I met him yesterday when he was campaigning with Joe Blystone up in Ashtabula County. Spent probably 15-20 minutes talking with him before and after the event. Very nice guy, down to Earth, personable, has a good grasp on the issues. Like Joe, Mark is a business owner who's got some very good experience and a (IMHO) a really good head on his shoulders. Based on meeting and talking with him, and of course his position on so many critical issues at the national level, he's got my support and vote. Very happy to see good people like this who share our values and beliefs willing to stand and run for office.

He's got my vote, not a career shyster, which I'm down with...

Yesterday we learned a lot about the Republican US Senate hopefuls.  See, yesterday was the deadline for campaign finance filings for the second quarter.  Pukita’s filing was a joke.

He raised almost nothing.  He loaned himself $75-ish grand.  I’m guessing that’s him paying for his Mercedes RV campaign-mobile.  Whatever.

He goes nowhere.  Won’t even get 10% of the vote.

Until the filing there was a valid question, “Could he be the guy?”  Asked and answered, now.

Sorry, fellas.

And no, I don’t have a favorite horse in the race.  So I’m not running this guy down to help my candidate.  I’m still watching and waiting to see how these horses run.  I’m just not going to bet on a horse with a drunk jockey, 3 legs, and the vet standing next to him loading the euthanization gun.  Call me quirky.

So a guy who put his own skin into the game to the tune of 75K should be written off?

True he needs to crank up the fundraising for adds and such, but that's not a show stopper in my opinion.

Putting your own money into the campaign is fine.  But he isn’t the only one doing it.  Gibbons and Timken have both loaned their own campaigns a lot more money AND have way better success getting donations from folks.  Mandel has a lot of cash on hand and continues to fundraise well, too.

Your point about ads being expensive and thus one needs money for them is well made.  Ohio is a big state with multiple expensive media markets.  Shoestring campaign isn’t viable.  If it were, Melissa Ackison would’ve done better in the 2018 GOP US Senate primary (she came in third behind Renacci and Gibbons).

One of the initial talking points about Pukita was that he had built up his business and then sold it for like $90 million.  Folks thought that translated into, “Rich candidate who can and will self-fund.”  We have seen little evidence of that with this quarterly filing.  Might he throw millions into his campaign account later?  Sure, but why wait?  Even a loan (which he could pay himself back) of a cool million would’ve lent his cause credibility.  One is left to wonder, “Does this guy really have the cheddar?”

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying only rich guys can run.  But if ya ain’t rich, then you’d better be good at getting folks to open their checkbook for your campaign.  At this moment, he seems to be neither.  That’s disconcerting.

Then there’s guys like Moreno and Vance floating around in this mix.  Both able to self-fund AND have lots of friends with money.  Heck, a single donor dropped $10 million into Vance’s super PAC.  How does a guy like Pukita compete with that?  Ye olde Mercedes RV???  Yeah…nah….




I get it, folks WANT to believe that a dark horse candidate can win.  And on rare occasion they even do, like when Brat beat Cantor.  But that is the exception to the rule.  If somebody thinks they are the exception then they better be explaining how.  To date, I haven’t heard that from Pukita.



Here is another way ya can tell who is in the “outsider lane” and making waves.  Mandel is trying to elbow others out from that lane, which is a bit amusing for as long as he has been in politics.  Nevertheless, I haven’t seen a single attack from Mandel towards Pukita.  I have seen a SLEW of them directed at Vance.  Show me who is being attacked and I’ll show you who is feared,  Mandel fears Vance; Mandel doesn’t even know that Pukita exists.

At least we can all agree that Josh Mandel is a shitty candidate.

You do you.  I get it, you made up your mind.  No amount of evidence is going to cause you to change it.  Cool, bro.

“Lifer politician”, though, doesn’t apply to everyone in this field.  Tell me when JD Vance has ever run before?  Or Bernie Moreno?  The difference between them and Pukita is that they understand that fundraising matters.  They have competent teams.  Pukita has a Mercedes RV.  Swell.

It almost seems like some folks look for any campaign displaying political competence and immediately flee the scene.  If ya want to vote for bumbling folks who can’t campaign their way out of a wet paper bag…well…you got options.

You didn’t even bother with a hand wave at the analogy to Ackison’s doomed candidacy in 2018.  Do you bother to look at history when trying to predict the future?  Or is that for nerds?  Because if grossly underfunded first time candidates who espouse puritanical ideas was a pathway to victory…Ackison would be empress of Ohio by now.

But go ahead and vote for Pukita.  Seriously.  I’m glad you’re at least gonna vote. I’d rather you give Mercedes RV boy a vote than some Democrat.

Good day, fine Sir.

Morne has been working 2A politics for a long long time and he is 100% correct on everything he has said.  Every point he made is simply how the political system works.  Unfortunately, money and outside supporters is what wins elections at that level not good political principles.  Else we would have a whole lot more "L's" holding office.

Now if he was running for a county or city wide office there may be some viability there, but statewide is just not reasonable goal.  If he really wants to be a politician then you start building your base and organization and supporters and donors at a local level and carry that experience and ability along with you as go.

JLE

I do have a lot of experience in politics.  I’m a volunteer.  I’m a county chairman of my local GOP.

Again, I’m not backing any particular candidate for senate right now.  Haven’t picked a favorite.  But I am starting to whittle down the list of viable candidates.

That's great, but you gotta see that we the people, are fed up with lip service.  Fighters are needed,  not someone who will tell me it'll all be all right while they give me a reach around