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Millionaire Jane Timken’s fiscal priorities apparently don’t align with Ohio workers, as she calls President Biden’s popular infrastructure proposal ‘radical spending’ and ‘the absolute wrong policy,’ criticism that flies in the face of a majority of voters who support the plan. The reason the plan is so popular is because it actually addresses the needs of Ohioans by repairing Ohio’s roads and bridges, expanding broadband and creating jobs for Ohio workers. And President Biden is paying for it by holding companies who ship jobs overseas accountable and finally making them pay their fair share, companies whose CEOs Timken is likely palling around with at RNC fundraisers for big-dollar donors.

While Jane Timken invests millions of dollars of personal wealth into her campaign to advance her own political interests, she considers any investment in Ohio workers ‘radical spending,’ showing just how out of touch Timken really is with the needs of working Ohioans.

“For years, Ohio has watched its roads crumble and jobs leave the state under Republican rule, and apparently that’s the campaign platform Jane Timken is choosing to run on. While Democrats are working to fix the state’s infrastructure and put Ohioans back to work, millionaire Jane Timken is standing strong against any plan that invests in working families and forces her wealthy CEO friends to pay their fair share,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

Timken’s criticism of the American Jobs Plan follows her equally confusing criticism of the American Rescue Plan, which has helped millions of Ohioans get vaccinated, put money in the pockets of Ohio workers and help small businesses around the state reopen. Timken went so far as to tell extremist Steve Bannon, ‘we must stand up and fight against’ the American Rescue Plan. Meanwhile, the Rescue Plan continues to enjoy wide bipartisan support across the state.

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In Case You Missed It, today Laura Bischoff with the Columbus Dispatch reported that Mike DeWine’s hand-picked utility regulator Sam Randazzo, who had long ties to FirstEnergy and who has been implicated in the HB 6 scandal, is now scrambling to sell off real estate properties for hundreds of thousands of dollars as he’s being investigated by the FBI, moves that don’t exactly scream ‘I’m innocent.’ DeWine rushed through Randazzo’s appointment in 2019 to lead the state’s Public Utilities Commission in Ohio despite his ties to the industry and warnings even within his own party that Rendazzo’s ties FirstEnergy were problematic.

DeWine’s team recruited Randazzo for the job, ignored a dossier sent by fellow Republicans that raised serious concerns with his ties to FirstEnergy and rushed him through the screening process. Randazzo was then implicated in the HB 6 scandal after FirstEnergy revealed it made a $4 million payment to the head of a consulting firm that matched Randazzo’s description. The FBI raided Randazzo’s home in November and Randazzo is now selling off multiple properties for millions of dollars, including a Florida home near HB 6 ringleader Larry Householder and former FirstEnergy Executive Chuck Jones.

Despite Randazzo’s apparent ties to the HB 6 scandal, DeWine remains defiant about his selection of Randazzo, saying that “I think he’s (Randazzo) a good person” and “he has done very, very good work as chair.” As a reminder to Ohio voters who are still paying for the HB 6 bailout, DeWine also said after Randazzo resigned as chair, that “The buck stops with me. I’m the one who ultimately makes those decisions.”

“Mike DeWine ignored warnings even within his own party, rushed the process and appallingly appointed Sam Randazzo — a man with long ties to FirstEnergy — to serve as the energy regulator for the state of Ohio. Now, as it becomes clearer that Randazzo likely played a major role in the HB 6 scandal — which Ohio voters continue to pay for — DeWine’s only response is that Randazzo is ‘a good person.’ While Mike DeWine would love to pretend the HB 6 scandal is behind him, more comes out every day about how deep this crisis goes within his circle of friends and advisors,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

Read more from Laura Bischoff HERE and below:

• After FBI agents searched his German Village condo in November, attorney Samuel Randazzo began off loading real estate holdings worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
• In February, he transferred ownership of a house in the Columbus suburb of Grandview that he bought in 2013 for $346,000 to Samuel Brewster Randazzo for no money. In March, he sold a house in nearby Marble Cliff for $615,950, less than five months after buying it for $600,000.
• Randazzo is in contract to sell his 2,836-square-foot waterfront condo in Naples for an estimated $3.9 million, according to Redfin. 
• Randazzo resigned as chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio in November, following the FBI raid and a disclosure by FirstEnergy Corp. that it paid $4.3 million in January 2019 to an unnamed individual who subsequently was appointed as a state utility regulator.
• Randazzo’s condo in Naples is a mile from ocean-front condos owned by the now former chief executive of Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp, public records show.
• Chuck and Kimberly Jones purchased a condo for $6.35 million in September – just a month before FirstEnergy fired Chuck Jones and two senior vice presidents. The company said the three failed to tell the board of directors about the $4.3 million payment. The Joneses also own another condo in the same complex that they bought in 2008, Collier County property records show.
• Lobbyist Neil Clark owned a condo five miles north of Jones’ properties. Clark sold his place for $750,000 on July 15, just a week before his arrest on federal racketeering charges in the House Bill 6 case. The IRS had placed a lien against the property for unpaid taxes and fees. Clark died by suicide in Florida on March 15.
• Clark was among five Republicans charged in U.S. District Court in what prosecutors call the biggest public corruption case in Ohio history. FirstEnergy lobbyist Juan Cespedes and political operator Jeff Longstreth pleaded guilty in October. State Rep. Larry Householder, the former House speaker, and former Ohio GOP chairman Matt Borges have pleaded not guilty.
• Householder owns a Naples condo, which records show he purchased in 2009. His place is less than 10 miles from the Randazzo and Jones properties.
• FirstEnergy disclosed last week that it is in early talks with the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio to get a deferred prosecution agreement. In such deals, a party agrees to pay fines, change behaviors and cooperate with prosecutors. In exchange, the government agrees not to pursue a criminal conviction.

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In Case You Missed It, today Cleveland.com reported that dark-money Super PAC USA Freedom Fund is going on the air this weekend with ads in support of dark money darling Josh Mandel that will only make the already messy Ohio Senate Republican primary even messier. In what’s surely a sign of things to come, the Freedom Fund ad goes after J.D. Vance for his flip-flops on Trump; Jane Timken for outsourcing that occurred at TimkenSteel, where her husband previously served as CEO; and Mike Gibbons for investing in overseas companies with questionable political ties.

It also hilariously attempts to portray Josh Mandel as a ‘proven winner’ after he lost the 2012 Senate race and dropped out of the race in 2018.

“Republican candidates are doing a great job of helping to make our case for us. As they tie themselves in knots attacking each other and increasing the level of vitriol in their primary daily, they’re reminding voters just how uniquely unqualified each of them are to serve in the U.S. Senate,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

Adding even more intrigue to the Republican infighting is the connection of USA Freedom Fund to Rep. Jim Jordan, whose campaign treasurer also works for political groups connected to the Super PAC.

Read more about the attack ads HERE and below:

• More than a year before the election, the first attack ads in what’s expected to be a nasty Republican U.S. Senate primary in Ohio are hitting the airwaves this weekend.
• A group called the USA Freedom Fund is running the ads, which boost former State Treasurer Josh Mandel while attacking some of his Republican opponents, former Ohio Republican Party Chairman Jane Timken, investment banker Mike Gibbons and author/investor JD Vance, who hasn’t declared his candidacy but is expected to do so. Tom Datwyler, the treasurer for USA Freedom Fund, also is the treasurer for Mandel’s Senate campaign.
•  It’s expected to be among the most expensive primaries of the 2022 election season.
• USA Freedom Fund is a Super PAC, which means it’s allowed to accept and spend unlimited amounts of money to support political candidates, as long as it doesn’t coordinate with any candidate or political party. It appears to be structured as a dark money group, a term that applies to political organizations that attempt to make it difficult to track the source of their money.
• The group was created on April 29, 2020, and funded shortly after that by a $320,000 contribution from a different Super PAC called the Ohio Freedom Fund. 
• The Ohio Freedom Fund got much of its money for the 2020 election — about $257,500 out of $299,000 raised — from another group called Invest in Ohio, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that doesn’t have to disclose its donors. The Ohio Freedom Fund’s only named donor is Leo Hawk of Lima, who gave $12,500 in October 2020.
• The Ohio Freedom Fund’s treasurer is Datwyler, who also is Invest in Ohio’s principal officer. Datwyler also serves as campaign treasurer for U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan.

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Columbus, OH — Today, the Ohio Democratic Party welcomed Vice President Kamala Harris to Ohio as she visits Cincinnati to talk about critical infrastructure investments that will not only fix Ohio’s roads and bridges, but will also lead to more jobs for Ohio workers. 

Vice President Harris’ visit comes on the heels of President Biden’s first 100 days in office during which — with the help of Sen. Brown and Ohio Democrats — the American Rescue Plan was signed into law, which has already helped millions of Ohioans get their COVID-19 vaccines, helped small businesses reopen and put money back in the pockets of working Ohioans. 

“Just 100 days in, Ohio has already benefited from President Biden’s and Vice President Harris’ commitment to Ohio working families and their focus on helping our state recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Ohioans are seeing shots in arms, money in pockets and small businesses around the state reopening. Building on that success, Vice President Harris came to Ohio today to talk infrastructure, because she knows that our state is in dire need of infrastructure investments and that we have the best workers in the world to make our infrastructure the envy of the world once again,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party. 

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Columbus, OH — As President Biden marks his first 100 days in office today, Ohio is on the road to recovery and building back better thanks to the American Rescue Plan passed with the help of Sen. Brown and Ohio Democrats. The Rescue Plan is enjoying wide bipartisan support across the state as millions of Ohioans have now gotten their shots, have received $1,400 checks to make ends meet and have watched small businesses in their neighborhoods open up and hire more Ohio workers. 

Yet Republicans vying to represent those Ohioans in the Senate all remain firmly against it. 

“Ohio voters deserve to hear from Republicans running for Senate about why they opposed critical help for our state at a time when we needed that help the most. What else are these candidates willing to play politics with, besides a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic?” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party. 

Read more below about what Republicans are saying about the critical relief package: 

Jane Timken Said “We have to stand up and fight against” COVID Relief and “I would vote against it” 

Josh Mandel Attacked Provisions in the Package that will Secure Retirements for Ohio Workers: 

Bernie Moreno just went the conspiracy theory route:

As they’re traveling around Ohio, attempting to talk about anything other than actual policy proposals, Republican candidates should be held accountable for their opposition to the Rescue Plan and be asked to explain why they oppose critical relief that has done so much to put  Ohio on the road to recovery. 

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