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Dayton Business Journal...
Politicians fill war
chests for ‘nasty’ election season
Saturday, October 1, 2011
By Joe Cogliano
Fundraising for the 2012 Congressional elections is swinging into high
gear and the money promises to go toward a lively election fight,
especially in Ohio.
Political observers say a heated political climate — with Republicans
and Democrats blaming the other for the battered economy — along with
redrawn Congressional districts that will force two Dayton-area
incumbent representatives to likely run against each other in the
spring, will fuel a mad dash to raise and spend money during the next
13 months.
Candidates in the Dayton region have raised more than $1 million so
far, which doesn’t include the more than $6.4 million raised by House
Speaker John Boehner, R-West Chester.
“This is likely to be the priciest election in history,” said Michael
Beckel, a spokesperson for the Center for Responsive
Politics /opensecrets.org. “The flood of money coming
in, not only to candidates’ own campaign chests, but also to outside
groups will be staggering.”
With low approval ratings for President Barack Obama and Congress,
Republicans see the election as an opportunity to pick up seats by
campaigning against dissatisfaction with president while Democrats will
look to ride on anti-incumbent sentiment in Republican districts, said
Ryan Barilleaux, a political science professor at Miami
University .
With the exception of House Speaker John Boehner’s district, he expects
Republican incumbents in southwest Ohio to face significant competition.
“Everybody’s going to be gambling,” Barilleaux said. “It’s going to be
nasty because both sides have a lot to gain and a lot to lose.”
Barilleaux said the expected primary runoff between U.S. Rep Mike
Turner, R-Centerville, and U.S. Rep. Steve Austria, R-Beavercreek,
likely will be one of the more heated races in this election season.
That’s because the candidates won’t be able to run against the record
of an opposing party and each have long records that will be mined by
the other.
“I always say primary contests are the nastiest of all,” Barilleaux
said. “When you’re both in the same party, you have so much overlap
that inevitably you spend a lot of time focusing on personal things.
They will be fighting hard to try to turn voters off from the other
candidate.”
As of the summer filing deadline, Turner reported raising $209,113
while Austria had raised $249,429, according to the Center for
Responsive Politics.
Congressional candidates are required to file an update of their
fundraising efforts with the Federal Election Commission in the next
few weeks, but as of the summer filing deadline many had raised several
hundred thousands dollars or more.
Fundraising for other candidates with ties to the Dayton region, as of
June 30, include:
• U.S. House District 2, incumbent Jean Schmidt (R) $267,799; Brad
Wenstrup (R) $31,500; Connie Pillich (D) $0.
• U.S. House District 4, Jim Jordan (R) $207,195.
• U.S. House District 8, John Boehner (R) $6,410,032.
In addition, Boehner’s Political Action Committee, Freedom Project, has
raised nearly $1.6 million through the end of August. Boehner used the
PAC to raise money and provide direct financial assistance to
Republican candidates in federal elections.
In the race for U.S. Senate, Democrat incumbent Sherrod Brown has
raised more than $6.7 million while Republican challenger Josh Mandel
has raised $2.3 million.
Beckel expects Congressional candidates to turn to their usual donors.
“Democrats will probably be mobilizing their labor union support and
both side of aisle will be reaching out to the business community,” he
said.
Much of the money raised by Congressional candidates will go toward
television ads, Barilleaux said, which are effective because they reach
the most likely voters: older people who spend more time watching TV.
“One of the reasons people raise and spend so much money in the first
place is because television makes it so much more expensive ... and
they do sort of want to ‘carpet bomb’ with ads,” he said.
Read it at the Dayton Business Journal
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