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Columbus, OH — According to a new report from the Review Times, the GOP Senate primary is going to be a “record-breaker” and an “arms race” based on the millionaire candidates’ access to huge sums of money. 

This follows a report from Fox News saying “the showdown is fast becoming the most expensive and ugly GOP Senate contest in next year’s midterms.” Last week, WVXU’s Howard Wilkinson argued the GOP Senate primary has “descended into meanness and pettiness and just plain craziness unlike anything ever seen in Ohio Republican politics.”

“With five months and well-stocked war chests, the out-of-touch GOP millionaires running for Senate are doing everything they can to ensure a nasty and expensive primary. They are ignoring hardworking Ohioans as they ramp up their attacks against each other,” said Michael Beyer, a spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

Review Times: Money flows fast in race for Senate seat

Denise Grant

December 9, 2021 

• With campaign spending in the race for Ohio’s open U.S. Senate seat in 2022 expected to break records, Ohioans should brace for a bombardment of political advertising — and soon.
• “Part of this is going to be an arms race. There will be money spent because others are spending money. Expect it to be a record-breaking campaign,” said David Niven, an associate professor at the University of Cincinnati. “It would be shocking if it wasn’t a record-breaker, given the level of competitiveness. It’s a nationalized race with candidates who have unusual access to money.”
• That “unusual access” to money Niven referenced includes the personal wealth and political connections of Republican candidates like Jane Timken, but also the support of super PACs (political action committees). A PAC can raise money and donate it directly to candidates, but donation levels are capped. Super PACs can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money during an election season, but are restricted from donating directly to a candidate’s campaign.
• Meanwhile, two Super PACs supporting Republican candidate Josh Mandel launched a $1 million ad campaign attacking J.D. Vance, another registered candidate for the 2022 Republican primary election. The ads take Vance to task for being a “flip-flop flipper” in his support of former President Donald Trump. The ads highlight incidents of Vance calling Trump an “idiot,” “reprehensible” and “noxious.”
• But Vance, author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” isn’t running empty-handed, either. His super PAC received a $10 million donation from billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel, a venture capitalist and PayPal co-founder who sits on the board of directors for Facebook. Niven said Vance’s venture capitalist ties could cause the cost of the race to skyrocket.
• “Venture capitalists are used to spending millions on millions of dollars. Those political connections from outside Ohio will open up spigots of money at every level,” he said.

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For Immediate Release:

Friday, December 10, 2021

Columbus, OH — Mike DeWine is losing political support by the day and is desperate to remain relevant to Ohio voters, even if it means he has to use victories secured by Democrats to do it.

All this week, DeWine has shamelessly traveled the state to tout funding for Ohio communities that was secured through the American Rescue Plan that was achieved only with Democratic support and that DeWine himself has been on record opposing. Ohio media is calling DeWine out for his hypocrisy, as he desperately tries to cling onto political relevance in a state where his numbers seem to drop by the day.

“While we’re glad Mike DeWine has finally figured out how positive the American Rescue Plan is for Ohio, we’d like him to at least give credit where credit is due. This funding was only possible because of Democratic leadership, and would not have been signed into law if DeWine had his way. Mike DeWine’s road show this week was an embarrassingly desperate attempt to remain relevant with voters who stopped supporting him long ago, ” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Matt Keyes.

Read more about what they’re saying about DeWine’s flip flop below:

Cleveland.com: Gov. Mike DeWine, Ohio Republicans tout spending from Democrats’ federal coronavirus aid law opposed by GOP

Jeremy Pelzer

“Gov. Mike DeWine, who’s facing re-election next year, has spent a lot of time this week publicizing proposals to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on grants for first-responders and water projects.

“But what the Greene County Republican neglects to mention when making these proposals is that the money is coming from the federal American Rescue Plan Act, a coronavirus relief bill passed by Democrats last spring over criticism from Republicans — including DeWine himself.

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“On Monday, DeWine staged a Statehouse press conference to propose giving another $250 million in ARPA money to provide grants to help police and other first responders.

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“DeWine also scheduled several media events around the state on Wednesday to publicize water-project grants funded by ARPA dollars.

“But back in March, shortly after President Joe Biden signed the $1.9 trillion federal relief package, DeWine — a former U.S. senator — said he would not have voted for the American Rescue Plan Act as it wasn’t bipartisan.

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“Many Republican lawmakers have also sought to take credit for the benefits brought by the American Rescue Plan Act without mentioning that no Republicans in Congress voted for the bill.”

The Columbus Dispatch Capitol Insider: Democrats call DeWine a hypocrite for touting federal funding he opposed

Darrel Rowland

“Kissing babies on the campaign trail has pretty much fallen by the wayside, but handing out government funds still works. Especially when it’s other people’s money that you didn’t want in the first place.

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“Gov. Mike DeWine is busy traveling Ohio touting large chunks of Washington’s largess — spending that the governor and other Republicans opposed.

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“The Democratic National Committee’s “war room” called out DeWine and two other GOP governors Wednesday for reaping the political reward when they and all Republicans in Congress opposed President Joe Biden’s stimulus funding earlier this year.”

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For Immediate Release:

Thursday, December 9, 2021

Toledo, OH — Today, Toledo elected officials and workers celebrated the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and discussed what it means for Ohio, as part of the Building Ohio Together Tour, organized by the Ohio Democratic Party and For Our Future Ohio.

“The infrastructure bill represents the largest infrastructure investment in American History, and will have meaningful results for working families here in Toledo, like clean water and water infrastructure for the 21st century and beyond,” said Chair Walters.

The bipartisan bill will create good-paying jobs and help Ohio businesses grow by investing in our roads, bridges, public transit, water pipes and broadband.

“It’s been seven years since that fateful day when many of us woke up to news that our water was not safe to drink. It’s a crisis none of us want to live through again and this bill puts meaningful investments in place to upgrade our water infrastructure and ensure clean drinking water for all our residents,” said Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz .

These critical investments in physical infrastructure will also be bolstered by Build Back Better legislation that will invest in human infrastructure, by cutting taxes and making life more affordable for working Ohioans.

“As the economy reopens, big corporations have taken advantage by raising costs and squeezing Ohioans. Corporate greed is the reason Ohioans are seeing everyday costs go up. That’s just one reason why we also have to pass Build Back Better,” said UAW Local 12 President Bruce Baumhower

Local leaders also discussed how these investments will help working families in Ohio get ahead and help communities like Toledo compete on a global stage.

More on the new infrastructure funding below:

• Ohio is expected to receive $9.2 billion for highways and $483 million for bridge replacement and repairs. [White House, 8/4/21]
• Ohio is expected to receive $1.2 billion to improve public transit. [White House, 8/4/21]
• Ohio is expected to receive $100 million in broadband funding, including providing high-speed internet access to the at least 259,000 Ohioans who lack it. [White House, 8/4/21]
• Ohio is expected to receive $1.4 billion over five years to improve water infrastructure across the state. [White House, 8/4/21]
• Ohio is expected to receive approximately $253 million for infrastructure development for airports. [White House, 8/4/21]

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For Immediate Release:

Wednesday, December 8, 2021

Columbus, OH — Today, Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters released the following statement thanking Ohio House Minority Leader Emilia Strong Sykes for her service to Ohio after she announced she will be stepping down as minority leader at the end of this year.

“Leader Sykes has been a steadfast champion for working Ohioans, always standing firm on the side of Ohioans amid some of the toughest challenges our state has faced. While Republican politicians continue to leave Ohioans behind, the House Democratic caucus under Leader Sykes has always put the needs of Ohio’s working families first. We’re grateful for her service to our state, and look forward to continuing our work with Leader Sykes to move our state forward,” said Chair Walters.

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Columbus, OH — According to a new column from WVXU’s Howard Wilkinson, Ohio’s GOP Senate primary has “descended into meanness and pettiness and just plain craziness unlike anything ever seen in Ohio Republican politics.” 

Wilkinson goes on to call the crowded race a “Dumpster fire of a Senate primary” and compares it to the Springfield tire fire in The Simpsons, a “smoking mountain of burning car tires smack in the middle of town that nobody can find a way to extinguish.” This follows a report last week from Fox News arguing “the showdown is fast becoming the most expensive and ugly GOP Senate contest in next year’s midterms.” 

WVXU: Analysis: GOP Senate primary may be Ohio’s ugliest ever

Howard Wilkinson 

December 8, 2021 

• This Republican U.S. Senate primary is something like the running gag in The Simpsons about the Springfield tire fire – a smoking mountain of burning car tires smack in the middle of town that nobody can find a way to extinguish.
• It just burns on and on, stinking up the town and driving the good townsfolk of Springfield insane.
• Yes, just like the Ohio GOP Senate primary, which has descended into meanness and pettiness and just plain craziness unlike anything ever seen in Ohio Republican politics.
• It’s all because five of the principal candidates – former state treasurer Josh Mandel, former Ohio GOP chairwoman Jane Timken, Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance, investment banker Mike Gibbons and car dealer Bernie Moreno – have spent most of the year crawling on their hands and knees to curry the favor of their Fearless Leader, Donald Trump.
• Donald Trump, who won Ohio’s electoral votes by 8 percentage points in both 2016 and 2020, is the object of their desire because these candidates seem to believe with every fiber of their beings that, come next May, GOP primary voters will blindly follow whichever candidate they believe to be the Trumpiest.
• “Republican politics in Ohio has taken a very abrupt right turn,” said David Niven, associate professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati. “Ohio has gone with reasonable, respectable Republicans to angry, mean-spirited candidates in the blink of an eye. It’s remarkable.”
• Ohio, Niven said, has had a long tradition of electing Republicans who were conservative, to be sure, but who could never be mistaken for extremist – people like George Voinovich, Rob Portman, Mike DeWine and John Kasich.
• You could never imagine one of the aforementioned Republicans saying the kind of things that Mandel – who seems to be the leader of the pack in inflammatory rhetoric – does, including saying that he refuses to call President Biden “president” because Donald Trump was really elected and the whole election was a fraud.
• Or how about this nugget Mandel dropped on Ohioans after President Biden issued a vaccine mandate for federal employees back in September:
• “Do not comply with the tyranny,” Mandel tweeted, in a rather ominous tone. “When the Gestapo show up at your door, you know what to do.”
• Andrew Weinstein, chair of the Democratic Lawyers Council, said that statement by Mandel amounted to “inciting violence and invoking a Nazi organization.”
• Strange as such rhetoric is, it is not the strangest thing going on in this Dumpster fire of a Senate primary.
• The strangest thing is the amount of money being spent to tear down Vance, formerly of Middletown and now a wealthy author and venture capitalist, whose campaign has benefited from a Super PAC funded by an even more successful venture capitalist, Peter Thiel, who backed Trump’s campaign.
• The Club for Growth, a conservative organization funded in large part by billionaires, has endorsed Mandel and has spent nearly $1 million so far in TV ads that do not mention Mandel but go after Vance with video of statements of he made in 2016 which were not exactly reverential toward Trump.
• “I’m a ‘Never Trump’ guy,” Vance says in one of the video clips. “I never liked him. As somebody who doesn’t like Trump, I might have to hold my nose and vote for Hillary Clinton.”
• Another clip: “I didn’t vote for Trump because I can’t stomach him. I think that he is noxious.”
• And there are a few bits from Twitter where the 2016-Vance calls Trump “reprehensible” and “an idiot.”
• Gibbons, who seems to enjoy filming TV ads on football fields, has spent $500,000 on a TV ad bashing Vance for the same statements, asking the question, “Who’s cheering for the wrong team?”
• The 2021-Vance loudly proclaims that he was a Trump fan in the 2020 campaign because he could see how much Trump meant to the working poor that Vance wrote about in Hillbilly Elegy.
• If all of this money is being spent to curry favor with Trump and win his endorsement – well, it’s not working.
• Trump, believe it or not, has been all over the Club for Growth’s back, complaining that the ads that feature Vance trashing Trump in 2016 are hurting his standing among Ohio voters, who voted for him twice in presidential elections.
• He can’t stand hearing anyone say anything negative about him. No way, no how.
• Typical Trump: It’s all about me.
• Of course, Trump hasn’t endorsed anybody in this race. He may never. He’s already got the one thing he wanted out of Ohio in 2022 – he helped force out northeast Ohio congressman Anthony Gonzalez, one of 10 GOP House members to vote to impeach Trump back in January.
• But somebody’s got to win this messed-up primary and whoever that may be is going to have to run statewide – where there are plenty of ‘Never Trump’ voters and Republicans who won’t transfer their love for Trump to someone else.
• “One of these Republicans is going to have to run statewide and that is an entirely different matter than running in a Republican primary, especially in a primary where loyalty to Trump is all the candidates talk about,” Niven said. “It will be a tough race.”
• In the end, all the crawling and begging for Trump’s approval the GOP Senate candidates are doing could only end up getting them scraped knees.

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