The "small group of people" is complete
"Special Advisor" to the President Jared Borg and longtime Ohio political operative
On Monday, The Rooster broke the news that Ohio Democratic leadership had walked away from statewide congressional redistricting negotiations with an unexpected bounty, largely thanks to the political ambitions of State Senate President Rob McColley.
But an intern, who has since been fired like a dog, duffed a simple point while synthesizing my conversations with insider Republicans and Democrats on state and federal levels.
That point deserves clarification before we expound on thers and reveal the final pieces to the puzzle.
U.S. Minority House Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ team did intentionally leak plans to fundraise for a referendum. The bluff, however, was about the size of the committed money.
Contrary to the original report, a top Jeffries aide committed $2.5 million in the first 30 days to retain the signature collection firm needed to make the statewide ballot on a shortened timeline that went throughout the winter.
But that was still a paltry sum compared to the $10 to $15 million that Ohio Democrats surmised they needed for a successful effort.
Ohio Democratic Party chairwoman Kathleen Clyde and “donor table” leader Misha Barnes initially opposed the referendum.
Barnes felt the donors would stop writing checks if the referendum failed, thus damaging Sherrod Brown’s re-election chances.
Eventually, however, Clyde and Barnes came around to the idea, determining that activist anger was a convenient way to mobilize volunteers for Brown, their unofficial boss.
The duo then colluded to torpedo House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn and Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood), telling anyone who would listen that the two legislative leaders “couldn’t be trusted” in negotiations because they would cave.
But as The Rooster reported, Jeffries’ gambit worked. Shortly after Punchbowl News took the bait, McColley resumed negotiations that Democrats felt had been purposefully stalled for weeks.
With negotiations restarted but no deal in sight, Clyde and Barnes attacked Isaacsohn and Antonio for circumventing state leadership to pressure Jeffries into making a statement.
A week later, the Republicans proposed a map that didn’t cross any pre-established Democratic red lines.
Facing a $7.5 to $13.5 million shortfall in the referendum fund and no commitments from key stakeholders to publicly support the referendum, let alone plug that financial gap, Antonio and Isaacsohn informed Speaker Huffman that they would accept the deal.
Clyde came around to the deal in the closing hours.
Barnes did not, which is why she immediately tried to knife Isaacsohn and Antonio by stoking outrage among her colleagues in a “cover your ass” email, which The Rooster published minutes later.
The Republican “small group of people” included two more players
As The Rooster detailed on Monday, MAGA influencers sounded the alarm about a bipartisan deal, which could send as many as five Democratic members back to Congress after next year’s election.
That was a significant difference from the 13R-2D map that Senator Bernie Moreno, an influential force in the MAGA movement, had predicted before the negotiations, especially when weighed against the ongoing national redistricting fight.
That difference could be the difference between the Republicans maintaining or losing control of the U.S. House of Representatives next year.
By last Thursday afternoon, President McColley and Speaker Huffman were the only two Republican legislators who were aware of the specifics of the proposed deal.
Later in the day, when McColley’s mapmaker, Senate Budget Director Ray DiRossi laid out the map in McColley’s office, several influential Republicans left the meeting feeling unconvinced on the particulars.
However, as The Rooster reported, the deal came at a convenient time for McColley, with President Donald Trump and his senior aides in South Korea. For example, while they knew negotiations were in the works, Trump’s senior team did not know a deal had been struck until Thursday night when The Rooster broke the news.
With the clock ticking and the White House not issuing any directive, McColley’s team went to work to ease skepticism among key Republicans fearing MAGA blowback over a deal with Democrats that didn’t meet national needs.
As The Rooster reported, notorious Republican hobgoblin Bob Paduchick used his Trump credibility to push the idea that silence from the White House meant the Administration had agreed with the deal.
Since yesterday’s publication, The Rooster can exclusively reveal two other key names that worked to push the same agenda: Jared Borg, a longtime Republican Statehouse staffer turned Special Advisor to the President, and Clayton Henson, a federal and state Republican consultant who has also worked for Trump’s presidential campaigns.
