OH-12: State Sen. Troy Balderson has picked up an endorsement for the May 8 GOP primary from former Rep. Pat Tiberi, who represented Ohio's 12th Congressional District until he resigned at the beginning of the year to lead an industry lobbying group. But Tiberi, who still had a massive $5.78 million in Friends of Tiberi, his old campaign account, at the end of March, isn't stopping there.
Friends of Tiberi is spending $147,000 on an ad staring the former congressman praising Balderson as "a conservative fighter" who shares "the same values and wonderful story that make our country great." This is the second major outside group that's aired ads for Balderson: Defending Main Street, a super PAC set up to stop anti-establishment candidates from winning GOP primaries, recently began a $240,000 ad campaign to support him. Defending Main Street is the political arm of the Republican Main Street Partnership, which Tiberi was involved with in the House.
Tiberi's decision to get involved here may be about a whole lot more than just him liking Balderson. The House Freedom Caucus' allied House Freedom Action group has begun spending for Liberty Township Trustee Melanie Leneghan, and some establishment Republicans tell the Columbus Dispatch that they're afraid that she could win the primary. One Republican privately told the paper that they're worried an ultra-conservative nominee like Leneghan could cost them the August special election in this 53-42 Trump seat. (The primary for both the special election and the regular two-year term will be on May 8.)
Another Republican also said that GOP donors were unhappy that they had no idea which non-Leneghan candidate they should back, and frustrated that NRCC chair Steve Stivers was essentially helping Leneghan by refusing to take sides or give them any sort of guidance. Tiberi, who was a close ally of the House leadership, could make it easier to stop Leneghan by declaring that Balderson is the candidate to back. State Sen. Kevin Bacon and Delaware County Prosecutor Carol O’Brien are both competing with Balderson for establishment support.
And national Republicans may have good reason to fear that Leneghan will be a weak nominee. Back in 2012, Leneghan was issued a formal reprimand by her colleagues after Kelly Imler, who was Liberty Township's only front-line female firefighter, recounted Leneghan telling her, "You’re the girl, the girl firefighter, the token female." Another firefighter also said that Leneghan had made "snide comments about Imler being a single woman and sleeping in the same engine house as ‘all those male firefighters."
Imler asked Leneghan to apologize, which she refused to do. Leneghan instead declared that Imler had just misunderstood her comments, and that the firefighters were taking revenge on her now for voting against putting a fire levy on the ballot. This story hasn't resurfaced on the campaign trail during the primary, but it could certainly do Leneghan some harm in a general election.
No one has released any polling for the primary, though the Dispatch reports that a recent private survey showed Balderson leading Leneghan 22-17. However, new campaign finance reports indicate that GOP donors were already flocking to Balderson despite all the confusion about whom to support. Balderson outraised Leneghan $290,000 to $216,000 during the first three months of 2018, while economist Tim Kane took in $183,000. Bacon and O'Brien, who are reportedly the other establishment favored-candidates, raised only $147,000 and $100,000, respectively.
Balderson ended March with $281,000 on-hand, while Kane, who self-funded another $244,000, had $267,000 to spend. Leneghan, who loaned her campaign an additional $160,000, had $245,000 in the bank; O'Brien had $163,000 available, while Bacon had just shy of $100,000 to spend.
The Democrats also have a primary here, but the local party establishment very quickly consolidated behind Franklin County Recorder Danny O'Connor. O'Connor had $137,000 on-hand at the end of March, considerably more than the $37,000 that former Franklin County Sheriff Zach Scott, who narrowly lost renomination in 2016, had available. Farmer John Russell had only $29,000 to spend.