Associated Press: Gambling interests gave GOP group behind pro-DeWine PACs $1M

Associated Press: Gambling interests gave GOP group behind pro-DeWine PACs $1M

The approach obscures the sway donors have on politicians’ decisions, said Catherine Turcer, executive director of Common Cause Ohio, a government watchdog group. “Ohioans should be able to follow the money so that they’re able to identify who is attempting to influence public policy,” she said. “Instead, we are left with political ads that have a disclaimer or a ‘paid for by’ that is from an organization that we actually have to work to figure out where they got their funding.”

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Gambling interests positioning for lucrative business as Ohio remakes its betting landscape donated nearly $1 million to a nonprofit group that helped successfully reelect Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a key decision-maker regarding the market’s future, an Associated Press review found.

The casino operators, slot machine makers, gaming technology companies, sports interests or their lobbyists that donated to the Republican Governors Association between January 2021 and this past September have stakes in Ohio’s state lottery, the $1 billion sports betting industry launching in Ohio on Jan. 1, or both.

During the same period, RGA funneled over $2.2 million through its campaign arm, RGA Right Direction PAC, to benefit DeWine’s successful reelection bid against three primary opponents and later Democrat Nan Whaley, records show. Most of that money went to two pro-DeWine committees: Free Ohio PAC and the Delaware-based dark money group Ohioans for Free and Fair Elections, whose public filings so far haven’t disclosed its organizers. The RGA did not respond to repeated AP requests for comment. …

Under federal and state law, corporations are prohibited from giving directly to candidates. However, corporate giving to nonprofits and PACs became virtually unlimited after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, as long as the groups are independent and the efforts uncoordinated with candidates.

The approach obscures the sway donors have on politicians’ decisions, said Catherine Turcer, executive director of Common Cause Ohio, a government watchdog group.

“Ohioans should be able to follow the money so that they’re able to identify who is attempting to influence public policy,” she said. “Instead, we are left with political ads that have a disclaimer or a ‘paid for by’ that is from an organization that we actually have to work to figure out where they got their funding.”