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For Immediate Release:

Monday, April 18, 2022

Columbus, OH — In case you missed it, the Columbus Dispatch did a deep dive on Frank LaRose, once again highlighting that voters never know which Frank LaRose they’re going to get. On issues ranging from redistricting to election fraud to impeaching a Supreme Court Chief Justice, the only thing that we know about Frank LaRose for sure is that he’s a political phony with no principles who’ll do or say anything to help himself.

“[A]s he faces a primary challenge from the right this year, LaRose has danced around impeaching Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, blamed Democrats for primary election chaos and taken an increasingly pessimistic view on legislative mapmaking,” writes Laura Bischoff of the Dispatch.

“Each time LaRose speaks out of both sides of his mouth, it’s clear the only Ohioan he’s looking out for is himself. Instead of doing his job and standing up for Ohio voters, he’s laser-focused on running a losing Senate campaign in two years,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Matt Keyes.

Read more about when and where LaRose changed his stance here and below:

• But as he faces a primary challenge from the right this year, LaRose has danced around impeaching Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, blamed Democrats for primary election chaos and taken an increasingly pessimistic view on legislative mapmaking.
• LaRose tried to strike a statesman-like tone in August as he faced one of the most politically charged assignments of his career – craft congressional and state legislative district maps that abide by new rules in the Ohio Constitution.
• But at every turn, the Ohio Redistricting Commission, of which LaRose is a member, failed to reach a bipartisan agreement. Delays, disagreements and court challenges on the maps have created chaos, uncertainty and forced Ohio to have two primary elections.
• Six months after LaRose called for statesmanship, Ohio’s chief elections official threw up his hands in frustration, blamed the Supreme Court and said he wouldn’t oppose impeaching O’Connor.
• Following the 2020 election, LaRose praised Donald Trump’s decisive win in Ohio but conceded that Joe Biden won the presidency. “Under the rules in place, President Biden won,” LaRose said in December 2020.
• In an April 2022 interview when asked if Biden won, LaRose said the Democrat got 270 electoral votes, which was accepted by Congress and Biden is commander in chief.
• In 2019, when he referred for investigation 77 cases of potential voter fraud, LaRose said voter fraud and suppression are both “exceedingly rare and certainly not as systemic as some claim.”
• Then in 2022, after sending 62 cases of illegal voting to investigators, LaRose took a more alarmist tone. On Feb. 3, LaRose tweeted: “The alleged voter fraud uncovered by my office and referred for prosecution this week is ONLY THE BEGINNING. This is one of MANY investigations.” 
• Forty-two ballots represent 0.0007% of the 5.9 million ballots cast in the 2020 presidential election in Ohio. LaRose said his Feb. 3 tweet was in response to a CNN report on the referral of potential voter fraud that painted it as a non-issue.

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Columbus, OH — With barely two weeks left in one of the most crowded and expensive primaries in the country, Ohio’s GOP Senate candidates have ramped up their attacks on each other, with “mudslinging in all directions” creating a “hodgepodge of continuing controversy.” The race remains wide open and chaotic as the candidates go after one another in an increasingly ugly fashion.

Earlier this month, even Republican operatives like Kellyanne Conway were freely admitting how this crazy primary helps Tim Ryan’s chances in November.   

Cleveland.com: With mudslinging in all directions, Ohio’s Republican Senate candidates head for the big finish

Andrew Tobias and Seth Richardson

April 17, 2022

• Candidates in Ohio’s already hotly contested U.S. Senate race are turning up the heat even further, launching attacks against each other in all directions in the final days before the May 3 primary.
• A profane confrontation between Mike Gibbons and Josh Mandel last month that nearly turned physical. Comments Gibbons made during a podcast last October that suggested the middle class doesn’t pay its “fair share” of taxes. JD Vance attacking Mandel for hiding behind his Marine service. Jane Timken trying to steer the conversation toward her general election viability against Democrats. And Matt Dolan continuing to bill himself as above the fray.
• In total, the candidates have created a hodgepodge of continuing controversy with just two weeks of voting left to pick the Republican nominee to replace retiring GOP Sen. Rob Portman.
• Despite the vitriol, the candidates themselves are not far apart regarding the issues, including red-meat topics like guns and abortion, with so much of their attention turned toward courting the endorsement of former President Donald J. Trump. Vance scored the endorsement on Friday, putting to end months of speculation and deflating local Republicans’ last-minute effort to block the endorsement.
• Vance might be the most significant outlier as the lone candidate who has said he does not care what happens to Ukraine – a position the other candidates have attacked him for plenty.
• New campaign ads and interviews the candidates have given over the past week with Hugh Hewitt and Steve Bannon, two conservative media figures with dramatically different world views, help reveal what the candidates are focusing on as they hit the final days before the May 3 election.
• The candidates also have spent time mudslinging in all directions and continuing their attention-grabbing antics, illustrating what appears to be a fluid race in which four or five candidates appear to have a realistic chance of winning.
• In various interviews over the past week, Mandel also has rolled out a new talking point that puts a slightly friendlier face on what’s generally been a far-right, flame-throwing campaign of grievance: the other candidates are not “bad” people but aren’t senator material.
• In a Wednesday interview with Hugh Hewitt, the conservative radio host and Ohio native with a national program, Mandel bashed other leading candidates in the race while saying he’s trying to get Trump’s endorsement.
• “All of us are doing everything we can to earn his support and earn his endorsement,” Mandel said. “I think JD Vance and Jane Timken are two of the candidates who would still lose the race even if they did get the endorsement because they’re so far behind in the polls.”
• Gibbons, who’s been of particular focus of attacks given his surprising strength in various campaign polls, tried to turn the tables on everyone launching new attacks against Timken, Vance and Mandel while defending himself against criticism over his history of making business deals in China.
• Over last weekend, Gibbons had gone on the defensive after the Associated Press published a story highlighting comments about taxes he made in October during a podcast interview with Crain’s Cleveland Business.
• Specifically, as part of a lengthy answer about economic policy, Gibbons said Democrats advance what he called a “false narrative” that the wealthy aren’t paying their fair share of taxes at the expense of the middle class.
• “The top 20% of earners in the United States pay 82% of federal income tax — and, if you do the math, and 45% to 50% don’t pay any income tax, you can see the middle class is not really paying any kind of a fair share, depending on how you want to define it,” Gibbons said.
• Gibbons also has spent time cleaning up over attacks on his business connections in China, a popular theme in the race. A recent ad bashes Mandel, the former state treasurer, for loaning “tax dollars” to “Chinese business interests.”
• Timken has heavily invoked being the only woman in the race in recent weeks. During a debate last month, she scuffled with Gibbons over previous comments he’d made that women were not oppressed and saying Timken, a Harvard-educated attorney, hadn’t held a real job before entering politics.
• Some of the attacks Timken has received involve the business activities in China and Russia of the Timken Co., a Canton manufacturer founded and previously run by her husband’s family. Gibbons also has attacked Timken for “bankrolling tax-raising politicians,” which the ad says is a reference to Gov. Mike DeWine’s 2019 move to hike the state’s gas tax to pay for roads and bridges.

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For Immediate Release:
Friday, April 15, 2022
CONTACT: Cameron Keir, [email protected], 614-506-5413

Ohio Democrats Bring “Cost of Corruption” Tour to Youngstown

From the Largest Public Corruption Scandal in State History to Major Tax Breaks for the Wealthy, Ohioans are Paying Billions for Republican Corruption

Youngstown, OH —  Today, Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters and Ohio Young Democrats President Christopher Anderson brought the “Cost of Corruption” tour to Youngstown to highlight the high costs Ohioans are paying for GOP corruption under Mike DeWine’s leadership.

Ohio Democrats drew the contrast between the high cost of Republican corruption and the Democratic plan to invest in working families and put the interests of working Ohioans first.

“At a time when too many Ohioans are worried about high costs and making ends meet, Mike DeWine and his fellow Republicans are making you pay the price for their corruption while Democrats are laser-focused on investing in working families,” said Chair Walters.

Under Mike DeWine’s leadership, Ohioans are paying billions for GOP corruption as Republican politicians look to line their own pockets and the pockets of dark money interest groups, all while leaving hard-working Ohioans behind.

Ohio Democrats are offering a better way forward.

“While Republicans are costing you billions, Ohio Democrats are investing over $9 billion federal dollars to fix highways across Ohio, $100 million to bring broadband to those that don’t have it and $1.4 billion to assure clean and safe drinking water is available every time you turn on the tap,” said President Anderson.

Ohioans are paying BILLIONS of dollars for GOP corruption at Mike DeWine’s statehouse, including:

• $287,000 every single day for subsidies that bail out an out-of-state coal plant and are tied to the largest public corruption scandal in state history. The subsidies are estimated to cost Ohioans up to $1.8 billion by 2030. 
• $9 billion for special interest tax giveaways that mostly benefit for-profit corporations.
• $1.85 billion in tax breaks for the wealthy and well-connected, including wealthy GOP lawmakers who leave working Ohioans behind. 
• $118 million in improper Medicaid payments made to ineligible dead or incarcerated individuals.
• $17.5 million settlement for a man who was paralyzed after being tackled by state prison guards.
• $9 million for the election chaos created by Republicans who refuse to pass fair maps. Their refusal to do their jobs will likely make a May 3 primary impossible, likely costing Ohioans another $20 million.
• $763,000 and counting to litigate the GOP-gerrymandered maps in court.  
• $39,000 for Mike DeWine’s private airplane travel to taxpayer-funded photo ops in 2019.

At a time when Ohio families are worried about their ability to make ends meet, the last thing they should be spending their hard-earned money on is the corruption running rampant at Mike DeWine’s statehouse. Ohio Democrats are ready to offer a better way forward.

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April 15, 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. 

As the Republican Senate primary continues to sink lower and lower, 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.

“Ohio’s crowded Republican Senate primary is one of the most incendiary and expensive in the country.” –Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser, 4/15/22

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

NOT A REGISTERED REPUBLICAN. In response to a report that Trump is considering endorsing J.D. Vance, the other Ohio GOP candidates and their allies have sprung into attack mode –  creating even more nasty infighting. A group of GOP activists sent a letter to Trump begging him to reconsider. The letter revisits Vance’s extensive anti-Trump comments – calling Trump “another opioid,” “noxious,” and saying his policy proposals range from “immoral to absurd” – while also opening up a new line of attack: “Importantly, JD Vance is not a registered Republican. To have someone who has not voted in a Republican primary carrying the mantel for the party is troubling.” Wherever Trump goes, there’s only going to be more nasty infighting and chaos to follow! 

TERRIBLE TAX RECORDS. After comments surfaced of Gibbons saying the middle class doesn’t pay enough in taxes (easy for a millionaire like Gibbons to say!), Gibbons put out an ad attacking Vance and Timken for supporting tax hikes, saying, “J.D. Vance called for higher taxes and Jane Timken bankrolled tax-raising politicians.” When there’s mudslinging, no one comes out clean. And every day, the out-of-touch GOP millionaires running for U.S. Senate do their best to make this primary as nasty as possible. 

HANDPICKED BY MITCH MCCONNELL. On “Always Right With Bob Frantz,” Mike Gibbons went after Silicon Valley Vance for being handpicked to run for U.S. Senate by Mitch McConnell. Granted in 2018, Vance would have still been a D.C. resident and would have had to give up his cushy Big Tech lifestyle to take on a popular sitting senator and risk being revealed for the phony he is. The knives are out! 

FORGET ALL THEIR NONSENSE. Matt Dolan, presumably feeling left out of all the infighting happening without him, made one last bid for relevance by lambasting the entire field. In a new ad, Dolan says, “My opponents are focused on name-calling instead of results. They attack and insult each other. Even had a near fistfight. So forget all their nonsense.” Apparently RINO Matt is taking a page from the Michelle Obama “When they go low, we go high” playbook.

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! 

For Immediate Release:

Friday, April 14, 2022

Columbus, OH — Following Donald Trump’s endorsement of J.D. Vance, Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Michael Beyer released the following statement:

“With one of the nastiest and most expensive Senate races in the country already at fever pitch this week, Trump’s endorsement will only pour gasoline on this intraparty brawl and make it even harder for Republicans to coalesce around whatever out-of-touch millionaire hobbles out of this chaotic primary.”

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