A-T investigates: Ohio Rep.-elect makes claims against election opponent

Gary Click, representative-elect for Ohio's 88th House district, levelled claims days before the election about his opponent Chris Liebold's campaign fundraising tactics. The Advertiser-Tribune investigated these claims further. Click's claims revolved mostly a consulting firm that Liebold hired called "The 1833 Group," based near Chicago, to assist with his campaign. Click's statement was made in response to an article published earlier in October in The A-T that discussed campaign finance reports for both candidates and identified that Liebold had more donors that gave smaller amounts when compared with Click's donors. "What he doesn't tell you," Click wrote, "is that he spent more than half of his locally-raised money paying the 1833 group for out-of-state robo-donors." Click said that because many of Liebold's donations were amounts between $1-5, there was no possibility those donors could be invested in Liebold's campaign. The small donations also showed from different states, including California, Arizona, Illinois and Massachusetts. Nick Daggers, a partner at The 1833 Group, responded to the allegations. "There are no such things as robo-donors," Daggers said. He explained that through the 1833 Group, Liebold was part of several joint-action pages, such as "Defend Ohio House Democrats" on ActBlue, where activists nationwide could donate once and their money would be split between several different candidates. The GOP also uses joint action pages, including WinRed, the Republican version of ActBlue. "It's insulting to donors to say that they're all blindly throwing money at races nationwide," Daggers said. "The politics in Ohio affect all Americans, just as what happens in California affects all Americans." "I would agree that people in California are invested in progressive causes, but they're not invested in Chris," Click said. "I don't know what a robo-donor is," Liebold said. "That sounds like a new conspiracy theory Gary is trying to peddle. I'm sorry he's unfamiliar with the ways Democrats raise money in this country." Daggers claimed that one of the main reasons so many non-local donors contributed to Liebold's campaign was because of Click himself. To Daggers, who has worked in Democratic fundraising for the past 15 years, there appeared to be a nationwide effort to defeat Click. "Progressive activists from coast to coast know who the good guys are and we know who the bad guys are," Daggers said. "Somebody with the extreme views of Mr. Click … donors know what they're giving to fight against that." Liebold's campaign raised only a few hundred dollars at a time through the email marketing created with The 1833 Group, with a relatively-low average contribution number. This low number became a fighting point for Click. "We had 152 total organic donations equaling $50k," Click wrote in October to The A-T. "The 1833 Group secured an enormous 572 donations for Liebold but yielded only $26k overall." "A dollar someone gives me in this district means more than a dollar that comes to me from California from someone I don't know," said Click. In fact, Click's biggest donation came from Cleveland. Click raised just over $50,000 in his campaign this year, $12,500 of which came from Cleveland businessman Mike Gibbons, who was a Republican candidate for a U.S. Senate in Ohio in 2018. "We hope that when [Click] is sworn in, he'll spend half as much energy on creating jobs and fighting the pandemic as he does focusing on $1.33 contributions from California," said Daggers. "We find it laughable and disingenuous. We're proud of the work we've done to help candidates nationwide raise millions of dollars to fight against an extreme right-wing agenda." When asked why most of his donations were in smaller amounts, Liebold responded, "I don't have access to a millionaire in Cleveland that could write me a $12,000 check." In response, Click replied, "I didn't used to have access to it either, but I went out and worked hard." Most of what's listed on the expenditures spreadsheet for Click's campaign came from an in-kind donation from the Ohio Republican Party. The expenses to the ORP are listed at $108k, $95k of which was essentially a gift from the ORP to help with digital advertising, marketing and postage. The other $13k was a donation from Click to the ORP directly. Click's treasurer Jerri Miller said that this donation was something he "wanted to do to give back." This kind of donation isn't uncommon, according to former ORP treasurer Tracey Winbush. "You'd be surprised what people give and why they give it," Winbush said. Winbush said many candidates do their digital marketing through the ORP because they aren't as business or tech-savvy. "Knowing Gary, I don't think it's anything nefarious," she said. "Republicans are frequently invited to give to the ORP's cause," Click said. "They are continually providing services to Republican candidates and causes from the local to the national level … we as candidates often benefit from these efforts." He explained that the ORP invested in his race, and the "in-kind" donations are reported as expenditures even though the money never actually passed through his committee's hands. Essentially, it was spent on his behalf. Regardless of the number of donors Liebold reached, Click was never worried about losing. "In this district, I never met one person that thought [Liebold] was going to win, even his friends," Click said. "I'm not trying to throw any darts his way; the election is over. But I think people in our district are more motivated by conservative policies than progressive policies."