Between financial assistance he received from the Ohio Republican Party, contributions from fellow Ohio House members and the $50,000 he gave his campaign, state Rep. Al Cutrona was flush with cash as he handily won his race.

Post-general election campaign finance reports show Cutrona, R-Canfield, not only raised and spent significantly more money than Democratic challenger Chris Stanley in the Ohio House 59th District race, but he received much more in in-kind contributions from his political party than Stanley.

Cutrona received $103,347.16 from the Ohio Republican Party between Oct. 16 and 30 for digital advertising and direct mail.

In comparison, the Ohio Democratic Party gave $5,305.73 from the Ohio Democratic Party on Oct. 27 for campaign mail, but also paid $5,400 for the same purpose on Oct. 21.

The post-general time period is from Oct. 15 to Dec. 4, though most of the financial activity occurred before the Nov. 3 election.

Cutrona beat Stanley by about 22 percent in last month’s election.

The state Republican Party also gave $135,803.25 in in-kind contributions for campaign mail during the pre-general election time — from May 30 to Oct. 14 — to Cutrona while Stanley received $10,000 from the Ohio Democratic Party, but paid all but $50 of it back.

Cutrona loaned $50,000 to his campaign July 1 as he had promised before being appointed May 28 to the position.

The seat opened after the March 20 death of Republican Don Manning of New Middletown, the incumbent, with the Ohio House Republican Caucus selecting Cutrona, who’d never run for political office before this, from 15 candidates who applied for the job.

During the post-general period, Cutrona raised $32,700 in contributions with $8,500 coming from the campaign committees of four fellow Republican House members and $1,000 from the committee of Auditor Keith Faber.

Stanley collected $7,624.32 with $3,000 from Clean Energy Future, the Manchester, Mass., company that developed two natural gas-fired power plants in Lordstown and was going to build a third billion-dollar plant before the state Legislature approved a controversial $1.3 billion bailout bill for two nuclear power plants.

Stanley also received $1,000 contributions from the campaign committee of state Rep. Michele Lepore-Hagan, D-Youngstown, and David Betras, the former Mahoning County Democratic Party chairman.

Cutrona spent $32,700 to Stanley’s $41.003.99 in the post-general election period with the Ohio Republican Party assistance giving the Republican a huge boost.

Cutrona paid $12,000 to Medium Buying of Columbus to purchase advertising. He gave $30,000 to the same company during the pre-general period for the same purpose.

Cutrona also gave $19,000 to three other House Republican candidates, including $7,000 to Mike Loychik of Cortland, who defeated state Rep. Gil Blair, D-Weathersfield, in the 63rd District race.

Stanley’s biggest expense was $26,000 to R Strategy Group of Cleveland with $20,000 for television commercials and $6,000 as a consulting retainer. During the pre-general period, he paid $16,000 to R Strategy for digital advertising and consulting fees.

Stanley was left with $3,436.58 in his fund as of Dec. 4 compared to $78,447.34 for Cutrona.

58TH DISTRICT

In the other Mahoning County legislative race, for the House’s 58th District, Lepore-Hagan, who won her fourth two-year term, raised $2,045 in the post-general period with all but $45 from political action committees compared to $1,670.38 for David T. Simon of Youngstown, her Republican opponent. Of Simon’s money, $1,145.38 came from the Mahoning County Republican Party.

During the pre-general period, Lepore-Hagan raised $24,985 to $6,800 for Simon.

Lepore-Hagan beat Simon by 34.88 percent. She cannot run for re-election in 2022 because of the state’s term limits law.

Hagan spent $6,821.50 in the post-general period with a $2,500 contribution to Stanley’s campaign being her biggest expense.

Simon spent $5,484.68 during the same time with $5,428 going to IHeart Media for radio commercials.

Lepore-Hagan had $29,630.16 in her campaign fund as of Dec. 4 with Simon having $771.01.

63RD DISTRICT

Running for elected office for the first time, Loychik, who beat Blair by 8.34 percent, received six times the amount his Democratic opponent got in the post-general period.

Actually Loychik received more from one contributor than the $8,282.19 Blair received.

Brian Colleran of Chagrin Falls, a Republican megadonor, gave $10,000 to Loychik on Oct. 26. Colleran, a nursing home executive, hosted President Donald Trump at his home for a July 2019 fundraiser and has given about $1.5 million to Republicans since 2004 including $600,000 to Trump’s campaign.

During the post-general period, Loychik received $51,440 in contributions with $27,250 coming from the committee of Ohio House Republicans. Leading the way was Majority Leader Bill Seitz of Green with $8,000 that was given a week after the election, and Cutrona with $7,000.

During the pre-general period, Loychik raised $83,097.35 with most of it from the campaigns of Republican House members. He also received $7,915.20 from the Ohio Republican Party in in-kin contributions for campaign mail during that period.

Loychik spent $86,770.38 in the post-general time with $22,000 to Strategic Media Placement of Columbus for television commercials, $18,034 to IHeart Media for radio ads, $15,016.40 to WFMJ for TV commercials and $10,000 to Cumulus Media for radio ads.

While Blair received $11,555.55 from the Ohio Democratic Party during the pre-general period in in-kind contributions for digital advertising and postage — and paid the $6,000 back to the party for the postage — he received no financial help from the party during the post-general period.

Blair was appointed to the seat by the Ohio House Democratic Caucus in May 2019 to fill the term of Glenn Holmes, who resigned to take an appointment to the Ohio Parole Board.

Blair raised $8,282.19 in the post-general time with $3,750 coming from PACs and spent $9,552.72 with $8,000 to 2 Ticks and the Dog Productions of Warren for advertising being his biggest expense. He was left with only $621.22 as of Dec. 4.

Loychik didn’t have much more as of Dec. 4 — $2,358.03.