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For Immediate Release:

Monday, March 21, 2022

Columbus, OH — Media outlets across Ohio are reporting on the election chaos that has been created by Republican members of the redistricting commission who have failed to do their job time and time again and pass fair maps. The redistricting commission first met in August 2021. In the seven months since, Republicans have blown past constitutional deadlines, passed five separate sets of GOP-gerrymandered maps and each time ignored the directives of Ohio voters and the Ohio Supreme Court. They are solely to blame for the election chaos that has been created by their failure to do their job.

“Republicans on the redistricting commission have had chance after chance to listen to the will of Ohio voters and pass fair maps. Instead, they’ve failed us and failed to follow the law. Now, Republicans continue to play the blame game and drag their feet rather than do their jobs and pass a fair map. Ohioans are sick and tired of the games, it’s time for Republicans on the commission to get to work, ” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Matt Keyes.

Read more below:

Ohio Capital Journal

March 21, 2022

• LaRose also said without action from a federal court, only the statewide election races (like governor and treasurer, for example), congressional races and local contests will be on the ballots.
• Congressional races could be in trouble as well, if the state’s highest court decides those are also invalid. The court is currently considering the second revision of the map, sent to them earlier this month after the court struck down the first attempt by the Ohio Redistricting Commission.
• It’s not clear how another primary will happen, since Senate President Matt Huffman and House Speaker Bob Cupp have both said there isn’t an “appetite” for a change to the date of the primary, and Huffman’s offer of two different primary dates “went over like a lead balloon,” he told reporters on multiple occasions.
• According to Ohio law, the General Assembly takes the lead on any changes to the “time, place and manner” of elections in the state.

Columbus Dispatch

March 17, 2022

• Secretary of State Frank LaRose said Thursday that it’s impossible to hold a May 3rd primary with state House and Senate races after the Ohio Supreme Court struck down a third set of legislative maps.
• In a letter to lawmakers and Gov. Mike DeWine, LaRose said election officials would proceed with plans for a May 3rd primary with statewide, local and congressional races unless otherwise instructed.
• He also directed local boards of election not to send or alter any ballots because of pending litigation, even though military and overseas ballots are supposed to go out Friday under federal law.
• Barring any court-ordered action, officials must now decide between two complicated and potentially costly options: postponing the election or splitting up the primary.
• The state could proceed with a May 3rd primary only for statewide candidates, local candidates and issues because those aren’t subject to district boundaries. A second election for legislative and congressional candidates could be held at a later date, giving officials more time to finalize maps.
• But that’s an expensive prospect. LaRose estimated it could cost taxpayers an extra $20 million to $25 million, and lawmakers already approved $9.2 million to help election officials get ready for May 3.
• Democrats and voting rights groups have been pushing the GOP-controlled Legislature for weeks to postpone the primary and contend that’s the best path forward.

Cleveland.com

March 19, 2022 

• Even if the commission meets the March 28 deadline, it will be too late to ready ballots for early April, when early voting starts. That means the election either will have to be postponed or split into pieces — unless state officials get a different court to intervene.
• House Speaker Bob Cupp, one of the five Republicans on the commission, raised doubts on Saturday that the commission could find and hire outside consultants and draw a map in public on the court’s timetable, with the May 3 election looming.

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Gahanna, OH — Today, the ‘Cavalcade of Clowns,’ also known as the leading GOP Senate candidates, participated in a forum sponsored by FreedomWorks. In response, Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Michael Beyer released the following statement:

“We encourage every voter to watch this forum and see for themselves why these Republicans do not deserve to be in the United States Senate.” 

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For Immediate Release

Wednesday, March 16, 2022

Columbus, OH — Today, the Ohio Democratic Party (ODP) held a virtual meeting of its Executive Committee. Per ODP bylaws, the committee is required to consider endorsements of statewide candidates before the primary election. The Executive Committee voted tonight to endorse State Representative Jeff Crossman for Attorney General, Forest Park Councilmember Chelsea Clark for Secretary of State, Marion Mayor Scott Schertzer for Treasurer and Nelsonville Auditor Taylor Sappington for Auditor.

“Ohio Democrats are proud to endorse such a strong, diverse ticket. These Ohio Democrats will be laser-focused on fighting to help working families get ahead – a stark contrast to their Republican opponents who are caught up in the largest corruption scandal in state history,” said Chair Walters.

According to ODP bylaws, the Executive Committee shall be called for a meeting before the primary election and the committee must carefully consider an endorsement in each race. Before tonight’s endorsement vote, the Party convened a screening committee made up of members of the Executive Committee that met with each candidate.

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For Immediate Release:

Wednesday, March 16, 2022 

Columbus, OH — Today, Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters issued the following statement after the Ohio Supreme Court ruled yet another set of GOP-gerrymandered state legislative maps unconstitutional, all but confirming that a May 3 primary will be impossible. Moving the primary date will cost Ohioans tens of millions of dollars, a cost that falls squarely on the feet of Ohio Republicans who have chosen to play politics with redistricting rather than do the jobs they were elected to do.  

“Millions of dollars just flew out of the pockets of hardworking Ohioans all because Republicans refused to do their jobs and pass fair maps. Ohio now finds itself in complete chaos, created only by GOP politicians who have broken the law time and again. Our message to Republican politicians on the commission is simple: do your job or get out of the way. Democrats have fair maps ready to go, all Republicans have to do is stop their obstruction,” said Chair Walters. 

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Business Ties To Russia Could Be A Major Vulnerability For The GOP Senate Candidates

Columbus, OH — A new Associated Press report shines a light on millionaires Jane Timken, Mike Gibbons and J.D. Vance for their Russian business deals as the country escalates its war in Ukraine.

The AP notes that Timken “reported owning roughly 2,800 shares in Timken Co., whose stock price initially rose after the Feb. 24 invasion” and faces mounting questions over her family company’s business dealings in Russia. Vance helped fund what Cleveland.com describes as “a main platform for RT, the propaganda arm of the Russian government.” Gibbons’ financial firm in 2011 announced a business deal involving a company that specializes in pipes for the Russian oil industry.

Following the AP’s investigation of Timken’s entanglement, a week after a viral list noted Timken Co. was still doing business in Russia, and three weeks after Putin began his invasion of Ukraine, the Canton Repository last night reported that Jane Timken’s family company has finally been shamed into pausing operations in Russia.

“Millionaires Jane Timken, Mike Gibbons and J.D. Vance are complete frauds – shamelessly cashing in on business deals with Russia while tens of thousands of Ukrainian Americans in Ohio mourn Putin’s relentless invasion. It’s clear that no matter the issue, Timken, Gibbons and Vance will sell out Ohioans if it means they can enrich themselves,” said Michael Beyer, a spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

Associated Press: Russia business deals muddy GOP US Senate primary in Ohio

By Julie Carr Smyth

March 15, 2022

• Several Republicans competing for the party’s nomination to run for U.S. Senate in Ohio are facing scrutiny for their ties to Russia as the country intensifies its war against Ukraine.
• Much of the attention has focused on former Ohio Republican Party Chair Jane Timken, whose husband’s family founded a company that does business in Russia. But other candidates in the race to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Rob Portman, including J.D. Vance and Mike Gibbons, also have links to business deals in Russia that could become vulnerabilities in the May 3 primary.
• While domestic issues generally dominate midterm political contests, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — with its harrowing images of civilian casualties — has become an animating subject of the competitive Senate race in Ohio, which has a large Ukrainian American population. In a race with several millionaire candidates, the war is highlighting the risks that come with being wealthy and having tangled investment interests involving foreign countries.
• The easiest target has long been Timken, whose husband sits on the board of the like-named Fortune 500 ball bearing manufacturer based in North Canton, Ohio. Even before Ukraine, her adversaries sought to pin the Timken Co.’s international business dealings on Timken.
• Timken Co. last week suspended its operations in Russia, where it has a manufacturing plant and an 8-year-old relationship with United Wagon Co., a Moscow-based manufacturer and servicer of freight cars. The company signed the deal in 2014, around the time Russia seized Crimea.
• Conservative PACs, mostly backing Republican Josh Mandel in the race, pilloried Timken in attack ads as “shameless” for outwardly supporting Ukraine and calling for tough sanctions on Russia while making money off her investments in the company. She has reported owning roughly 2,800 shares in Timken Co., whose stock price initially rose after the Feb. 24 invasion.
• After Timken criticized Vance for voicing indifference to the fate of Ukraine in the days leading up to the invasion, a Vance ally tweeted, “No candidate has business ties in Russia except for Jane Timken. Her husband’s company has provided steel for their tanks, rail, and military.” The attacks continued from the left, with one labor union ally trying to label Timken “Russia Jane.”
• But Vance has business interests in Russia of his own.
• In May 2021, he joined Peter Thiel and other prominent conservative venture capitalists and invested in the video platform Rumble, a YouTube alternative favored by the political right. After tech companies including Meta and Twitter limited Russia’s state-controlled news network RT to minimize the spread of propaganda, the Russian government announced it would move to Rumble.
• Gibbons, another Senate candidate, is distancing himself from a Russian business deal announced by his company, Brown Gibbons Lang & Company, in 2011. 
• HMS specializes in pipes for the Russian oil industry and one of its main customers is Gazprom, the state-owned gas giant and majority owner of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, whose operation was suspended because of the war.
• Lost in the ad attacks against Timken is the fact that their intended beneficiary, Mandel, has taken thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Timken family members, employees and PACs over the years.
• Among other entanglements, the real estate company owned at the time by the family of Mandel’s then-wife, Ilana, sold off its stake in the Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center to Russian oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov in 2016. The billionaire has since sold the assets.

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