Plunderbund » Campaign Finance

[Correction:] Building a Better Ohio raised only a little over a third of what it planned on raising

ModernEsquire — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 22:54:13 +0000

Back in the end of July, the Columbus Dispatch did an insightful story on how Building a Better Ohio was planning on getting voters to approve Issue 2 at the polls:

The group formed to defend Senate Bill 5 believes the same Quinnipiac University poll released July 20 that showed voters favor repeal of Ohio’s new collective-bargaining law by 24 points also provides a road map of “pressure points” that can change minds before the Nov. 8 referendum.

And with three months until the vote and a $20 million budget, the coalition of Gov. John Kasich confidants and [...]

[Ad Fact Check:] We Are Ohio’s second ad

ModernEsquire — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 14:56:04 +0000

The second ad from We Are Ohio that largely focuses on our Senate staffer raises story:

The ad very carefully uses the phrase “exploits” a loophole. But what the ad omits is that the loophole they refer to is one that was not created by SB 5, and thus, will still exist if Issue 2 fails. For your convenience, here’s a copy of the relevant portion of SB 5 referenced in the bill (revising R.C. 124.14(B):

But as shown from this provision of SB 5, this loophole existed before SB 5 was [...]

John Kasich gets an independent expenditure group to start pushing his budget and agenda

ModernEsquire — Tue, 10 May 2011 15:01:49 +0000

Four days ago, a new “independent” expenditure group was formed called “One Ohio United.” Right now, it’s primary focus appears to be promoting Kasich’s “Jobs” Budget as this television ad shows (note: we have not confirmed this ad is actually airing anywhere, yet) The group appears to be headed by a "Mike Morris," who we believe is the same Mike Morris that Chairs the Ohio Business Roundtable as well as the CEO of AEP. The group also names the CEO of ScottsMiracle-Gro as one of its members, which is interesting since he endorsed Ted Strickland in a campaign ad last year. Mea culpa?

Rupert Murdoch admits it—he’s using his media empire to circumvent Ohio’s campaign finance laws

ModernEsquire — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 12:34:00 +0000

Back in May, News Corp. Chairman/CEO Rupert Murdoch and his wife donated $10,000 each to John Kasich’s campaign. Shortly after that, News Corp. gave $1 million to the Republican Governors’ Association.

In yesterday’s Politico, Murdoch admitted that he had his company’s PAC make the donation solely to help out John Kasich. When asked if he ever considered how such an one-sided partisan donation could affect Fox News’ credibility, he said:

“It doesn’t reflect on Fox News,” he said. “It had nothing to do with Fox News. The RGA [gift] was actually [a result of] my friendship with John [...]

Happy misleading Statewide candidates August campaign finance reporting day!

ModernEsquire — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:50:56 +0000

Yep, today’s the deadline for the Statewide candidates (except for the U.S. Senate) to report their August fundraising haul. And yet again, they don’t actually have to report their spending, so any cash-on-hand figures you see bandied about is highly misleading and shouldn’t be trusted. That’s why I’m not going to run them in this post.

We’ll update this post as the reports are filed today.

Governor:

Governor Ted Strickland (D): $1.4 million. A $72k donation by the Franklin County Democratic Party, but no sizeable donation from the Ohio Democratic Party. This is the first report where ODP [...]

OH-18: FEC orders Gibbs to refund/dispose of illegal donations, including from the Ohio GOP

ModernEsquire — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:14:34 +0000

The Federal Elections Commission has notified State Senator Bob Gibbs (R), who is challenging Congressman Zach Space, that he must return over $50,000 in donations because they exceeded the lawful maximum donation amounts under federal law. As BSB already noted, that’s around 25% of Gibbs’ most recent cash-on-hand total.

Over half of that amount is based on donations made by the Ohio Republican Party. And despite getting a massive amount of apparently, illegal, donations from the Ohio GOP, Gibbs was still facing a 6:1 cash-on-hand disadvantage to Space.

Two weeks ago, I noted how the NRCC [...]

Karl Rove’s American Crossroads curious defense against ODP’s allegation for illegal coordination.

ModernEsquire — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 01:57:16 +0000

The Columbus Dispatch reports with little appreciation of the significance of what they’re reporting:

This prompted American Crossroads to issue an “Are you kidding?” reply. The organization’s law firm said that all photos and video of Portman used in the commercial came from “public domain sources,” such as the Internet and YouTube. “Absolutely no material used in the ad was obtained from the Portman campaign web site or in any other way from the Portman campaign.”

So let me get this straight. Karl Rove’s American Crossroads defense is because they got the materials from Rob Portman Senate campaign’s [...]

Yet another great moment in Columbus Dispatch journalism

ModernEsquire — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 18:58:48 +0000

Mike DeWine took in over three times from the Ohio Republican Party that Richard Cordray took in from the Ohio Democratic Party. In fact, in the final week of the reporting period, a majority of DeWine’s donations came from the Ohio GOP.

So, of course, the Columbus Dispatch’s Daily Briefing Blog criticizes Cordray for how much he took from ODP.

Makes perfect sense.

[UPDATED:] 1st Statewide monthly reports due today

ModernEsquire — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 19:07:03 +0000

Today is the deadline for the statewide candidates to file their monthly July reports for contributions which will continue through October.

*They only need to report contributions, not expenditures (although some do), so the cash on hand figures will be highly misleading into the Pre-General Election filing due in October. We’ll have additional month contribution reports for August and September.

My expectations are that Kasich should lead with the most raised this month as his schedule in July demonstrated that he was working to have the best report possible. In attention to a number of high-dollar business fundraising events he [...]

ABJ is “outraged” over (Republican) campaign finance allegations about Cordray

ModernEsquire — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 20:00:39 +0000

The Akron Beacon Journal let’s Ohioans know just how outrageous the allegations against Rich Cordray’s campaign finance reports are:

Oh, the outrage!

The Republicans’ hollow rage at political money transfer Published on Tuesday, Aug 03, 2010

…

“What is amusing is the outrage from Arshinkoff and fellow Republicans, themselves masters at moving political money. Arshinkoff’s GOP organization casts a wide net, and is a major donor to statewide candidates. During the Taft re-election campaign, Ohio Republicans routed corporate contributions (illegal in Ohio) to the national party, which then supported Taft. The Franklin County Republican Party was caught money [...]