Records: Ohio Senate race fundraising for open 6th District seat is lopsided so far
Republican Antani well ahead of Democratic primary winner Fogel.
The Republican Party nominee in the 6th District Ohio Senate race widely outraised and outspent other challengers for the open seat now held by termed-limited Peggy Lehner.
State Rep. Niraj Antani, R-Miamisburg, brought in more than $93,000 in contributions, spending about $85,000, according to filings for the latest reporting period with the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office.
Democratic Party primary winner Mark Fogel of Centerville collected $11,496.20 and spent $19,163.51 as he carried over more than $21,000 from earlier reports, the post-election state records show.
Antani won more than 64 percent of the vote against Rachel Selby of Washington Twp. and Greg Robinson of Oakwood in the GOP primary for the seat Republicans have held since 1985.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, Lt. Gov. Jon Husted and the Ohio Republican Party endorsed Antani. Lehner endorsed Selby.
Fogel defeated Albert Griggs Jr. of Huber Heights by garnering 82% of the vote in the primary that was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, election records show.
The seat — which pays $60,584 a year — covers part of Dayton
and multiple suburban communities, including Kettering, Huber Heights, Riverside, Centerville, Miamisburg, Miami Twp., Washington Twp., West Carrollton, Oakwood and Germantown.
Antani’s largest contribution came from state Sen. Matt Huffman’s campaign. Matt Huffman for Ohio gave $13,292.35, records show. Antani’s largest individual donors were Lee Schear of Oakwood, Sreenivasa Echuri of Dayton and Gregory Wellinghoff of Springboro, all of whom gave $2,500, according to filings.
He collected 166 contributions, the smallest of which was $35. Antani had more than 30 contributions of $1,000 or greater and received three dozen donations from political action committees or organizations, according to state records.
His contributions included three out-of-state organizations and six non-Ohio individual donors, documents show.
Antani also received $78,469 in in-kind contributions, $77,919 from the Ohio Republican State and Central Executive Committee, according to records.
His spending included $77,895 to the Ohio Republican Party and $3,468 to the Ohio State University for football tickets, according to filings.
Fogel had 128 contributions, all but one — a $500 donation from Keep Keith Auditor — from individual donors, his campaign’s records show.
Donations ranged from $5 to $1,000. The latter sum came from Andrea Mastro of Alabama, according to filings. Nearly 20 contributions came from out of state, with donors from California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, Texas and Washington state.
He received $7,000 in in-kind contributions from the Ohio Democratic Party. Most of Fogel’s spending went to marketing, his campaign’s web page and yard signs, state records show.
Selby was second in spending with $28,976.50 during the recent period, records show. While her contributions totaled $5,505, she had carried over $23,521.02 from previous filings.
Selby’s largest donor was Greg McAfee, owner of McAfee Heating and Air, who gave $2,500.
Robinson was third in spending during the reporting period with $27,999.16, but had loaned his campaign $25,500, his filings show.
Contributions for Griggs in the post-election reporting period totaled $150 and his campaign has $7,258 in outstanding loans, which the candidate himself provided, records show.