ICYMI: Review Times: Money Flows Fast In Race For Senate Seat
December 13, 2021
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.