Americans for Public Trust (APT) joined with Honest Election Project (HEP) to launch a six-figure digital ad campaign explaining why Ohio voters should reject the Issue One ballot measure.
The ad, entitled “Ohio, Vote ‘No’ on Issue 1,” explains why the ballot measure is a DC dark money ploy using foreign-tied cash to cement gerrymandering in the Buckeye State.
Read more below from the Washington Examiner:
October 15, 2024
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Supporters of Issue 1 are led by Citizens Not Politicians, a nonpartisan coalition that was the driving force behind getting the constitutional amendment on November’s ballot. Former Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, a Republican, is one of Issue 1’s top backers, along with state Democratic leaders and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH).
“With this amendment on the ballot, Ohioans have the chance to reclaim their power from the self-serving politicians who want to stay in power long past their expiration date while ignoring the needs of the voters,” O’Connor told News 5 Cleveland.
Citizens Not Politicians has raised $23 million since the beginning of 2024 as of August. The largest donors are progressive or nonpartisan groups from Washington, D.C., funding about 60% of the campaign. Of the $23 million, $11.1 million has come from Washington, D.C., $3.6 million from Ohio, $3.4 million from Virginia, $2.1 million from California, $1.6 million from New York, and $1 million from Massachusetts.
Right-leaning groups have been quick to point out that one of Citizens Not Politicians’ top donors is the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a Washington, D.C.-based financial hub for liberal politics that has received nearly $243 million from Hansjorg Wyss, a liberal Swiss billionaire. Republicans often blast the organization as a “dark money group,” given its undisclosed political spending.
Foreign nationals are barred from donating to individual campaigns and elections under federal law. However, the Federal Election Commission ruled ballot issues do not fall under that umbrella. To close the loop, Ohio signed into law a ban on foreign contributions to campaigns, including ballot measures, in May.
Honest Elections Project and Americans for Public Trust are pointing to Sixteen Thirty Fund’s donation of over $6 million to Citizens Not Politicians for Issue 1 before the ban took effect — the largest donation to the ballot measure campaign.
Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project, told the Washington Examiner that loopholes allowing foreign nationals to contribute to ballot campaigns set up constitutional amendments as “Trojan horses for foreign influence.”
“There is a very simple expectation on the part of the average voter that American elections are going to be decided by Americans,” Snead said. “These [ballot] campaigns are every bit as significant as candidate races since they have the ability to literally and directly make law or rewrite state constitutions.”
Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust, said the amount of outside spending from people like Wyss is a national security concern, equating it to the likes of Russia and China dumping money into American initiatives and ballot measures.
“Hansjorg Wyss, a foreign national, in his own words, has said that it is his goal to reinterpret the American Constitution in the light of progressive politics,” Sutherland said. “These ballot issues are rewriting the state’s constitution, so when you lay it all [out], it is incredibly alarming that someone’s goal and vision could then be executed in Ohio on Issue 1.”
To educate voters on Issue 1 with nearly 20 days until Election Day, Honest Elections Project and Americans for Public Trust launched a six-figure ad buy this weekend in opposition to Issue 1. Shared exclusively with the Washington Examiner, the 30-second digital ad highlights Wyss’s $6 million donation to Citizens Not Politicians.
“D.C. dark money has arrived in Ohio, courtesy of a foreign billionaire,” the ad states. “The plan: Pass a radical, anti-American ballot measure called Issue 1. They want to redraw your congressional districts, rig the rules, and guarantee their side wins. All the while silencing you.”
Snead, Sutherland, and Triantafilou all said they believe the pro-Issue 1 bloc is running a “highly deceptive” campaign on behalf of Democrats who are upset they do not have a majority in the state.
Growing up in Ohio, Snead pointed to the state’s purple history that has shifted over the last two presidential election cycles into an almost solid conservative state. He strongly objects to a new redistricting commission, arguing Issue 1 “will not reflect the views of people on the ground” and is an attempt to gerrymander in Democrats’ favor “under the guise of neutrality and nonpartisanship.”
“It is designed to cleave additional seats for the Left in a very, very red state,” Snead said, adding that he takes issue with the idea that the proposed commission would be unelected.
“The further that we remove key principles of democratic self-government out of the democratic process, the less accountable government is overall,” Snead said.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Citizens Not Politicians multiple times for comment but received no response.
Click here to read the full report in the Washington Examiner.
