-to-1 by Ted Strickland. This is false: Portman “walloped” Strickland in fundraising. 

“J.D. Vance will do or say anything to get elected. If J.D. Vance will even lie to the friendliest members of his own party rather than work harder and do better, how can Ohioans trust anything he says or count on him to actually show up for them?” said Michael Beyer, a spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

###

Columbus, OH – This week, J.D. Vance finally visited Ohio – the state he supposedly wants to represent in the U.S. Senate – amidst a week of brutal stories about how terrible of a campaign he is running.

Here’s what they are saying about Vance’s abysmal operation:

• “They are burning bridges faster than they can build them.” –Republican operative to NBC News’ Henry Gomez
• Vance “better get off his ass.” –Ron Verb to Daily Beast
• “The Republican faithful are telling me they can’t find J.D. Vance with a search warrant.” –Bill Cunningham to Daily Beast
• “I think he’s running the worst campaign you could possibly run.” –Ron Verb to Daily Beast
• “When the fundraising numbers came out, it’s full-on panic now.” –One GOP Ohio source to Daily Beast
• “J.D. Vance is laying very low. We really have not seen him. No major campaign events, no TV ads, and it turns out he’s not raising that much money…” –Mike Thompson, Host of Columbus On The Record
• “But members of his [Vance’s] own party have become increasingly concerned that he’s not campaigning hard enough, while his opponent – U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan – dominates the airwaves and holds events across the state.” -Cincinnati Enquirer’s Haley BeMiller
• “Vance has not returned calls for comment. In fact, Vance isn’t speaking out in public forums in Ohio much these days.” –Statehouse News Bureau’s Jo Ingles

Here’s some brutal headlines Vance has faced just this week:

• Vice: JD Vance Suggests People in ‘Violent’ Marriages Shouldn’t Get Divorced
• CNN: Ohio GOP Senate candidate argues ‘violent’, ‘unhappy’ marriages shouldn’t end in divorce
• WKRC: Video of Vance shows him making argument unhappy, even violent, marriages shouldn’t end
• Vanity Fair: GOP Senate Candidate J.D. Vance: If People Love Their Kids, They’ll Stay in Violent Marriages
• WCPO: J.D. Vance denies supporting abusive marriages after viral comments
• HuffPost: J.D. Vance: People Should Stay In ‘Violent’ Marriages For The Sake Of The Kids
• People Magazine: Ohio Senate Candidate J.D. Vance Explains Comments About People Staying in Unhappy, ‘Even Violent’ Marriages
• The Independent: JD Vance suggested women in violent relationships should not get divorced for the sake of children
• Newsweek: J.D. Vance Slammed for Suggesting Women Stay in Violent Marriages
• Statehouse News Bureau: Black Ohio Democratic lawmakers criticize Vance over comments about abortion
• Ohio Capital Journal: Black state lawmakers take aim at Vance over comments likening abortion to slavery
• The Root: J.D. Vance Compares Slavery to Abortion
• Daily Beast: Inside the GOP Freakout Over J.D. Vance’s Senate Campaign
• Cincinnati.com: Ohio Senate race: JD Vance critics say he’s not campaigning enough
• Ohio Capital Journal: Vance would vote against codifying right to marriage for same-sex couples

###

No Wonder J.D. Vance’s Sham Non-Profit Paid Jai Chabria The Big Bucks

Columbus, OH – Despite doubling down on his horrific belief that women should stay in “violent” marriages, J.D. Vance knows his comments are indefensible, which is why he sent a grifter from his sham opioid non-profit to do cleanup duty on Cleveland TV yesterday.

Yesterday morning, J.D. Vance went on the Brandon Boxer Show and said (at 10:11), “And I think it’s disgusting for him to use this smear against me that the point I made is a very simple point, and I completely stand by it. Divorce, I think that our society’s approach to divorce has not been good for kids…That the whole point was the progressives say that we have the divorce because of domestic violence. And my point is, domestic violence is way worse outside of marriages than it is within marriage.” (FALSE.)

Later in the day, rather than take another opportunity to dig his hole even deeper, Vance chose to hide from News 5 Cleveland’s Morgan Trau, sending out campaign adviser Jai Chabria to do cleanup duty in his place. In Chabria’s appearance, he claimed that the media have twisted Vance’s words (despite Vance’s comments being published in full), which contradicts what Vance said hours before that he “completely stand(s) by” his dangerous remarks.

Chabria’s appearance is also a reminder of the unresolved questions that continue to dog Vance surrounding his sham non-profit, which Vance said was meant to help combat the opioid crisis but which only ever served to promote Vance himself. Chabria received over $60,000 in payments in the first year after the organization was founded, far and away the single biggest line item and much more than it ever spent on programs to fight the opioid epidemic. Chabria has also refused to answer whether Vance used his non-profit to conduct political polling – after reporting revealed that around the same time Vance had “commissioned a poll testing his viability in the Republican primaries for governor and Senate.”

It’s no wonder Chabria gets paid the big bucks – he’s lied and grifted alongside Vance for years.

“J.D. Vance can’t defend his comments that women in violent marriages should put themselves in danger, so he hid behind a political crony who used Ohio’s opioid epidemic to enrich himself instead. J.D. Vance is no better than the company he keeps, and he should be ashamed of himself for sending in a fraudulent grifter to speak on his behalf instead of explaining to Ohioans why he thinks women should stay in ‘violent’ marriages,” said Michael Beyer, a spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

###

Columbus, OH — Today, Cleveland.com broke a report that Ohio Supreme Court Justice Pat Fischer made comments comparing abortion to slavery earlier this month at the Delaware City Republican Club. Fischer’s remarks come after J.D. Vance also compared abortion to slavery following the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe in what’s become a disgusting pattern for Republicans.

“Critics are blasting Ohio Supreme Court Justice Patrick Fischer, a Republican seeking reelection, for comparing abortion to slavery and segregation in recent remarks before a group of Republicans outside Columbus. Fischer spoke at the Delaware City Republican Club on July 14 in which he compared Roe v. Wade to a pair of U.S. Supreme Court decisions that upheld slavery and segregation,” writes Laura Hancock for Cleveland.com.

Fischer also made comments about Roe and offered his thoughts on the case, raising ethical questions since Fischer would likely hear abortion cases if he would be reelected to the bench.

“Justice Fischer’s comments were nothing short of disgusting, and he – like J.D. Vance – should apologize immediately. With his remarks, Justice Fischer demonstrated just how extreme and out-of-touch the Court will become if the Republicans running are reelected. Ohioans are once again reminded that the stakes of November’s elections couldn’t be higher,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

Read more here and below:

• Critics are blasting Ohio Supreme Court Justice Patrick Fischer, a Republican seeking reelection, for comparing abortion to slavery and segregation in recent remarks before a group of Republicans outside Columbus.
• Fischer spoke at the Delaware City Republican Club on July 14 in which he compared Roe v. Wade to a pair of U.S. Supreme Court decisions that upheld slavery and segregation.
• “Ladies and gentlemen, do you know what substantive due process is? It would take me hours to go into it,” he said. “But you know what it’s the basis for? The Dred Scott decision. Not good. It’s the basis for Plessy v. Ferguson. Not good. And it was the basis for Roe v. Wade.”
• In Ohio, J.D. Vance, the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, told the Catholic Current that abortion and slavery were comparable, “and that while the people who obviously suffer the most are those subjected to it, I think it has this morally distorting effect on the entire society.”
• By the end of the year, the Ohio General Assembly and Gov. Mike DeWine are expected to push forward a bill generally outlawing abortion in most cases in the state. Fischer’s remarks were in response to an audience member at the Delaware City Republican Club, who asked if abortion rights will be determined by the Ohio Supreme Court next year.
• Fischer noted that the state’s judicial conduct rules prevent him from talking directly about cases. The Ohio Supreme Court has an abortion case before it, with abortion rights groups asking the court to overturn the so-called fetal “heartbeat” bill.
• However, Fischer did share some thoughts, explaining that when he was dating his wife 38 years ago, he felt the same way: that the legal argument behind Roe v. Wade, known as substantive due process, was weak.
• “But I told her that if you ever got enough people with guts, that would theoretically — on a theory, on a legal theoretical basis — easily (be) overturned,” said Fischer, who graduated from Harvard Law School with honors.
• “I think it’s troubling that there’s this comparison to a fetus,” she said. “People who were enslaved were actual living, breathing individuals, fully developed and able to make decisions for themselves and were denied the rights to have personal autonomy and self-determination… It infantilizes Black people in an inappropriate and disrespectful way.”
• The Ohio Code of Judicial Conduct cautions judges about making pledges, promises and commitments, since there’s “the overarching judicial obligation to apply and uphold the law without regard to his or her personal views.”

###