POLITICAL EXPERTS OUTSMART THEMSELVES 

Oops. The big-money boys – the supposed political gurus – just outsmarted themselves. And they’ve been caught red-handed, recently filed campaign finance reports show.

The revelations involve citizen-initiated issues to appear on the Nov. 3 ballot in two Ohio cities – Grove City and Trenton, a suburb of Cincinnati. The two municipalities are 100 miles apart. But corporate-funded campaigns aimed at defeating the citizen-initiated ballot issues are almost identical, the campaign finance reports and other research reveal.

These similarities confirm that the two campaigns are part of a larger, coordinated effort by Corporate Ohio to defeat local measures aimed at slowing the meteoric spread of data centers in the Buckeye State, data center critics argue.

The so-called political experts at Corporate Ohio apparently thought no one would make the connection between Grove City and Trenton. 

The Grove City ballot issue would amend the city charter here to require voter approval of data centers and other large industrial complexes

The Trenton issue also would amend that municipality’s city charter. However, the Trenton proposal differs in two important aspects from the Grove City proposal. Trenton’s proposed amendment would outright ban all future data centers in that city. And it would only affect data centers – not other large industrial developments.

Although different in important ways, both citizen initiatives are opposed by the Ohio Chamber of Commerce and construction-company trade organizations, recent campaign finance reports and other research reveals. 

Here are the similarities in both anti-initiative campaigns:

• The Ohio Chamber of Commerce and construction-company trade organizations have donated huge amounts to defeat the citizen initiatives. In Grove City, $145,000. In Trenton, $115,000.
• Both campaigns spent the same amount – $50,000 – on the same political consulting company, Redrock Strategies of Las Vegas, NV. 
• Both campaigns have hired the same treasurer and attorney – David Langdon of Cincinnati. Langdon is considered one of the nation’s top dark-money specialists. 
• Both campaigns predict passage of the citizen initiatives will stunt economic growth, even though the two proposals differ in important aspects.
• Although both campaigns claim to be grassroots organizations, they are financed almost exclusively by corporate money. The Grove City organization – Save Grove City – received only $575 from five local residents – compared to $145,000 from corporate interests. All of the money collected by the other anti-initiative campaign – Trenton Community Alliance – came from corporate interests.

Supporters of the Grove City proposal (Issue 28) contend the similarities prove that the two campaigns have little or nothing to do with the broader subject of economic growth. Instead, Save Grove City and Trenton Community Alliance are, in effect, merely front organizations for the data center industry, Issue 28 supporters contend.

The construction-company trade organizations that donated to the two campaigns are Associated General Contractors of Ohio, Central Ohio Associated General Contractors, Ohio General Contractors Association and Modern Infrastructure Alliance Action Fund.

Interestingly, the Alliance Fund of San Rafael, CA., has donated $500,000 to a campaign aimed at weakening environmental regulations in California for data centers, according to West Coast news reports. 

The pre-election campaign finance reports were filed this week with the boards of elections in Franklin and Butler counties. Trenton is in Butler County.

(For more information, see the In My Opinion commentary headlined ISSUE 28 OPPONENTS HAVE HUGE MONEY ADVANTAGE on ProtectGroveCity.org.’s website.)