Tiberi’s war chest pays for ads, parties
FDarrel Rowland
ormer Congressman Pat Tiberi did more than just endorse state Sen. Troy Balderson for Tiberi’s old seat last week; the ex-rep also used $146,800 of his leftover campaign money to pay for TV ads declaring his blessing for Balderson.
There’s plenty more where that came from: Tiberi had $5.75 million in the bank as of March 31, federal records show. And it’s apparently legal for Tiberi to make as many independent expenditures as he wants, says Alex Baumgart of the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan campaign-finance watchdog — although he noted that the Federal Election Commission is considering a new rule on the practice.
Tiberi would have had even more money available for Balderson, reporter Randy Ludlow discovered, if the campaign had not spent $23,630 on catering and other expenses for his D.C. farewells and $25,084 on catering for his Ohio farewell at Villa Milano in Columbus. The former trumpet player in the Best Damn Band in the Land also tooted his own horn by paying $1,160 to the Ohio State University Marching Band to provide musicians for his Columbus event.
And there was the $3,819 for souvenir mugs.
Who’s the real Trumpian?
While cloaking herself in all things Donald Trump as she runs to the right of Mike DeWine — and away from Gov. John Kasich — Mary Taylor never formally pulled the trigger on endorsing the top man during his presidential run in 2016.
Ahead of the election, Ohio’s lieutenant governor (and now a GOP gubernatorial candidate) indicated to reporters, post-“Access Hollywood,” that she would reluctantly vote for Trump.
She even told Cincinnati TV station WLWT in the closing days that Kasich, the noted non-Trump endorser and critic — and her boss — remained her top choice for president.
Less than a month before the election, a reporter for The Cincinnati Enquirer wrote that Taylor had endorsed Trump. Her political spokesman objected to the characterization, saying an “official endorsement” had not been bestowed.
But now, a Taylor campaign spokesman tells Ludlow, “I don’t think anyone can dispute that she has been a vocal supporter of the president and has attended at least three of his Ohio visits.”
Attorney General DeWine joined Taylor in blasting Trump over his past sexual remarks that surfaced in 2016, but remained supportive of his candidacy. DeWine has attended none of Trump’s appearances in Ohio. But his latest ad slamming Taylor because she “refused to endorse Donald Trump for president over Hillary Clinton” is literally true.
Dodging the land mines
Jim Renacci made a recent fundraising appeal on a notepad with a letterhead declaring: “From the desk of U.S. Congressman Jim Renacci — Republican for U.S. Senate.” Hey, isn’t that a no-no? The House Ethics manual says lawmakers may not send out written appeals for campaign money if the letter includes the institutional name such as the U.S. House of Representatives, Jack Torry and Jessica Wehrman in our Washington bureau found. The letter may not use the words “official business” or include an official seal, such as that of the United States.
But because the Renacci missive dodges all those land mines, it appears to be a legal attempt to raise campaign cash.
“Though this campaign solicitation on faux congressional stationery dances very close to violating congressional ethics rules, it doesn’t cross that threshold in relation to any of the specific prohibitions laid out in the congressional handbook and House rules,” said Craig Holman of the D.C. watchdog group Public Citizen. “This is a rather inventive campaign fundraising letter that stops just short of violating congressional rules.”