Tag: OH-05

The GOP is continuing to pour its resources into the OH-05 special election.  The latest expenditure?  $17,319 on phone banks this weekend.  That kind of money can buy you an awful lot of phone calls, especially of the robotic variety.

This brings the NRCC’s total tab in the OH-05 race to $428,001.

Meanwhile, GOP money is flowing fast and furious into Bob Latta’s campaign coffers.  In his most recent 48 hour fundraising reports, Latta brought in $110,100 on December 7th, and another $45,700 yesterday (including $15K from himself).  If you dig through the reports, Latta is raking in cash from the campaign committees of all sorts of congresscritters: Steve Chabot, Frank Wolf, Mario Diaz-Balart, Bill Shuster, Pat Tiberi, Chris Shays, Jon Porter, and others.

Let it be known that Republicans are throwing everything they’ve got into this race.

(From the diaries – James L.)

There is still time left for activists around the country to have an efffect on Tuesday’s special congressional elections in Virginia and Ohio.

The Ohio Democratic Party has virtual phone banking opportunities to support Robin Weirauch in her attempt to defeat Bob Latta in OH-05. Making the calls is easy, and you can complete a batch of calls in 30 minutes or less.

Email phonebank4robin@gmail.com if you would like to participate in that program.

I just found out that Barack Obama has set up a virtual phonebank dashboard to assist Phil Forgit in VA-01.

Now is our opportunity to make a difference right now.

UPDATE: I have no idea how many calls have been made for Robin Weirauch, but 6 Barack Obama supporters have only made about 100 calls for Phil Forgit’s campaign. We have 2 more days after today to make a difference in these elections.

It’s not a dramatically large buy, but the NRCC nudged up their total expenditures in the OH-05 special election today: $28,000 on another media buy, and another two grand on what I presume are robocalls.  The new expenditures bring the NRCC’s total tab in this R+10 district to $410,682.

Nothing from the DCCC today (so far).

The DCCC just filed the following independent expenditure reports with the FEC:

DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE

  1. Supports Candidate: Robin Weirauch (H4OH05035)

       Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 05

       Payee: Great American Media

       Date Expended = 12/06/2007      Amount Expended = $16584.63

       Purpose: Media Buy

  2. Opposes Candidate: Robert Latta (H8OH05036)

       Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 05

       Payee: Great American Media

       Date Expended = 12/06/2007      Amount Expended = $16584.62

       Purpose: Media Buy

  3. Supports Candidate: Robin Weirauch (H4OH05035)

       Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 05

       Payee: Mack Crounse Group LLC

       Date Expended = 12/05/2007      Amount Expended = $9695.62

       Purpose: Mail Services

  4. Opposes Candidate: Robert Latta (H8OH05036)

       Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 05

       Payee: Mack Crounse Group LLC

       Date Expended = 12/05/2007      Amount Expended = $9695.62

       Purpose: Mail Services

  5. Opposes Candidate: Robert Latta (H8OH05036)

       Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 05

       Payee: Mack Crounse Group LLC

       Date Expended = 12/06/2007      Amount Expended = $9969.05

       Purpose: Mail Services

  6. Supports Candidate: Robin Weirauch (H4OH05035)

       Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 05

       Payee: McMahon Squier Lapp and Associates Inc.

       Date Expended = 12/06/2007      Amount Expended = $4250.00

       Purpose: Media Production

  7. Opposes Candidate: Robert Latta (H8OH05036)

       Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 05

       Payee: McMahon Squier Lapp and Associates Inc.

       Date Expended = 12/06/2007      Amount Expended = $4250.00

       Purpose: Media Production

Let’s tally this up: that’s $33,000 for two commercials, another $30,000 on mailers, and $8500 to produce the new ads.  A pretty modest list of expenditures, to be sure.  Is that it?  There’s always a chance that more filings will come in later in the evening.  We’ll keep an eye out.

The grand total that the DCCC has spent on this race?  $243,748.14

UPDATE (10PM): Nothing new to report, but since these expenditures can be reported up to 24 hours after the fact, it’s possible that we could see more numbers tomorrow.  Or this could be it.

Ohio Daily Blog has the scoop: apparently, supporters of state Sen. Steve Buehrer (the man who narrowly lost a noisy and contentious primary against Bob Latta last month) are passing out handbills asking Republicans to stay home instead of voting for Latta.

To see a copy of the pamphlet, which hits Latta for his tax-hiking record, click here.

UPDATE: Looks like this one was probably a fake.  ODB has removed the post.

Robin Weirauch is up with her final ads of the race; including one narrated by Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, the state’s biggest Democratic star and a guy who carried the conservative 5th district in his race last year. Check them out below:

The NRCC has made its third media buy in OH-05 today, where lackluster Republican Bob Latta is seriously underperforming expectations:

NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE

  1. Opposes Candidate: ROBIN WEIRAUCH FOR CONGRESS

       Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 05

       Payee: STEVENS REED CURCIO & POTHOLM

       Date Expended = 12/05/2007      Amount Expended = $45620.00

       Purpose: Issue Ad Placement

The $45K media buy brings the NRCC’s total expenditures in the race to a whopping $370,000.  There isn’t much time left to make media buys here, so we’ll be keeping our eyes peeled to see if the DCCC responds.

Either way, Robin Weirauch and the DCCC have forced the NRCC to do the unthinkable in this R+10 district.  Stay tuned.

UPDATE: The DCCC posted a couple of expenditures of their own:

DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE

  1. Opposes Candidate: Robert Latta (H8OH05036)

       Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 05

       Payee: Mack Crounse Group LLC

       Date Expended = 12/04/2007      Amount Expended = $11144.05

       Purpose: Mail Services

  2. Opposes Candidate: Robert Latta (H8OH05036)

       Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 05

       Payee: McMahon Squier Lapp and Associates Inc.

       Date Expended = 12/04/2007      Amount Expended = $4300.00

       Purpose: Media Production

I would expect to see the DCCC make another media buy for the new ad they produced in short order… or maybe they’re playing mind games with NRCC Chair Tom Cole.  One of the two.

UPDATE 2: Even more expenditures from the NRCC — $2700 for phone banks, $6K for a new poll, and $1400 to produce a new ad.  ($1400?  What, did they film that with a camcorder in Tom Cole’s basement?)

The latest filings, fresh from the FEC:

NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE

  1. Opposes Candidate: ROBIN WEIRAUCH FOR CONGRESS

       Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 05

       Payee: FLS CONNECT LLC

       Date Expended = 12/04/2007      Amount Expended = $2363.55

       Purpose: Phone Banks

  2. Opposes Candidate: ROBIN WEIRAUCH FOR CONGRESS

       Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 05

       Payee: STEVENS REED CURCIO & POTHOLM

       Date Expended = 12/04/2007      Amount Expended = $33335.00

       Purpose: Issue Ad Placement

  3. Opposes Candidate: FORGIT FOR CONGRESS

       Office Sought: House of Representatives, Virginia District 01

       Payee: THE HOPPER COMPANY

       Date Expended = 12/04/2007      Amount Expended = $13578.00

       Purpose: Mailing Service

  4. Opposes Candidate: FORGIT FOR CONGRESS

       Office Sought: House of Representatives, Virginia District 01

       Payee: THE HOPPER COMPANY

       Date Expended = 12/04/2007      Amount Expended = $13578.00

       Purpose: Mailing Service

Time to crunch some numbers.  The new expenditures in OH-05 bring the NRCC’s current tab to $324,746.  A mighty large sum for an organization without much cash to spare, especially on an R+10 district.  I would expect more money to pour into this race in the days ahead.

The anti-Forgit mailers come on top of $39,000 in phone banking and other expenses that the NRCC filed late last week.  With the latest figures in, the NRCC has spent just over $78,000 on the race.  With only a month to make his case to voters in the conservative 1st district of Virginia, Democrat Phil Forgit wasn’t supposed to have much of a chance here.  Still, the NRCC shelled out $10K to conduct a poll here, and perhaps the results inspired them to provide a boost for Rob Wittman.

For an organization still carrying more debt than its current financial, the spending of $400,000 on a pair of crimson red districts in an off-year special election won’t spread any Christmas cheer in their offices, regardless of the outcome of these races.

Hot on the heels of the DCCC’s $150K media buy against Republican Bob Latta, the NRCC just poured in a good deal of cash into the OH-05 special election today.  Check out the latest filing:

NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE

  1. Opposes Candidate: ROBIN WEIRAUCH FOR CONGRESS

       Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 05

       Payee: MAJORITY STRATEGIES

       Date Expended = 12/03/2007      Amount Expended = $18178.81

       Purpose: Mailing Service

  2. Opposes Candidate: ROBIN WEIRAUCH FOR CONGRESS

       Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 05

       Payee: MAJORITY STRATEGIES

       Date Expended = 12/03/2007      Amount Expended = $14695.72

       Purpose: Mailing Service

  3. Opposes Candidate: ROBIN WEIRAUCH FOR CONGRESS

       Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 05

       Payee: STEVENS REED CURCIO & POTHOLM

       Date Expended = 12/03/2007      Amount Expended = $2313.00

       Purpose: Media Production

  4. Opposes Candidate: ROBIN WEIRAUCH FOR CONGRESS

       Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 05

       Payee: STEVENS REED CURCIO & POTHOLM

       Date Expended = 12/03/2007      Amount Expended = $10086.00

       Purpose: Media Production

  5. Opposes Candidate: ROBIN WEIRAUCH FOR CONGRESS

       Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 05

       Payee: STEVENS REED CURCIO & POTHOLM

       Date Expended = 12/03/2007      Amount Expended = $234505.00

       Purpose: Issue Ad Placement

To do the math for you, that’s $280,000 to defend a rock solid Republican seat that Bush carried by 22 points in 2004.  As we’ve said before, this is money the GOP can’t afford to spend — their latest fundraising report showed the committee to still be carrying a net debt of $1 million (compared to a net surplus of $27 million for the DCCC).

The GOP is seriously sweating this district?  Inconceivable!

UPDATE: Here’s the ad that the DCCC put up on the air beginning yesterday:

Tying Republicans to Noe and Taft (two of the most hated recent figures in Ohio politics) has been an effective line of attack for Democrats in Ohio as of late.  I haven’t gotten any word yet on the contents of the NRCC’s advertising.

Can you believe it?  It looks like we have a full-blown battle on our hands for the seat of the late Rep. Paul Gillmor (R-OH).  We already know that the NRCC has an ad in the can to help boost Republican candidate Bob Latta’s bruised favorables after a divisive primary, but it looks like the DCCC has just stepped up to land another body blow on Latta:

DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE

  1. Opposes Candidate: Robert Latta (H8OH05036)

       Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 05

       Payee: Great American Media

       Date Expended = 12/01/2007      Amount Expended = $148474.55

       Purpose: Media Buy

  2. Opposes Candidate: Robert Latta (H8OH05036)

       Office Sought: House of Representatives, Ohio District 05

       Payee: McMahon Squier Lapp and Associates Inc.

       Date Expended = 12/01/2007      Amount Expended = $8800.00

       Purpose: Media Production

This comes on the heels of Weirauch receiving individual donations from Rahm Emanuel, Steny Hoyer and Nancy Pelosi, among others.  Will it be enough to help tilt this R+10 district in favor of Democrat Robin Weirauch?  The DCCC, flush with cash, has the chance to force Republicans on the defensive in what should be safely red turf.  Since the DCCC is set to aggressively challenge a great deal of red seats next year, now’s as good a time as any to test some messages.

Grab the popcorn — we’ve got a real race on our hands here.