OH-16: AFSCME Drops $750K Against Renacci

Via Greg Giroux, AFSCME is up with a new ad today hitting Republican hopeful Jim Renacci, who is challenging first-term Dem Rep. John Boccieri, on the issue of Renacci’s support for a 23% sales tax:

And we definitely have some word on the size of the buy:

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF STATE COUNTY AN – C90011172

  1. Opposes Candidate: James B Renacci (H0OH16097)

       Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 16

       Payee: Adelstein/Liston

       Date Expended = 08/09/2010      Amount Expended = $750000.00

       Purpose: TV ads Totally Unacceptable Deadbeat

That’s a monstrously huge buy for this time of year, and there’s no word on whether that money is being spread out over multiple weeks or multiple ads. Boccieri is pretty high on the list of vulnerable Ohio Dems this cycle, so it’s nice to see AFSCME try to get out and define Renacci before he can define himself.

33 thoughts on “OH-16: AFSCME Drops $750K Against Renacci”

  1. So he may be able to hit back. The problem with this is the people aren’t told it will be replacing the income tax, not in addition to the income tax.  

  2. A good fundraising quarter for a vulnerable Democratic House incumbent is about $600k.  Markey and Perriello both garnered headlines when they had quarters that big.  But one union can drop more than that on one congressman just for one ad. It makes me feel like the inside game — relations among incumbents, state parties, unions, and single-issue group leaders — is more important than the transparent, outside game of raising money from traditional supporters in-district, and from the Democratic base out-district.

    I’d like to get a better sense someday of what percent of total campaign spending (in the House, say) is by candidates, and what percent is IEs.  I wouldn’t be surprised if it was 60% IEs at this point.

    I guess that’s fine, it just means that I had forgotten or failed to realize how much power is concentrated in the single-issue groups and corporate 527s, as opposed to out in the districts themselves.

  3. Boccieri and Renacci both have hardcore Italian names, which I would think is strange for a Midwestern district (Or and district outside of the Northeast, for that matter).

  4. I’ve seen this ad twice and I don’t watch alot of live, local broadcasting, so it is definitely getting out there.

    The ad is mildly annoying, but its man on the street style is much more effective than the corny anti-Strickland ads featuring actors that have been blanketing the airwaves all summer. Then again, looking at Stricklands recent polling, maybe they’re more effective than I thought.  

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