The first wave of broadcast and digital advertising attacks have landed against Republican state senators who voted against the Indiana congressional redistricting.
Those ads targeting at least five senators who face primary challengers endorsed by President Donald Trump are coming from a dark-money group affiliated with GOP U.S. Sen. Jim Banks.
The ads that started appearing last week follow the theme that the senators opposed “President Trump’s plan to remove liberal Democrats from Congress” along with knocking them for votes on gasoline or property taxes and foreign land ownership.
Such online, television and radio ads from the group Hoosier Leadership for America could be just the initial barrage of attacks on the Republican incumbents as Trump-aligned organizations have vowed to be big spenders in those races.
Hoosier Leadership for America purchased radio or television advertising time from stations at least in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Lafayette and Terre Haute, according to Federal Communications Commission records, along with placing ads on YouTube and other online platforms.
Five senators seeking reelection are targeted in ads seen by the Indiana Capital Chronicle: Jim Buck of Kokomo, Spencer Deery of West Lafayette, Greg Goode of Terre Haute, Travis Holdman of Markle and Greg Walker of Columbus.
Walker, who is seeking his sixth Senate term, said the ads were “over the top and ridiculous.”
“I believe that there’s certainly non-Indiana agendas at play, but also very self-serving agendas (to) curry favor,” Walker told the Capital Chronicle. “I know that all this is being driven from outside the district, every every dollar of it. Every dollar of this is coming from outside of District 41.”
Dark-money group tied to BanksIt is unclear how much Hoosier Leadership for America is spending on this round of ads and how much money it will spend ahead of the May 5 primary.
The group, which organized a pro-redistricting event featuring Banks in Noblesville in September, is registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a nonprofit organization based out of a single-family home on Fort Wayne’s northeast side.
Such organizations are allowed to keep the sources of their money secret, which is why they are commonly referred to as dark-money groups.
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Banks’ office did not respond to telephone and email requests for comment Monday. The Capital Chronicle also sent an email seeking comment to the person identified in advertising purchases as the organization’s treasurer, Charles Gantt of the Massachusetts-based political advisory group Bulldog Compliance.
The group has no contact information on its website — and the digital ads display an incorrect online address.
The ads also avoid disclosure requirements by not specifically seeking votes for or against a candidate, but by directing viewers or listeners to call a state legislative switchboard number to voice their opinion.
Deery, one of the targeted senators who is seeking his second term, called the ad campaign an attempt to “manipulate our elections, to intimidate future elected officials into listening to these out-of-state forces.”
“I’m not seeing any kind of grassroots movement behind these,” Deery said in an interview Monday. “It’s really just mailers coming in from Virginia, or ads coming in from Washington, D.C. I’m just trying to do my thing and knock doors, go to events. What you can’t do from Virginia.”
Outside organizations not talking
Other political organizations, including the Washington-based Club for Growth and the pro-redistricting group Fair Maps Indiana, have joined with Trump in threatening political revenge on those Republican senators who voted against redrawing the congressional maps but have revealed little about their actual plans.
Marty Obst, an Indiana Republican operative and former Trump campaign staffer who leads Fair Maps Indiana, said in January that his organization and others would “spend seven figures” in support of the GOP primary challengers.
Obst and the Club for Growth, which is led by former Indiana Congressman David McIntosh, did not return messages seeking comment.
The Club for Growth Action PAC is sending mailers on behalf of Tracey Powell, who is challenging Buck. One focused on President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Powell.
Fountain County Republican Chair Paula Copenhaver, who is running against Deery, joined the other Trump-endorsed candidates in a trip to the White House on March 4.
Copenhaver said last week that the level of campaign support she could expect was “still to be determined.”
“I’ve come to learn that President Trump is a man of his word, and so I have no doubt that if he says he’s going to support us, he’s going to support us in whatever way possible,” Copenhaver said in an interview.
More spending for digital ads
It is difficult to determine how much is spent on digital advertising because some platforms don’t disclose political ad purchases, said Andrew Arenge, who tracks online campaign advertising for the University of Pennsylvania’s Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies.
Digital ads generally cost less than television placement and are becoming more widespread since Facebook can target individuals based on their viewing patterns and YouTube ads can focus on specific locations, Arenge said.
“The folks targeting these ads can look at the district and then figure out which towns and counties are right, or ZIP codes are relevant,” he said.
When asked whether he expected the Republicans who opposed redistricting would face millions in campaign spending against them, Deery replied “I don’t think anybody knows.”
“I think they’re going to do enough to at least try and please the audiences that they’re trying to please, and you prepare for that,” Deery said.
Deery also argues that political retribution over redistricting isn’t helping the bigger Republican goal of keeping the party’s narrow hold on the U.S. House at a time when it has supermajority control of Indiana’s Legislature.
“I wish we could spend our resources on maintaining the congressional majority, rather than diverting resources to attack conservative Republicans over an issue that is now settled,” he said. “Everything seems like a distraction from what the goal should be.”
Indiana Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: info@indianacapitalchronicle.com.