James O’Keefe of Project Veritas has released a video that exposes Ohio’s Democratic Senate candidate Ted Strickland’s real positions on coal and guns while confirming that the Democrats have given up on his campaign.
According to Strickland, 87% of Ohio’s energy comes from coal, but he admitted on camera that coal isn’t a big deal to him:
“No, I’m not big on coal. I’m not big on coal. I understand coal. Coal is dying,” he said.
Yeah, it’s no wonder why the United Mine Workers of America decided to endorse Strickland’s opponent Sen. Rob Portman.
Later on, Strickland told the PV journalists he is not a cheerleader for the coal industry, saying its dying while promoting other energy sources to combat climate change.
However, another journalist recorded David Bergstein, Strickland’s communications director, promoting Strickland’s connections to the Appalachia area. Bergstein, though, skirted around the issue of Strickland wanting to eliminate the coal industry.
Project Veritas caught up with Strickland’s wife Frances and asked if he would ever get behind a full out gun ban. She said no, but admitted Strickland’s coming around to “common sense” gun control even though he allegedly gets his gun position through the Second Amendment:
But I think he is evolving, and he’s going to lose votes from the people he represented in southern Ohio, because they don’t want any, so he’s going to have to convince them what he’s doing is common sense. And then as things keep progressing I think he can keep pulling more in the Common Sense direction (stricter gun laws). It’s going to be part Common Sense. You know, AK-47s aren’t Common Sense. But he’s got to start somewhere.
The latest poll shows GOP Sen. Rob Portman has a 17 point lead over Strickland. This could explain why Hillary Clinton workers told Project Veritas journalists that her campaign pulled funding for Strickland:
ANDY DICKERSON, CLINTON CAMPAIGN WORKER: Yeah, I mean they [Portman] have so much money and so many negative ads and we just haven’t been able to quite combat it.
Dickerson is correct:
Portman raised $4.5 million in the third quarter, campaign aides said, leaving him $7.6 million on hand. That’s significantly less than Portman had at the end of last quarter, but he’s in the midst of a massive $15 million ad buy. He has no plans to scale that air campaign back despite his lead, campaign sources said, and he’s attempting to blow out Strickland by as much as possible.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Senate Majority PAC have pulled remaining ads for Strickland from now until two weeks before the election.
The journalists even caught Dylan Fonner, lead organizer for Ohio Democratic Party and Hillary for America, on tape admitting it won’t be a bad thing if Portman wins:
If Rob Portman won it won’t be the end of the world. It sucks, but it’s not the end of the world.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY