Outside millions fund Ohio senate race

XENIA, Ohio (WDTN) - The Sherrod Brown campaign says it's being outspent 4-to-1, we're talking millions and millions of dollars.  The campaign points to ads like the one paid for by the Government Integrity Fund.  It has no candidate's authorization.

So, who is behind the Government Integrity Fund?

ProPublica, an organization known for award-winning investigative journalism, reports "GIF" is run by a state lobbyist who employs a former top Josh Mandel staffer, Joel Riter.

You might recognize him.  A Sherrod Brown ad targeted Riter, among other employees Mandel hired, when he became State Treasurer.  The ad was approved by  Brown, the democrat.

So back-and-forth they go and what you need to look for is a disclaimer or something that states the candidate himself endorsed the ad, otherwise the ad could be paid for by a non-profit group as they are called. They don't have to reveal their donors.

Republican Josh Mandel told 2 NEWS, "This was a U.S. Supreme Court decision, a U.S. Supreme court decision.  This is bigger than Ohio but this is a national issue. You bring up very good questions, but this is a national issue."

Mandel wanted to make sure we saw a web ad that targets some of his wife's holdings paid for by "Workers' Voice," a PAC for the AFL-CIO, not endorsed by any candidate.

Mandel said, They were actually attacking my wife. Think about how sad that is.  We have no control over them. We asked Sherrod Brown to denounce the ads but at the end of the day he has no control over them."

That's something on which the two campaigns agree, they can't associate with donors to political action committees whom they may or may not know creating what ProPublica called "dark money."

"We don't coordinate with any of these organizations whatsoever," said Mandel. And when I asked him about Riter he told me he hadn't talked with him in "a very long time." He said he had no idea if Riter is with the Government Integrity Fund.

We sent an email to the fund and placed a phone call to what we believe is Riter's employer and have yet to hear back.  His name was listed on the GIF website as being on the team.