Yass says yass to V-PAC
A single billionaire may now have given more money to help elect Republican Vivek Ramaswamy as Ohio’s next governor than Democrat Amy Acton has received from all her donors combined.
Politico reported this week that Jeffrey Yass of Pennsylvania had made a “fresh ten-figure donation of cash” – in other words, at least $10 million – to V-PAC: Victors not Victims, a political action committee set up to support Ramaswamy’s run for governor in this year’s elections. The money will help fund even more attack ads against Acton that attempt to paint her as unqualified, erratic and too liberal.
That new contribution, which a source familiar with the group confirmed to Andrew, adds to the $20 million that Yass previously gave to V-PAC. The $30 million (at least) from Yass now exceeds the $21.8 million Acton has reported raising for her entire campaign, based on the most recent publicly available numbers. As a federal super PAC, V-PAC is allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money, unlike official campaign committees, which must follow state campaign finance limits.
The new check from Yass – who’s among the country’s biggest financial supporters of taxpayer-funded private school vouchers and other school choice programs – further contributes to Ramaswamy’s lopsided fundraising advantage. Ramaswamy and his allies have now spent or reserved $82.3 million on TV and digital ads this year, compared to $11.1 million in expected pro-Acton spending, according to Medium Buying, a Republican political ad tracking firm. Team Ramaswamy’s ads have been running all year, while most of the pro-Acton ads, including an $9.4 million campaign funded by the Democratic Governors Association, are set to begin after Labor Day.
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Polling suggests the attacks on Acton are working. (Acton said the same thing herself in a fundraising appeal this week.) An Aug. 13 poll from Fox News found 47% of Ohio voters had a negative view of Acton – up from 37% in June. Ramaswamy’s image was fundamentally unchanged during that time – although both polls, like others that have been publicly released, projected a very close or tied race.
Center stage
Republicans’ strategy to defeat Acton relies in part on convincing Ohio voters that she’s a liberal Democrat. But she’s taken a few conspicuous stances this year that align her in some instances more closely with Republicans.
As Andrew wrote this week, Acton has come out in support of Issue 3, the voter ID amendment, as well as Medicaid work requirements and Ohio’s ban on transgender girls and women participating in girls’ and women’s sports. Acton’s positions put her at odds with most Democrats, including repeated past statements from her running mate, former Ohio Democratic Party chair David Pepper.
Acton made a couple more policy announcements on Tuesday that burnish her centrist bona fides.
Appearing in Columbus to tout a new endorsement from the Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, the state’s second-largest police union, Acton announced her opposition to a longshot citizens’ effort to eliminate qualified immunity, the enhanced legal protections that cover police officers and other government officials. Acton also said she would not block local police from helping federal agencies enforce immigration laws.
“We always work with the federal law enforcement, and we will do so – whatever it takes to keep Ohioans safe,” Acton said, according to cleveland.com.
The OPBA, which represents 8,000 law enforcement officials statewide, announced other endorsements this week. They were a bipartisan variety pack, including Democrats Sherrod Brown and Jennifer Brunner for U.S. Senate and Ohio Supreme Court, respectively, and Republicans Keith Faber and Dan Hawkins for state auditor and Ohio Supreme Court.
Another state police union with nearly three times as many members, the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police, previously endorsed Vivek Ramaswamy, Jon Husted and the rest of the Republican statewide slate this year.
Sandusky County asks Supreme Court to kick disbarred judge off the ballot
The Ohio Supreme Court suspended Sandusky County Common Pleas Judge Jon Ickes for two years for a range of offenses, from conflicts of interest to uttering a racial slur in front of a Black defendant to nicknaming his staffers things like “dimebag Darrell.”
But the county board of elections declined to purge him from the ballot, even though he’d be legally unqualified to serve as a judge while suspended.
His opponent is asking the Ohio Supreme Court, a 6-1 Republican body that tends to err on the side of ballot inclusion, to either order Ickes off the ballot or stop the board of elections from counting votes for him to serve.
Read more about it from Jake here.
Political ad corner
- An offshoot of the Data Center Coalition has now spent as much as $35,000 on Facebook spots that argue data centers “make it all possible” – like healthcare and the economy.
- ClearPath Action Fund, a dark money super PAC that backs Republicans who support clean energy interests, has taken out some pro-Husted ads on Facebook. The League of Conservation Voters, an environmental advocacy group with similar but distinct interests of its own, has taken out ads criticizing Husted over his ties to the FirstEnergy/House Bill 6 scandal.
In the news
These Ohio companies expect hundreds of millions in tariff refunds. From P&G to Goodyear, several Ohio companies expect to receive as much as $200 million in refunds after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned President Trump’s tariffs. Most were quiet about refunding that money to customers. Read more by Jake Zuckerman.
What do Ohio’s governor candidates think about Flock cameras? Both Amy Acton and Vivek Ramaswamy say they have concerns: Neither major candidate has proposed eliminating Flock cameras altogether as privacy concerns about the company’s extensive surveillance network have gained political traction on the right and the left. Read more by Andrew Tobias.
Ohio universities spend tens of thousands on new syllabus rule, records show. For the first time this fall, institutions must publicly share details about undergraduate classes to comply with Senate Bill 1. Read more by Amy Morona.
Natural gas plant, brownfield solar farm get green light from Ohio regulators. The Ohio Power Siting Board issued its first permit to a grid-tied natural gas fired power plant since 2019. It also greenlit a solar farm planned on a former coal mine. Read more by Jake Zuckerman.
Gas prices take center stage in Ohio Senate race as Iran war persists. As the war hits its sixth month, Haley BeMiller of the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau takes a fresh look at Husted’s votes against reeling in the president’s war powers while telling reporters he wants a “brief” incursion.
‘Our grief is not raw material’ for Husted Senate ad, family says in call for removal. A friend of a family of three, including a one-year-old, killed in a car crash caused by a naturalized U.S. citizen called on the NRSC to stop using the photograph in pro-Husted ads about “dangerous illegals.” Read more from BeMiller.
U.S. judge blocks Ohio law requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration. Read more by Reuters’ Luc Cohen.
