Ohio Chamber’s affiliate spent $1.45 million on TV supporting Republican Supreme Court Candidates

Ohio Citizen Action is currently in research mode and released their report “Contributions to Candidates for Justice of Ohio Supreme Court from January 1, 2009 – September 30, 2010.”

The Partnership for Ohio’s Future, an affiliate of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, spent $1.45 million on TV airtime of two Republican candidates for the Ohio Supreme Court. The Partnership spent over $350,000 to support Maureen O’Connor’s bid for Chief Justice and $1.1 million to support Judith Lanzinger’s re-election. The Partnership also spent more than $118,000 on postcards supporting these candidates.

The report lists the total amount of contributions each candidate received, a breakdown of each candidate’s contributors and from what top three sectors the contributions were donated.

According to the report, Ohio Supreme Court candidates raised more than $2.5 million from Jan. 1, 2009 to Sept. 30 2010. Republican candidates Maureen O’Connor and Judith Ann Lanzinger lead the way with over $700,000 raised, while Democrats Eric Brown and Mary Jane Trapp have each raised approximately $500,000.

O’Connor and Lanzinger have seen significant support from the healthcare and insurance companies, the two incumbents have raised approximately $150,000 from each industry.

Brown and Trapp have seen a majority of their support from labor unions and ideological groups, such as $35,825 from public sector unions and $30,125 from unions associated with building trades.

The average indivdual contribution for all Ohio Supreme Court candidates was $292. Trapp’s average shrinks to $276.80 if the $164,618.76 she donated to her own committee is removed.

OCA offers four reccommendations to level the election process for Ohio’s Supreme Court candidates:

• Establish disqualification or withdrawal standards based on campaign contributions for Supreme Court Justices
• Place a contribution cap on contributions from individuals that belong to the same organization, particularly individuals that belong to the same law firm
• Create an Independent Commission to Review Electioneering Communication
• Merit Selection with retention elections and public financing of campaigns need to be further considered and discussed

Download the Excel Database of the report here.

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