Ohioans in Congress report $16M in campaign funds

Total comes even as few have opponents yet.

Few, if any, even have political opponents at this point, but that hasn’t stopped Ohio U.S. House members from starting the 2018 campaign season with a whopping $16 million in the bank, according to an analysis of campaign finance reports.

Of the 16 U.S. House incumbents, Columbus area Rep. Pat Tiberi remains the fundraising leader with $6.3 million to spend. Tiberi, a Genoa Twp. Republican who has been named as a possible 2018 opponent to Sen. Sherrod Brown, raised $1.37 million last quarter.

A Tiberi spokeswoman said he is still considering a run, though state Republicans privately say they have heard little about a bid, and fellow Republican Josh Mandel has already declared that his plans to challenge Brown.

Viveca Novak, a spokeswoman for the Center for Responsive Politics, said as of the end of last year, Tiberi was second only to House Speaker Paul Ryan in cash on hand. The center, a campaign finance watchdog, has yet to tabulate the amount raised from all 435 members of the House yet; the filing deadline was Saturday.

Of the $3.3 million the 12 Republicans and four Democrats raised during the first three months of 2017, roughly 72 percent came from political action committees. Rep. Jim Renacci, R-Wadsworth, who is considering a run for governor, raised 99 percent of his money from political action committees including political action committees representing Exxon Mobil, Best Buy and AEP, while only four lawmakers – Reps. Tim Ryan, D-Niles; Warren Davidson, R-Troy; Steve Chabot, R-Cincinnati and Brad Wenstrup, R-Cincinnati — received less than 50 percent of their campaign dollars from political action committees last quarter.

Tiberi also raised the most from political action committees: $1.06 million.

Davidson raised $51,275 last quarter and has $125,785 in the bank. The freshman — who replaced former House Speaker John Boehner — has $250,000 in lingering campaign debt, the largest amount of any of the 16 Ohio House members. The money represented personal loans Davidson made to his campaign.

Rep. Mike Turner, R-Dayton, raised $80,778 last quarter through his campaign committee and had $302,202 in the bank, according to his campaign finance report. Chabot raised $122,560 and had $1.01 million in the bank. And Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, raised $33,748 last quarter and had $1.3 million in the bank.

Democrats, by comparison, were on the lower end of the fundraising spectrum. Rep. Marcia Fudge, a Cleveland Democrat, raised $14,010 last quarter while Rep. Marcy Kaptur, a Toledo Democrat, raised $30,989. Both got the overwhelming majority of their contributions from PACs.

Among the PACs that contributed to Fudge were the Boeing Company and United Mineworkers of America.

Centrus Energy and Employees of Northrop Grumman were among the political action committees to donate to Kaptur. James Slepian, a Renacci spokesman, said individual donors opted not to donate to his congressional campaign after Renacci made it clear he was thinking of running for statewide office.

“Jim was forthcoming with his supporters and the public at large that he was in fact taking a serious look at running for statewide office in 2018,” he said. “Consequently, many individual donors in Ohio opted not to contribute to his congressional campaign during that period until it was made clear whether or not he would in fact run for statewide office.”

If past is prologue, lawmakers enter the 2018 cycle with a fairly significant electoral advantage: In 2016, only one lawmaker – Chabot – drew less than 60 percent of the vote and he received 59 percent. Fudge, who raised the fewest dollars this quarter, won in 2016 by the largest margin, garnering 80 percent of the vote.


By the numbers

$16M: Total that Ohio’s 16 congressional incumbents have in their campaign kitty.

$3.3M: Total raised in the first quarter of 2017.

72: Percentage of the first quarter total that came from political action committees.

59: Lowest percentage of votes carried by winning incumbent in 2016 election.

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