By: Mary Kilpatrick
Brown cashes in: “U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown’s campaign flexed its financial muscle Wednesday, announcing it raised an impressive $2.4 million in the first three months of 2017,” cleveland.com reporter Jeremy Pelzer writes. “The sizable haul, the most Brown has ever raised in an election off-year quarter, is almost double the $1.35 million he raised during the same time in 2011, according to campaign spokesman Justin Barasky. The senator now has about $5 million on hand, according to Barasky.”
“Brown is just one of a number of Democratic Senate incumbents to haul in large amounts of donations in the first few months of Donald Trump’s presidency, fueled by angry small donors,” Pelzer writes.
Endorsement watch: End Citizens United, a PAC aiming to reduce the influence of unlimited corporate money in politics, endorsed Brown today.
The Democratic-aligned group, launched to counteract the eponymous 2010 Supreme Court ruling, says Brown is among the first endorsements of the 2018 political cycle.
Why it matters: Largely from small donations, End Citizens United during the 2016 election cycle raised $25 million, which it spent on things like direct candidate contributions, polling and ads. It aims to raise $35 million for the 2018 election cycle, and will be one of what likely will be many outside groups targeting next year’s Ohio Senate race.
“This is a competitive state where we believe there will be a lot of corporate special interest money used to attack a reformer and our priority is to elect Sherrod Brown who has been a leader on campaign finance reform,” End Citizens United spokeswoman Anne Feldman said in an email.
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