The Great $25 Million Dark Money Gerrymander

The dark money, deep state attack on Ohio's Constitution totals $25 million and counting. The "Political Outcomes Over People" campaign, as we like to call it, spent $25 million, reserving $16.2 million in ad buys just in the last two months.  Political advertising funded in part by a remarkable $6 million contribution from the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a far left political organization founded by a Swiss billionaire.

The radical, well funded takeover attempt of the Ohio Constitution is trying to buy a win that overthrows the will of Ohio voters in favor of a deep state political power grab.

We have been talking about the far left effort to undermine the will of more than 70% of the voters who approved our current redistricting system.  The attack plotted with foreign donors and foreign contributions is steeped in foreign influence and out-of-state dark money. And it is on our doorstep yet again, in the form of the purposely misleading “Citizens not Politicians” campaign that made the November ballot. CNP is better abbreviated CCCP.  85% of the $25 million raised by Maureen O'Connor's campaign cronies came from donors outside of Ohio. Let that sink in. A former Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice is the face of a foreign influenced, out-of-state funded attack on the Ohio Constitution.

Do you support foreign contributors who plot to undermine Ohio's system of government? Of course not. Make no mistake, the D.C. deep state and their foreign operatives hold disdain for The United States, the Ohio Constitution and our way of life. This will not be the end of their campaign cold war. Hanjoorg Wyss, George Soros and their multi-billionaire minions won't miss an opportunity to take away your voice.

The organization's July campaign filing is stunning. Millions of dollars flowing in from Washington D.C., and out-of-state special interests. Read the filing here from the Secretary of State's office. The Sixteen Thirty Fund, whose slogan is "empowering progressive changemakers," on the very same day Governor DeWine called for a Special Session to ban foreign contributions to ballot campaigns, contributed an astonishing $6 million to Citizens Not Politicians. That's the same fund founded by Swiss billionaire, Hansjorg Wyss. Several D.C. based leftist organizations contributed $1 million or more. Article IV gave $2 million, Our American Future Foundation gave $1.5 million, The Tides Foundation from San Francisco contributed $2 million. The Open Policy Center and Unite and Renew Fund both from D.C. gave $500,000 each.  And the far left ACLU Union Foundation out of New York contributed $1 million.

And what exactly is the Ohio Education Association doing giving a redistricting campaign $1.5 million? Wouldn't that money be better spent by the OEA on, well, I don't know, the EDUCATION of Ohio children?

This week, Governor Mike DeWine made a strong stand against this effort to rig political outcomes this fall.

Watch him describe what this campaign really wants. Astonishingly, it’s fronted by former Ohio Supreme Chief Justice, Maureen O’Connor, who was embarrassed by a federal court for issuing redistricting opinions based on a “…strict proportionality test that cannot be easily found in the text of Ohio’s Constitution.” Translation:-You can’t just make it up as you go along based on your own political agenda and misinformed personal opinion. Clearly, this is personal for her. That might be because the U.S. Supreme Court also said she got it wrong on the Congressional map as well.

The “Citizens Not Politicians” campaign represents an effort to gerrymander guaranteed outcomes for progressive candidates based on a purposely ambiguous and voluminous process that really would be better branded “Political Outcomes Over People.”

Here are three very clear dangers it would bring to Ohio.

1)    Fixed Outcomes based on proportionality. This represents the end of competitive and compact districts. If you hated the “Snake on the Lake” get ready, because it is coming back in a progressively big way. The Governor made it clear that this plan makes proportionality "king," and that would be a disaster for Ohio.

2)    Zero Accountability. When complete, the so-called "Citizens Commission" dissolves and disappears forever, and Ohioans who are left with a progressive gerrymander have no one, and nowhere to turn to for help.

3)    Attack on Democracy. This is another well-funded, foreign influenced attack against a process approved by more than 70% of Ohio voters in 2015 and 75% in 2018.

The left knows that Ohio is a conservative state. No amount of statistical wrangling and progressive algorithms will change that. So they resort to trying to change the law by attacking the Ohio Constitution with a plan that rejects competition for the cover of “representational fairness.”

That’s just a fancy term for gerrymandering.

Here is our statement from earlier this week, regarding the Governor's press conference opposing the fall campaign's power grab.

“The Governor is correct about proportionality, also known as "'representational fairness,"' it is the textbook definition of gerrymandering. If you hated the “Snake on the Lake,” the so-called citizens campaign will bring it back in a big way. “Political Outcomes Over People” is prepared to spend more than $15 million in out-of-state dark money for reliable, fixed, gerrymandered wins for the far left, at the expense of Ohio voters and the Ohio Constitution. It’s important to remember that the current system, approved by more than 70% of the voters, produced a unanimous bipartisan vote that approved maps for the General Assembly over the remainder of the decade. When D.C. special interests were rejected and Democrats were free to negotiate in good faith, the process worked well.”

Candidates, campaigns and issues matter. That’s the way it should be. There are currently 15 Senate Districts in Ohio that lean Democrat. Republicans currently hold 8 of those seats. Why? That's because voters decided who the better candidate was, and who ran a better campaign on the issues. Democrats even complained during the Redistricting Commission’s first several hearings in 2021, that their districts weren’t drawn with enough of a democrat lean. That means they don’t want competitive districts. Instead, they demanded districts be drawn so their head start would be so large, any opposition would lose regardless of the candidate or campaign. So they ran to their billionaire friends to bail them out.

Remember that during this summer’s Special Session called by Governor DeWine, the Democrats fought hard to protect their foreign campaign dollars, foreign donors and foreign campaign influence. Why would they do that, when it is already illegal for candidates to accept donations from foreign donors? Now we know there are $25-million reasons why. And they were in a hurry to spend it. The campaign reported having no cash on hand. You don't have to have a PhD in campaign strategy to understand why. They spent every dime to avoid uncomfortable questions and a potential investigation after Ohio's new law outlawing foreign contributions to ballot campaigns officially takes effect. Deplorable.

They were depending on those millions from foreign influenced dark money groups such as the Sixteen Thirty Fund to saturate the airwaves and computer screens with a smokescreen of ads, or rather lies, to convince Ohioans to throw out the system that produced a set of unanimous, bipartisan maps for Ohio General Assembly for the remainder of the decade.  In fact, Eric Holder’s lawyer, Marc Elias, sued in federal court to block the foreign donor law from taking effect. Yes, that's the same Eric Holder that runs the NDRC, the National Democratic Redistricting Coalition that repeatedly filed lawsuits challenging map after map in Ohio. Essentially the NDRC and its special interest friends tried to hijack the process by pressuring Democrats on the Redistricting Commission in 2021 and 2022 not to negotiate in good faith or agree to anything. Fortunately, legislative Democrats finally saw the damage done by these groups and told them to take a hike in the fall of 2023. That's when the Redistricting Commission reached a unanimous bipartisan vote that approved Ohio's current set of maps for the General Assembly.

Still, these far left foreign operatives are back, and Democrats are complicit in finding excuses for campaign contributions originating from outside the United States. What do we call citizens who facilitate foreign funding to overthrow the will of their own people and governments? We already know the answer to that question throughout history.

Their playbook for power calls for winning at all costs. Including, selling out your state to foreign dollars and donors who have no business interfering with Ohio’s government and elections. We will continue to expose their foreign funded lies. 

Watch this week's President's Podcast with Senator Rob McColley who sponsored the original bill to outlaw foreign contributions directed at ballot campaigns. He talks about the gerrymandering campaign's stunning campaign finance filing, as well as the Governor's news conference detailing this radical, dark money backed, and foreign influenced power grab from the D.C. deep state.