COLUMBUS – Supporters of a ballot issue legalizing marijuana use for medicinal and recreational purposes in Ohio are spending money like a stoner in a candy store.
Powered by a small core of big-money investors, marijuana legalization advocates outraised opponents 16 to 1 in the last campaign-finance reports filed before Ohioans vote on Nov. 3.
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Meanwhile, the Columbus mayoral race between City Council President Andrew Ginther and Franklin County Sheriff Zach Scott is turning into the most expensive in history.
READ MORE: In The Columbus Dispatch
ResponsibleOhio, the group backing State Issue 3, the marijuana legalization amendment, reported spending $15.4 million so far on the campaign, $12 million in the past three months. The group has been waging an all-out campaign dominated by 30-second television commercials and direct mail.
A report filed on Thursday with Secretary of State Jon Husted showed ResponsibleOhio received more than $11.9 million from July 1 to the Oct. 14 cutoff and spent about the same amount.
Ohioans Against Marijuana Monopolies, the large coalition opposing legalization, got a late start and managed to collect $712,585. The biggest contributor was Partnership for Ohio’s Future, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce’s electioneering arm, which gave $500,000. The chamber itself pitched in $100,000.
“Nothing about today’s filings is surprising. We came into this campaign knowing we’d be outspent by millions,” Curt Steiner, campaign director for the opposition coalition, said in a statement. “Our campaign’s strength lies in our broad-based grass-roots support from all corners of the state.
Steiner slammed ResponsibleOhio investors as “a small group of multimillionaire hucksters.”
In the race for mayor of Columbus, the Dispatch is reporting that Ginther set a record for raising money in a Columbus mayor’s race and continued to dominate Scott in the contest for cash.
Ginther has raised $962,766 since the May primary while Scott raised $420,260, according to the reports they filed with the Franklin County Board of Elections on Thursday afternoon.
Scott’s 2-to-1 disadvantage at this filing is an improvement compared to the nearly 6-to-1 advantage Ginther held over him in the primary. Ginther has raised more than $3 million total, a record that beats Mayor Michael B. Coleman’s 1999 tally. Scott has raised about $1 million.
Both Ginther and Scott are Democrats.
Ginther reported $305,500 on hand to spend with less than two weeks before the Nov. 3 election, while Scott reported about $75,900.
Still, Scott has made up considerable ground since the primary election, when his campaign was outspent by a wide margin, said Melissa Barnhart, his campaign adviser. Ginther’s links to lobbyist John Raphael, who recently agreed to plead guilty to one felony count of extortion by threats, affected fundraising, she said.