So how’s Secretary of State and U.S. Senate candidate, Frank LaRose’s (R. OH), big plan to suppress the will of the people and end abortion rights in Ohio? Well, the numbers indicate not so well:
A total of 255,305 people voted early in-person through last Friday — the most recent absentee report posted. For context, that’s about 118,000 more than all the early in-person votes cast during last year’s primary election. It’s also not far behind the in-person totals through a similar point in last year’s general election.
Absentee ballot figures are flying past the 2022 primary as well. The 250,886 ballots requested for this August’s election represents a 37% increase on the number of requests boards had seen a week out from election day. The current figure isn’t that far off from the 300,765 ballots requested during the entirety of last year’s primary.
So far, voters have turned in 134,721 absentee ballots either in the mail, in-person or via dropboxes. That’s more than double the amount returned by a week out in last May’s primary.
The deadline to request an absentee ballot is August 1.
So now he’s pathetically begging his primary rivals to bail him out:
In a press release and on social media, LaRose asked his Republican opponents in the U.S. Senate race, state Sen. Matt Dolan and car salesman Bernie Moreno, to contribute $1 million apiece to help fund the State Issue 1 campaign in its closing days. Election Day is Aug. 8.
LaRose asked both men to “stand united” and make a “significant financial investment” to pay for television ads and voter turnout efforts. Both Dolan and Moreno, unlike LaRose, are extremely wealthy.
“My opponents have the personal financial ability to help us win this, and I hope they’ll step up,” LaRose said.
Moreno has “quietly donated six figures of his own money” to the effort, according to a statement from his campaign manager, David DiStefano.
“As of right now, we are unaware of any similar personal contribution from LaRose, but we are excited to announce that Bernie has agreed to match dollar-for-dollar any personal donation that Frank decides to give,” DiStefano said.
Campaign-finance records from Protect Our Constitution, the primary campaign backing Issue 1, don’t reflect any contribution from Moreno, LaRose or Dolan.
Moreno’s campaign provided a screenshot showing Moreno contributed $100,000 to Protect Women Ohio Fund LLC. Protect Women Ohio is the campaign to thwart a looming November abortion-rights referendum, and it has also been advocating for the passage of State Issue 1.
A spokeswoman for Dolan said he’s not joining any intra-GOP “gimmicks” or drama.
A lawsuit challenging the abortion rights constitutional amendment proposal should be expedited in the Ohio Supreme Court, according to briefs filed late Monday afternoon by both backers of the proposed amendment and Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who opposes it.
LaRose and supporters of the proposed amendment each submitted briefs to the Supreme Court, supporting a request by the two Southwest Ohioans who filed the lawsuit that the case be expedited, as well as addressing the overall arguments of the suit, filed Friday. LaRose and the backers, in their responses to the overall suit, didn’t present many counter arguments but stated they each reserved the right to add additional defenses during court proceedings.
Time may be of the essence.
Last week, LaRose, a Republican who personally opposes abortion rights, told Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights that it obtained enough signatures of registered voters for the amendment they’re backing to qualify for the Nov. 7 election.
It seems like every has some beef with LaRose:
Frank LaRose has been in the Ohio Senate slugfest for ten days and is already facing an ethics complaint for his sketchy shadow campaign, filed by an Ohio Republican. The complaint alleges that Frank LaRose “illegally ran a de-facto campaign for the U.S. Senate for months without disclosing how it was funded.”
This isn’t the first time LaRose’s sketchy shadow campaign has raised legal questions and ethics concerns– including that his super PAC is being run by the same operatives behind the largest corruption scandal in state history. Earlier this year, the Daily Beast found that LaRose had “possibly trigger[ed] campaign finance regulations” by admitting he was raising money into a super PAC.
Ohioans – including his opponent Bernie Moreno– have been slamming LaRose for weeks for “campaigning out of his office” and being more focused on his political agenda than doing his job.
People seeking a federal office like the U.S. Senate officially become a candidate when they raise or spend $5,000 in that effort. The same $5,000 cap applies to third parties spending on a candidate’s behalf as well.
Once a candidate, the clock starts ticking for an individual to file a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission. They have 15 days to file, and their primary committee has another 10 days to post its disclosures. Candidates also face limits on how much money they can raise from individuals and groups.
So-called “testing the waters” provisions, though, complicate those requirements. Potential candidates can go well beyond that $5,000 ceiling to explore their bid through polling and other activities. The catch is, once they are a candidate, they have to retroactively report that spending.
Secretary LaRose publicly announced his candidacy July 17, but his intentions were among the most poorly kept secrets in Ohio politics.
Ten days before his announcement he posted a blurry version of what would eventually be his campaign logo on Twitter. Months before that, NBC News reported LaRose was telling donors he was planning to join the race soon.
Around the same time, the Columbus Dispatch noted he was encouraging donors to give to Leadership for Ohio Fund, an outside political group closely associated with LaRose.
The FEC complaint, filed by Cleveland Tea Party founder Ralph King, zeroes in on those early May communications. King contends LaRose knew then he was going to run, and so he was “outside the lines of testing the waters,” when he was raising money through Leadership for Ohio Fund.
Let’s get ready to humiliate LaRose next week with a big defeat:
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