CLEVELAND — We're one week out from Election Day, and Ohio voters could very well determine who controls the U.S. Senate in what is reportedly the most expensive race in the country outside of the race for the White House.
The election has garnered national attention, and for good reason. Polls show longtime Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown could be in his toughest race yet: a virtual tie with Republican businessman Bernie Moreno.
"I think that the folks spending the money really believe that the power to control the Senate might turn on who wins this seat in Ohio," Atiba Ellis, an election law scholar and professor at Case Western Reserve University, told 3News. "The polling would suggest that this is evenly divided, so you're seeing a lot of investment from both sides."
Ellis says that explains the hundreds of millions of dollars groups are pouring into the race. According to data from AdImpact, ad spending surpassed $400 million this month, making Ohio's Senate battle the most expensive in the country so far.
Chances are, you're seeing the results every day in the form of ads — on TV, on social media, on billboards, and even from texts on your phone. The Associated Press reported earlier this month that Republicans had spent more than $188 million on ads since the March 19 primary compared to Democrats' $159 million, and there's more money to spend heading into Nov. 5.
Ellis says the money can be hard to follow when it comes from outside groups.
"That's the idea of dark money: I can't see who the true source of the money is because they can use the tax structure to hide the true donor, and that way, I can't fully assess what the message really is here because I don't know the motivation of the person who’s funding it," he stated.
Ellis says focusing on issues rather than advocating for a specific candidate allows outside groups to keep spending. Changes in election law over the last decade have also made dark money more prevalent in our elections, he said.
"As long as it's not coordinating with the campaign itself, it has the ability to raise money and spend an unlimited amount on advertising," he noted. "Spending in campaigns is like water on a sidewalk: It finds every crack it can get into."
Voters 3News spoke to in Summit and Lorain counties were split, whit some arguing it's time for someone new to replace Brown in his bid for a fourth term and others lamenting the GOP's embrace of former President Donald Trump.
Ellis also says the attack ads that will continue through the election "diminish the proper debate about the important ideas and issues to Ohioans, and so I worry that's getting drowned out as a result."
On Tuesday, Moreno campaigned with Donald Trump Jr. in Strongsville. Brown was with labor leaders and workers in Youngstown.