Finally, we wish to thank all of our volunteer investigators for their instrumental help! We wouldn't have gotten very far with out your ingenuity and tenacity.
We won’t know exactly where all the money flowed until final campaign filings are due on December 10th, and possibly when yearly local, state, and federal PAC and candidate disclosures are due January 31st. But we'll be here to find out. And we don’t expect many surprises.
In 2020, The American Principles Project PAC spent $2.1 million on digital marketing to the Drogin Group, and more to digital marketers Logan Circle Group ($692,000) and Majority Strategies Florida ($100,000), both of whom have worked on Ohio GOP campaigns (from OpenSecrets)
And, here's the kicker, if you haven't figured it out yet...
David Langdon is the treasurer of the American Principles Project PAC, the group that funded the negative ad mailers about candidate Sara Bitter to Sycamore residents
The Warren ad was funded by the Drogin Group @JohnDrogin, which provides digital marketing for US Senator Ted Cruz @tedcruz and US Representative Lauren Boebert @laurenboebert, among other right-wing candidates and groups:
https://t.co/2cFuOUFKBE
Here are recent ads, which were universally condemned as racist, that one of Langdon’s PACs funded against US Senator Elizabeth Warren: https://t.co/8tazfvDSfR
Causes that Mr. Langdon is passionate about include anti-progressivism, greater role for religion in schools and government, traditional gender and marriage values, and more recently, anti-critical race theory efforts:
https://t.co/BPGmC0KYRs
Mr. Langdon provides a service for financiers interested in promoting causes that align with his interests, but generally is not the financier. He instead creates structures by which those financiers can more freely operate with less scrutiny from regulators and watchdogs
Mr. Langdon’s general strategy is to create a new PAC for each particular cause he is interested in supporting, and then to help obscure where the PAC money flows by creating non-profit organizations that have fewer reporting requirements: https://t.co/8aSduqUwrm
Mr. Langdon is known nationally as being the administrative presence behind many far-right PACs. The linked article is perhaps the best of the several written about him:
https://t.co/dhnZd7UCru
OK, to make this clearer, the Laverty campaign and contributors have pointed us to Curt Hartman. He in turn pointed us to David Langdon. So why do we care?
David Langdon is an unassuming lawyer with an equally unassuming, long-time practice in West Chester OH, Langdon Law LLC
However, Mr Hartman is still working closely with Mr. Langdon on far-right causes. For example, this amicus brief to the Ohio Supreme Court in 2019:
https://t.co/7qRtIR5aKU
Hartman and David Langdon were law partners until 2008, as illustrated in this 2008 affidavit stating "Langdon Law, formerly Langdon and Hartman"
https://t.co/jYfmTJFNuh
Curt Hartman is clearly very closely aligned with Zachary Haines.
Why does this all matter? Because...
Curt Hartman and David Langdon were formerly law partners
Conversely, Mr. Haines follows on Twitter Mr. Hartman, RedHouse strategist Josh Burton, EmpowerUOhio, anti-CRT leader for Ohio Kenneth Blackwell, US Senate candidate Josh Mandel, and Laverty donors Dan Regenold, Chris Monzel, and Rocky Boiman,
Although he abandoned his Twitter feed in 2020 for Parler, Dan Regenold followed Laverty donors Zachary Haines, Rocky Boiman, Brian Thomas, Chris Monzel, and Amy Searcy, as well as Laverty political strategist Josh Burton. And of course Curt Hartman. Long-lasting ties to each