One man is funding attack ads, telling people to vote "no" on one of the two issues seeking to reform Columbus City Council and "yes" on the other.
A group called "Voters Have Choices" is running advertisements on social media and streaming sites ahead of the Nov. 3 election with the message telling people to vote in favor of Issue 8 and against Issue 9.
Issue 8 would change Columbus City Council so only voters within one of the existing nine districts get to vote for their respective council member. Issue 9 would do that too, but also expand city council by four at-large members who are voted on by the entire city, among other changes.
This political action committee is run by a man named Darryl Tanner, who has funneled more than $300,000 into it.
One ad features people with labels of Columbus neighborhoods like Clintonville, Harrison West and Linden who complain that other neighborhoods get to vote for their council member. It is unclear if any of these people live in Columbus.
The ads are critical of Issue 9.
"Issue 9 was put on the ballot by politicians trying to protect their power," one ad says.
Tanner didn't respond to repeated requests for comment from WOSU. Campaign finance records filed late Friday, after the Thursday official reporting deadline, show the PAC is registered to a Columbus home address.
The campaign finance records show something else too. Voters Have Choices reported a $34,000 contribution to Our City Our Say, a grassroots coalition that collected more than 23,000 signatures this year in support of Issue 8.
Will Petrik, an organizer with Our City Our Say, told WOSU he is against this ad campaign by Voters Have Choices. Petrik said he doesn't want to see rich people try to influence this election.
"I would say the whole north star of the Our City Our Say campaign is we want all of us to have a say, not just folks who are millionaires and billionaires. So yeah, having a small group of people, again, determine outcomes... we want the voters of Columbus to determine the future of our city," Petrik said.
Petrik said the $34,000 is what's known as an "in-kind contribution," not a direct donation, which is a type of contribution which tells people one campaign committee paid for a service or expense that benefitted another. He said it was reported this was "out of an abundance of transparency."
Petrik said this came in the form of a poll conducted earlier this year by Voters Have Choices. He said the poll found a lot of support for the idea behind Issue 8. Petrik declined to say if the poll asked voters about Issue 9.
"That firm briefed a small group of stakeholders from Our City Our Say on their findings about Issue 8 and Issue 9," Petrik said.
Petrik said the groups are completely separate from each other.
Columbus City Councilmember Rob Dorans, who helped create Issue 9, told WOSU on All Sides with Amy Juravich on Thursday that he thinks this is a dark money group that doesn't disclose its donors. Dorans couldn't immediately be reached for comment Friday.
On Thursday, before the campaign finance details were released, Dorans called this new development disappointing.
"I think most of us that have been around a lot of these conversations around governance structure don't love the idea of groups coming in that don't disclose their donors, attacking one issue or the other," Dorans said. "I think both Issue 8 and Issue 9 leadership have said that we're going to certainly campaign and sometimes do that collaboratively."
Dorans said he takes issue with some of the language that the ads use around Issue 9 being some thing that's cooked up behind closed doors to hold on to power.
"Issue 9 came out of direct discussions with the folks that are behind Issue 8. That is the framework in which Issue 9 took part in," Dorans said.
Petrik said Thursday on All Sides that Our City Our Say is focused on a positive "yes" Issue 8 campaign. He said the leadership agreed not to oppose Issue 9.
While that may be true of leadership, many prominent members of the coalition have come out against Issue 9, including former U.S. Senate candidate Morgan Harper and former Columbus mayoral candidate Joe Motil.
Petrik said Friday he doesn't know Tanner and hasn't met him. The meeting on the poll results was with the firm hired by Tanner.
In the past, Tanner donated thousands of dollars to the campaign of Jesse Vogel, for Columbus City Council's District 7. Earlier this year, Tanner donated $5,000 to Our City Our Say, according to Columbus city campaign finance data.
Vogel lost narrowly to City Councilmember Tiara Ross citywide, which is how the current system works, but Vogel won within District 7.
This result ignited outcry and eventually Our City Our Say formed to push reform to this system.
Many, including city councilmembers like Dorans, have called the current system "stupid."
The firm Tanner hired is called Khia Asylum LLC and is based in Wyoming. WOSU couldn't immediately locate information on this firm.
Our City Our Say and the PAC supporting Issue 9 called Future Columbus also reported their finances.
Future Columbus reported $0 raised, spent and cash-on-hand.
The Our City Our Say PAC reported raising more than $38,000, with almost 300 contributions from supporters — many of which donated multiple times. It spent money largely on social media advertisements, but also campaign supplies and events.
Our City Our Say has more than $20,000 left in the bank.
Voters Have Choices, which is run by Tanner, still has more than $100,000 in cash-on-hand.
