{"id":269,"date":"2020-10-22T19:31:13","date_gmt":"2020-10-22T19:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/ohio\/articles\/some-dark-money-in-the-ohio-supreme-court-elections\/"},"modified":"2020-10-22T19:31:13","modified_gmt":"2020-10-22T19:31:13","slug":"some-dark-money-in-the-ohio-supreme-court-elections","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/ohio\/articles\/some-dark-money-in-the-ohio-supreme-court-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Dark Money in the Ohio Supreme Court Elections"},"template":"","class_list":["post-269","article","type-article","status-publish","hentry","article_type-blog-post"],"acf":{"details":{"summary":"","featured_image":null,"article_type":153,"authors":["{\"site_id\":\"1\",\"post_type\":\"person\",\"post_id\":7876}","{\"site_id\":\"1\",\"post_type\":\"person\",\"post_id\":12163}"],"related_issues":[92,109,420,423],"related_work":false,"location":null},"sidebar":{"helper_enable_sidebar":false,"helper_media_contact":{"heading":"Media Contact","manually_enter_person":false,"person":null,"name":"","role":"","phone":"","email":""},"helper_links_downloads":{"heading":"Links & Downloads","links":null}},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_wysiwyg":{"content":"Ohioans know that money has an undue influence on our elections--especially \u201cdark\u201d money where the actual source of funding is hidden. Why is it hidden? To influence voters without honestly and transparently giving voters the chance \u201cfollow the money\u201d and think through why those paying for the ad might want them to vote one way or another.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nThis year\u2019s hotly contested Ohio Supreme Court race has given us the opportunity to shine a light on dark money in real time.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nThe<\/span> Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC), a 527, is running an ad<\/span><\/a> against Jennifer Brunner, an appeals court judge and Democrat running for the Ohio Supreme Court. The ad accuses Brunner of failing to protect children who had been preyed on by a teacher, even though <\/span>the legal issue<\/span> <\/a>presented in the case centered on police overreach.<\/span>\r\n\r\nA recent news story by the Associated Press provided some details on the<\/span> RSLC\u2019s donors<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>The Center <\/span>for Responsive Politics has gathered comprehensive contribution information based on records released by the Internal Revenue Service in April 2019<\/span>.<\/span> Top donors to RLSC<\/span><\/a> include the Judicial Crisis Network ($3,010,000), the US Chamber of Commerce ($2,035,379), and Altria Group ($1,227,297).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nRSLC also received money from Ohio-based donors tied to the FBI\u2019s on-going bribery case involving House Bill 6, the nuclear bailout legislation. They include bailout beneficiaries FirstEnergy ($135,000), American Electric Power ($71,746), and Wayne Boich ($10,000). The donations include only money given since 2010.\u00a0 Boich chairs an Ohio-based coal company that supplies the utilities.<\/span> He helped provide money used to open bank accounts for the dark money nonprofit at the center of the HB 6 scandal.<\/span><\/a>\r\n\r\nKarl Rove<\/span> joined the Republican State Leadership Committee\u2019s Board in Apri<\/span><\/a>l of this year and he<\/span> wrote a fundraising letter<\/span><\/a>\u00a0for the French for Justice campaign. Brunner is trying to unseat French.<\/span>\r\n\r\nAlthough the RSLC didn\u2019t focus on Ohio Supreme Court races in 2018, it was among the national leaders in dark money spending on state supreme court races in the 2018 cycle,<\/b> according to the Brennan Center for Justice\u2019s recent study,<\/span> The Politics of Judicial Elections, 2017-2018; How Dark Money Groups and Big Donors Shape State High Court<\/span><\/a>\r\n\r\n\u00a0The Brennan study found:<\/span>\r\n