State Sen. Sandra O’Brien raised almost twice as much money during the latest finance filing period as Ohio Rep. Mike Loychik, her challenger in the March 19 Republican primary — and she also received $254,616 in in-kind contributions from the GOP Senate campaign arm.

The in-kind contributions from the Republican Senate Campaign Committee were given to O’Brien’s campaign between Feb. 7 and Feb. 23 for commercials and campaign mail. The contributions are listed on the preprimary filing report of O’Brien, R-Lenox, for the period between Jan. 1 and Feb. 28.

One of the television commercials goes after Loychik, R-Bazetta, for a supposed connection to Larry Householder, the former Ohio House speaker sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2023 for his role in the largest corruption scandal in the state’s history. That commercial contends Loychik was in Householder’s pocket.

Householder was named speaker in January 2019, two years before Loychik started serving in the House. Also, Loychik voted to expel Householder in June 2021.

Another RSCC commercial accuses Loychik of turning his back on veterans. Loychik served in the U.S. Air Force for eight years and is chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

Loychik said: “I voted to expel him. It’s a public record period. It’s a shame honestly. They attacked me on being a veteran” and “now this. It shows they are weak, desperate and that my honorable service to our state and country is something they cannot compete with.”

The RSCC in-kind contributions of $254,616, is more than double what O’Brien, seeking her second four-year term in the state Senate, and Loychik raised combined for the preprimary period.

O’Brien collected $78,735 and Loychik raised $41,150 during that period.

O’Brien’s largest contributions were $15,499 from the campaign committee of Frank Hoagland, a former Republican state senator, and $15,000 from the Academy of Senior Health Services Inc., a Columbus-based trade association for the long-term care health industry.

Loychik’s largest donors were $12,500 each from Blaine Grace and Chris Oldham, executives with Gateway Royalty VI, a gas and oil rights company in Ohio. Grace and Oldham listed Texas addresses as their residences.

During the period between Jan. 1 and Feb. 28, O’Brien spent $46,296 with her largest expense being $40,000 to the RSCC.

Loychik spent $64,073 in the preprimary period with his largest expenses being $25,035 to iHeart Media for radio commercials, $10,625 to WFMJ for television commercials and $10,000 to Cumulus Media for radio commercials.

As of Feb. 28, Loychik had $82,114 in his fund compared to $46,296 for O’Brien, which included carryovers from other campaigns and reporting periods.

Loychik opted not to seek a third two-year term in the 65th Ohio House District and instead is challenging O’Brien in the 32nd Ohio Senate District, which includes all of Trumbull and Ashtabula counties and most of Geauga County.

It is considered a safe Republican district, favoring that party by about 10.5% based on partisan statewide voting trends during the past decade.

The winner of the Republican primary will face Democrat Michael Shrodek of Warren in the Nov. 5 general election.

HOUSE RACES

Loychik’s decision leaves the House seat open with Ashtabula County Auditor David Thomas, a Republican from Jefferson, and Laurie Magyar, a Republican from Williamsfield, running in the GOP primary. No Democrat filed.

Thomas raised $11,979 to $10,250 for Magyar in the preprimary period.

Thomas’ largest contribution was $2,500 from the committee for Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, who is running for a state House seat this year and plans to seek the House speaker post if elected.

Magyar received a $10,000 contribution from Robert McGee of Fort Myers, Florida, and gave $250 to her campaign.

Thomas spent $11,979 in the preprimary period with $11,500 going to Alpha Key Digital of Madison for digital ads.

Magyar spent $313.

Because of the amount of money Thomas raised prior to this year, he had $29,532 in his fund as of Feb. 28. Magyar had $9,937.

The district, which includes parts of Trumbull and Ashtabula counties, favors Republicans by 14.5% based on partisan voting trends during the past decade.

There are no other contested state legislative primaries in Mahoning and Trumbull counties.

The general election in the 64th Ohio House District will pit incumbent Nick Santucci, R-Howland, against Democrat Lauren A. Mathews of Warren.

The district, which includes parts of Trumbull County, favors Democrats by about 2.5% based on partisan voting trends.

Santucci raised $52,700 in the preprimary period with about half of the money coming from political action committees while Mathews raised $4,230 from donors and loaned $6,000 to her campaign.

Santucci spent $17,916 to $6,625 for Mathews in the preprimary period.

Santucci had a large carryover to start the year and had $217,362 in his fund as of Feb. 28 compared to $3,604 for Mathews.

In the 59th Ohio House District race, incumbent Al Cutrona, R-Canfield, raised $9,326 in the preprimary period. His opponent, Laura Schaeffer, a Beloit councilwoman, raised $1,362.

Cutrona spent $22,877 — with $10,000 of it going to the committee for state Rep. Justin Pizzulli, R-Franklin Furnace — to $47 for Schaeffer.

Thanks to money raised in previous filing periods, Cutrona had $163,792 in his campaign fund as of Feb. 28 compared to $1,315 for Schaeffer.

The district, which includes parts of Mahoning County and a small part of Columbiana County, favors Republicans by more than 12% based on partisan statewide voting trends in the past decade.

In the 58th Ohio House District race, incumbent Lauren McNally, D-Youngstown, didn’t file a preprimary report even though she was supposed to do so. McNally had $45,959 in her fund as of Dec. 31.

Emily Ciccone of Austintown filed as a Republican write-in candidate for the seat. She won’t be an official candidate until after the March 19 primary results are certified and she gets at least 50 votes. She is not required to file a preprimary report.

The district, which includes parts of Mahoning County, favors Democrats by 21% based on statewide voting trends.

COURT OF APPEALS

In the Republican primary for the Youngstown-based 7th District Court of Appeals seat, the husband of Columbiana County Municipal Court Judge Katelyn Dickey, loaned $150,000 to his wife’s campaign during the preprimary period. Benjamin Dickey of Lisbon loaned the money on Feb. 9.

Dickey’s campaign also received $300 in contributions and $628 in in-kind contributions from the candidate.

She loaned $200,000 to her campaign on July 12.

Mary DeGenaro of Poland, the other Republican in the race, raised $17,025 from donors and received a $45,000 loan from her husband, Steve, during the preprimary period. She also received $2,894 in in-kind contributions.

Dickey’s campaign spent $314,427 during the preprimary period with $303,432 going to Communications Counsel of Granville for television, radio and digital advertising and campaign mail.

DeGenaro’s campaign spent $17,167 with $10,769 going to Cumulus Media and $4,979 to iHeart Media, both for radio ads.

Dickey’s campaign had $1,889 compared to $44,858 for DeGenaro, a former Ohio Supreme Court justice who served 17 years on this appeals bench, as of Feb. 28.

The seat was vacated Dec. 31 with the resignation of David D’Apolito, a Democrat.

The winner of the Republican primary will be appointed to the unexpired term by Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican.

A state law went into effect with the 2022 election that requires candidates running for the court of appeals and the Ohio Supreme Court to have party affiliations after their names on ballots if they run in primaries.

Because the district favors Republicans, no Democrat filed for the seat in this election.

The appeals court has jurisdiction over Mahoning, Columbiana, Belmont, Carroll, Harrison, Jefferson, Monroe and Noble counties. Mahoning is by far the most populous county in the district.