Who’s Funding Issue 1 Campaigns?
Yep, both sides are taking money from out-of-state donors.
The campaigns for and against Issue 1 are relying heavily on donors from California to Washington, D.C. as they blast the influence of special interests on Ohio politics.
Just a reminder of how this all started. The issue, if passed, would require 60% of the vote to enact new constitutional amendments and change the signature-gathering process for citizen amendments. Ohio Republicans pushed for the August election to preempt a November ballot question that would enshrine abortion rights in the constitution.
The Ohio Republicans came up with a transparently disingenuous ploy to “protect” the constitution from supposedly indiscriminate amendments being pushed by outside interests with big money…
…like State Issue 1 is being pushed by outside interests with big money.
There is just a little more than a week until the single-issue August special election and now we are learning where the campaign funding is coming from.
Both sides of the issue have condemned the influence of outside special interests in Ohio elections, but both sides of the campaign are bringing in millions of dollars from out of state. Passage of this issue, they claim, is needed to stop powerful special interests from meddling in Ohio’s constitution.
The “yes” side…
has money coming into funds called Protect Women Ohio and Protect Women Ohio Action, INC.
Protect Women Ohio reported $9.7 million, with $8.1 million coming from out of state, about 83.64%. All but $4,639 of that out-of-state money comes from Virginia. The Protect Women Ohio Action Fund is registered to a Virginia address and reports $5.2 million, all out-of-state money. That fund has contributed at least $2 million to the Protect Women Ohio PAC.
As well as…
The Protect Our Constitution Political Action Committee has filed documents showing $4.8 million total. It has spent $1.5 million, mostly on advertising, research, and fundraising. According to finance filings, $4.1 million (85.66%) came from out of state, with $4 million contributed by an Illinois billionaire named Richard Uihlein.
The “no” side…
“One Person One Vote,” an organization that is reporting $14.8 million raised, with $12.4 million (83.94%) coming from out of state. Of that out-of-state money, $4.3 million is from California and $5.9 million from Washington DC.
All in all, this stacks up to be over 80% of ALL campaign money being spent coming from outside of Ohio.
So yeah, how does 60/40 revamp stop outside-of-state money flowing in? I see it only increasing, with the higher stakes for both sides.
Other items that are swaying my thoughts.
1) The Ohio Constitution has been amended 127 times since Ohio voters approved the recommendation of the 1912 Constitutional Convention to adopt the initiative and referendum to create ways to get around an unresponsive general assembly. Ohioans have been very judicious about the use of constitutional initiatives. Of 71 proposed amendments since 1912, only 19 have been approved (27%).
But the general assembly gets to keep their simple majority rule.
So who’s drunk on their own power?
2) State lawmakers who PREVIOUSLY questioned the integrity of the 2020 election because of mail-in voting are now encouraging absentee voting.
Disingenuous indeed.
Ignore the ads - do your research - we will survive.