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More money helped GOP victories

One lesson from the recent state legislative races in the Mahoning Valley is Republicans in Ohio are better funded and better organized than their Democratic counterparts.

Despite the $1.3 billion nuclear power plants bailout scandal involving the former speaker of the House and four other Republicans that was expected to hurt that political party, voters backed the GOP.

Republicans, who already had a super majority, actually picked up seats in the General Assembly.

That included a House and a Senate seat in Trumbull County. Republicans nearly grabbed the other House spot in Trumbull and had no trouble defending an appointee in Mahoning County.

It helped having Donald Trump at the top of the ticket in Ohio.

But in the Ohio House 63rd District race, Democrats left Gil Blair of Weathersfield, an incumbent, on his own while Republicans poured money into the campaign of Mike Loychik of Cortland, a political newcomer.

Between just Oct. 15 and Dec. 4, the post-general election filing period, Loychik received $27,250 in contributions from the committees of Ohio House Republicans. During the pre-general filing period, between May 30 and Oct. 14, the committees of House Republicans gave him $31,292 in contributions while the Ohio Republican Party spent $7,915 in campaign literature on his behalf.

In comparison, Blair received $11,555 from the Ohio Democratic Party in in-kind contributions for digital advertising and postage for his entire campaign — and he had to pay $6,000 of it back to the party for the postage. That money came early, leaving Blair strapped for cash and unable to defend a seat he was appointed to in May 2019.

Loychik won by 8.3 percent.

That means that starting today, longtime Democratic strongholds like Niles, Liberty and Girard will be represented by a Republican.

If Republicans had paid a little more attention to the Ohio House 64th District race, they could have picked off that seat as well.

It’s understandable there was hesitation to spend money in that race. Republican Martha Yoder had run twice before against incumbent state Rep. Michael J. O’Brien, D-Warren, prior to this last election.

O’Brien beat her by 10.8 percent in 2016 and by 9.6 percent in 2018. Also, O’Brien is the most successful politician in Trumbull County over the past 30 or so years.

The Ohio Republican Party gave Yoder’s campaign $17,477 in in-kind contributions for campaign literature. Yoder, who ran a largely self-funded campaign, paid back $11,600 of the assistance given by the ORP.

O’Brien spent $23,917 between May 30 and Oct. 14 and only $2,297 in the final 20 days leading to the Nov. 3 election.

It nearly cost him the seat as he won by only 0.74 percent.

With O’Brien serving his last term in the Ohio House, expect the open 2022 election to be a very competitive one, particularly if redistricting adds Republicans communities to the district.

State Rep. Al Cutrona, R-Canfield, who was appointed May 28 to the House 59th District seat in Mahoning County, won the seat by an impressive 21.6 percent.

While Chris Stanley, a Canfield Democrat, raised quite a bit of money, it was nowhere close to the amount Cutrona collected.

Cutrona loaned his campaign $50,000 to show he meant business and greatly benefited from financial help from the Ohio GOP and fellow Republican House members.

In the pre-general period, Cutrona received $135,803 from the party in in-kind contributions and received $46,292 from five House Republicans. In the post-general period, Cutrona received $103,347 from the Ohio GOP and $8,500 from four House Republicans.

Cutrona collected so much money that he was able to contribute $19,000 to other House Republican candidates, including $7,000 to Loychik.

It was only a little more than two years ago that the four Ohio House and two state Senate seats in Mahoning and Trumbull counties were held by Democrats. Today, four of the six officeholders are Republicans.

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