An ethics watchdog group is asking the Federal Election Commission to investigate Ohio Senate hopeful Ted Strickland, accusing his campaign committee of coordinating with Super PACs to support his candidacy.
The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) on Tuesday filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission laying out how Strickland, a Democratic running to unseat incumbent Sen. Rob Portman (R., Ohio), has used his campaign website "to illegally coordinate with super PACs that support his candidacy." The watchdog requested an investigation into Strickland and his campaign committee, Strickland for Senate.
According to the complaint, Strickland’s campaign has used postings on its website to instruct Super PACs to run advertisements that benefit his campaign.
"This is not general candidate or campaign information provided to the general public, but is specific content and direction based on the campaign’s internal information and advertising needs that is targeted to super PACs," the complaint states.
Federal law prohibits candidates from coordinating with Super PACs.
The complaint specifically alleges that Strickland has used the "Ohio Needs to Know" portion of his website to specify what kind of ads Super PACs should run in specific markets.
As an example, the watchdog cites a July 12 posting on Strickland’s campaign website that states, "Portman is the best senator China’s ever had–he voted for job killing trade deals like NAFTA, permanent most favored trading status for China, and other unfair trade deals that cost Ohio over 300,000 jobs." A later advertisement from Senate Majority PAC, a Super PAC linked to outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.), capitalized on similar language.
"This is the Chinese Embassy in Washington. Wonder what they’re up to in there. Probably giving Rob Portman an award for being China’s best senator," the advertisement stated. "After all, Portman voted for eight different trade deals. Portman even led the fight to give the Chinese permanent special trading status. Sure hope Rob Portman is not in there negotiating another trade deal. Hard to believe this guy is running for reelection in Ohio."
Matthew Whitaker, a former U.S. attorney who serves as FACT’s executive director, described the alleged coordination between the campaign and Democratic Super PACs as "blatant" and criminal.
"The striking similarity between the thinly veiled information and instructions Strickland is posting on his website and the subsequent ads being run by Strickland supporting super PACs communicating that information is a crime, not a coincidence," Whitaker said Tuesday. "Furthermore, the fact that this coordination is being done in a public-facing fashion makes this situation more troubling as it is a blatant, back door attempt to skirt and undermine our nation’s campaign finance laws."
The watchdog has also filed FEC complaints against other 2016 Senate candidates, including Democrats Patrick Murphy in Florida and Katie McGinty in Pennsylvania.
"FACT is going to continue to aggressively pursue these egregious violations by calling out candidates each and every time this is done, because the FEC needs to act swiftly so that this illegal behavior doesn’t give license for other candidates to do the same," Whitaker said.
A spokesman for the Strickland campaign did not return a request for comment by press time.
Strickland has increasingly fallen behind Portman in polls of their Ohio Senate race. Democratic groups supporting Strickland’s candidacy have recently cancelled millions in advertisement buys in the state.