Democrat Theresa Gasper Claims ‘I Won’t Take Their Money!’ While Scooping Up Thousands from Special Interests

In her latest TV ad Democrat Theresa Gasper promotes her run for Ohio’s District 10 congressional seat, now held by Republican Rep. Mike Turner, as morally righteous based on her funding choices.

“I am sick of politicians chasing money all the time, and doing the bidding of their corporate donors. If we don’t get money out of politics, nothing else changes. I don’t want their money. And I won’t take their money! Because my only job is to work for you.”

She finishes the monologue to the sound of applause from regular folks gathered at a town hall.

Watch the ad below:

Gasper claims to have raised most of her money from small individual donors, regular Ohio citizens.

Sounds wonderful to the uninformed voter.

But let’s look at the facts.

The Center for Responsive Politics has the goods on all the candidates at its website, OpenSecrets.org.

Open Secrets shows Turner has outraised and outspent Gasper as of the latest filing deadline – raising $923,733 to Gasper’s $468,489 and spending $506,335 to Gasper’s $281,379.

Yes, Turner has received more money from corporations, most of it from defense and aerospace industries like BAE Systems, General Electric, Lockheed and Northrop Grumman.

But Gasper has also accepted corporate money, contrary to her rhetorical promises and pledges. She also accepts money from PACs pushing single-issue ideological interests, especially abortion.

And what if a corporation gives directly instead of through a PAC? Is that less evil?

Corporate, noncorporate, PAC or not a PAC, all that really matters in the end is the ideological bent of the donor and whether it controverts the interests of a particular voter.

Below are the dirty dozen special-interests donating large sums to Gasper’s campaign. Whether or not they are a corporate PAC, or a PAC at all should be irrelevant. The smart voter will look at what the donor is seeking for their money.

  1. Wright State University, $5,985
  2. Emily’s List (single-issue PAC that supports candidats in favor of unquestioned abortion rights all the way through the ninth month of pregnancy), $5,500
  3. AmeriPAC, $5,000
  4. End Citizens United, $5,000
  5. 1st Financial Bank, $3,150
  6. Cisco Systems, $2,700
  7. Kroger Co., $2,500
  8. Morris Furniture, $2,200
  9. University of Dayton, $2,114
  10. Avion Partners, $2,000
  11. Bonbright Distributors, $2,000
  12. Med-Pass Inc., $2,000
  13. Optica, $2,000

Gasper has accepted 6.3 percent of her total money from PACs. That’s a far cry from “I won’t take their money!”

Then there’s the question of what is more evil in the eyes of the beholder? Is a PAC inherently more evil than certain large individual donors, or organizations tied to wealthy donors?

Turner has actually received a smaller percentage of his total funding from large individual donors, at 48.9 percent compared to Gasper’s 52.2 percent.

So while it sounds great, Gasper’s claims are dishonest and deceptive, even by today’s low standards for political rhetoric.

In making such a pledge, Gasper falls in line with the other Democrats running for congressional seats in Ohio and across the nation in the 2018 midterms. Nearly all say they are eschewing corporate money. Like almost all, Gasper hasn’t kept her pledge.

But even if any Democrat were able to keep the pledge, most voters aren’t aware that the pledge itself is deceptive. While a Democrat might swear off campaign cash from certain special interests, such as a large corporation, they will gladly accept it from large law firms filled with ultra-liberal trial lawyers, from big-labor unions, the abortion-promoting Emily’s List, or from other single-issue ideological interest groups, such as those promoting gun control.

In the end, all candidates need money in order to win.

The only thing voters need to know is whose money the candidate is accepting and whether they are comfortable with that.

But for Democrats to try to promote themselves as having lily-white hands devoid of green stains simply because they reject money from Northrop Grumman or Lockheed while accepting it from the abortion industry, big labor and liberal law firms is dishonest beyond belief.

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Anthony Accardi is a writer and reporter for The Ohio Star.

 

 

 

 

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