Big Ohio donors to GOP group behind Nan Whaley attack ad include DeWine appointees, state contractors

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Republican group now airing a TV advert to assist Gov. Mike DeWine’s re-election this 12 months has acquired big-dollar donations from DeWine appointees to state boards and firms that do enterprise with the state, public data present.

The Republican Governors Affiliation’s marketing campaign arm, the RGA Proper Path PAC, has spent $570,000 up to now on a assault advert towards DeWine’s Democratic opponent, ex-Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, according to AdImpact, a agency that tracks spending on political promoting. The 30-second advert began airing on broadcast and cable stations Tuesday, in line with AdImpact, and blasts Whaley for her report as mayor.

The RGA additionally helped DeWine win what might have been a tricky Republican major in Could, giving $2.25 million to Free Ohio PAC and Ohioans for Free and Truthful Elections, two teams that ran pro-DeWine advertisements earlier this 12 months.

A cleveland.com/The Plain Vendor evaluation of RGA’s tax filings and different public data discovered greater than $1.4 million was given to the RGA through the first six months of 2022 by Ohio donors who both acquired a state appointment from DeWine or have acquired state contracts.

These donors embody Cincinnati-based well being insurer Anthem Blue Cross Blue Defend ($500,000), which gives medical insurance to state workers; CareSource Administration Companies of Dayton, which presents Ohio’s largest Medicaid managed care plan ($406,500); and GPD Group ($100,000), an Akron planning and engineering firm that has contracts with the Ohio Turnpike and different state entities.

Donations to the RGA this 12 months from people who bought state appointments from DeWine embody $100,000 from Brent Bishop, whom DeWine named to the College of Toledo Board of Trustees; $100,000 from Delev and Associates, whose managing companion, Greg Delev, was appointed to the Ohio Increased Academic Facility Fee; and $25,000 from Michael Kiggin, a longtime DeWine pal whom the governor appointed to the Ohio State College Board of Trustees in 2019.

Bishop and Delev have been appointed to their respective positions on Dec. 10, 2021, and every made their RGA donations precisely a month later.

One other massive contribution to the RGA got here from Cleveland-based Sherwin Williams, which gave $100,000. The corporate bought $70 million in interest-free loans from the state final 12 months to assist construct a brand new headquarters in downtown Cleveland and a supporting facility in Brecksville.

Different massive Ohio donors to the RGA have been American Electrical Energy, the Central Ohio utility, which gave $250,000; Jim Dicke, a longtime GOP donor who represents Ohio on the Republican Nationwide Committee ($100,000); Beachwood businessman Richard Horvitz ($70,000); Neighborhood Selection Monetary ($40,000), a payday lender in suburban Columbus; and the Truthful Gaming Coalition of Ohio ($25,000), a consortium of bowling alleys, bars and different companies pushing to be included within the upcoming legalization of sports activities playing in Ohio.

DeWine is taken into account the frontrunner on this 12 months’s race for Ohio governor. His re-election marketing campaign isn’t precisely in dire want of economic assist from outdoors teams, as he’s persistently raised far extra money than Whaley has.

On Tuesday, DeWine marketing campaign spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin famous that, as required underneath campaign-finance legal guidelines, the governor’s marketing campaign workers didn’t know in regards to the advert spending till it was made public.

McLaughlin didn’t straight deal with a query in regards to the donations to the RGA by appointees and firms with state enterprise.

“Essentially the most newsworthy a part of this story is that Democrats are placing up a nominee for governor with such an astonishingly failed report,” she mentioned in an announcement.

Courtney Rice, a spokeswoman for the Whaley marketing campaign, known as the brand new assault advert “wildly disingenuous,” saying it tied funds cuts from 10 years in the past, earlier than Whaley grew to become mayor, a tax levy Dayton voters accredited in 2016 and crime charges in 2022, after she left workplace.

Cleveland.com/The Plain Vendor has reached out to an RGA spokesman for remark.

The RGA is scheduled to make its subsequent disclosure, recording fundraising and spending actions for the third quarter of 2022, with the IRS in October.

Throughout the 2018 general-election marketing campaign, the Proper Path PAC additionally reserved a whole bunch of hundreds of {dollars} price of TV advert time to assist DeWine.