Randy Gardner raises $300,000; opponent misses deadline for report

SANDUSKY — State Sen. Randy Gardner, R-Bowling Green, has raised nearly $300,000 so far in his campaign to be re-elected to another four-year term in District Two of the Ohio Senate.Gardner's figures are contained in a pre-general election report he filed last week to meet an Oct. 27 deadline.His Democratic opponent, Kirk Halliday, did not file a report on time and missed the deadline.Candidates who did not raise or spend $1,000 in the reporting period are not required to file a report, said Joshua Eck, a spokesman for the Ohio Secretary of State's office. If that's not the case, then Halliday is late, he said."Our office will typically work with a campaign that is tardy in order to resolve the issue. If it is not submitted, we will eventually be forced to turn the matter over to the Ohio Elections Commission for further investigation and any additional action," he said.Halliday said Monday he plans to file a report by Tuesday that will show he has raised and spent between $4,000 and $6,000.Gardner's report says that he's raised $290,459 and spent $239,205.His largest contributions were $12,532 from Political Education Patterns, the political education arm of Operating Engineers Local 18, the folks who operate heavy machinery in road construction projects.Other large contributions came from the Ohio Laborers District Council PAC ($10,000); Donald P. Miller, president of the Roppe Corp. ($10,000); the Ohio Education Association Fund for Children and Public Education ($7,532), Affiliated Construction Trades Ohio Foundation PCE ($7,500), and IBEW Local 8 PCE ($7,000).Gardner didn't spend much of the money on himself. The campaign records show he gave $210,000 to the Ohio Republican Senate Campaign Committee to help his colleagues' races."They expect all senators to be supportive of the caucus, and I'm also a candidate for Senate leadership, so I'm expected to help the Senate Republican team," Gardner said.If he's re-elected, Gardner plans to seek one of the four leadership positions, although he's not a candidate for Senate president.In addition to the cash contributions, the Citizens for Gardner Committee also reported $21,602 of in-kind contributions, with more than $12,000 of that accounted for by mailings from the Ohio Republican Party. Gardner also received food and beverage donations from supporters and the Ohio Republican Senate Campaign Committee paid $2,661 for phone calls to voters.Halliday said he hasn't received any in-kind support from the Ohio Democratic Party."They haven't given me a nickel. I wasn't one of their priorities," he said. "That decision was made by the gurus at the state level."District Two of the Ohio Senate covers all of Erie, Ottawa and Wood counties, most of Fulton County and the western half of Lucas County.State Sen. Randy GardnerKirk Halliday, the Democratic candidate for Ohio Senate District Two.