COLUMBUS, Ohio — Thanks to the new U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down limits on campaign finance restrictions, even more political ads will likely be flooding the airwaves ahead of the November election.
Ohio is set to have two of the most expensive races in the country for U.S. Senate and governor, and the justices are allowing even more money to flow.
The court struck down limits on the money political parties can spend in coordination with their own candidates.
"Money is so important that it's everything in political campaigns," Republican strategist Bob Clegg said.
Millions of dollars have already been spent ahead of the November midterms, with Clegg saying there are about to be plenty more ads thanks to the Supreme Court.
RELATED: Ohio labor unions, traditional allies of Democrats, have drifted right
"It gives parties a little more power and the ability to get the members they want elected," he said.
Campaign finance restrictions existed to prevent corruption, arising out of the Watergate Scandal, Case Western Reserve University Elections law professor Atiba Ellis said.
"The interest in a party and its candidate coordinating is a free speech interest that is more important than interests around quid pro quo corruption," Ellis said, explaining Justice Brett Kavanaugh's opinion.
But Vice President JD Vance sued when he ran for Senate in 2022 to work more closely with the federal leadership, saying coordination is within free speech.
Now that the parties have both the resources and the access, they can directly support by shaping messaging and advertising.
"More effective coordination, more effective money flow and targeting can lead to more volume on the air, in newspapers," Ellis said.
RELATED: Ohio's U.S. Senate race expected to have record-breaking spending
Government accountability advocate Catherine Turcer argued that nothing good comes from this ruling.
"This Supreme Court doesn't seem to get the importance of reducing bribery," Turcer said. "The importance of these limitations in encouraging candidates to be responsible, and encouraging candidates to focus on their voters, their constituents, rather than on major donors."
This is the court putting its thumb on the scale ahead of the election, she said.
The Republican National Committee is flush with cash, while the DNC is in debt. Leaders say this ruling could wipe out cash advantages that Democrats may have in battleground states.
In a post, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Sherrod Brown, who has been far outraising opponent U.S. Senator Jon Husted, wrote the "decision to let billionaires and corporations flood U.S. elections with outside money is plain wrong."
"If you let coordination with unlimited money, of course, the impact is not going to be even," Turcer said.
But Clegg said that the ruling actually helps prevent candidates from relying on specific political action committees or outside donors.
"The more we can get parties and caucuses involved, the less we're relying on special interest groups," he said.
With tight races, an effective ad can be the difference between a seat in Congress and a concession speech.
Follow WEWS statehouse reporter Morgan Trau on Twitter and Facebook.
