Melissa Ackison labels Bill Reineke as ‘Scrooge McDuck’ in heated GOP Ohio Senate primary

TIFFIN, OH — Republican candidate for the 26th district Ohio Senate seat, Melissa Ackison, has come up with a new nickname for her fellow Republican opponent, State Rep. Bill Reineke.

“See you on the debate stage Scrooge McDuck!,” Ackison said in a Facebook post on Wednesday, shortly after Reineke’s team filed his campaign finance reports with the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office.

Ackison and Reineke are facing off in the GOP primary for the 26th district Ohio Senate seat, which is being vacated by current term-limited Sen. Dave Burke (R-Marysville).

The 26th Senate district includes all or part of Seneca, Sandusky, Morrow, Marion, Crawford, Wyandot, and Union counties, an area Ackison refers to as “God’s country.”

Reineke’s campaign finance reports, which showed around $150,000 raised since the start of his Senate campaign, contained July records in addition to the required months — a move Ackison says was intentional, so Reineke could “inflate” his fundraising numbers to the public.

“He sent his first financial reports and press release to my personal email in an effort to intimidate me BUT his numbers were inflated to include an extra month that shouldn’t have been reported,” Ackison said.

Reineke’s campaign finance reports show he has raised $152,207.35, spending $21,164, and ending up with a balance on-hand of $164,694 (with some money left over from his State House campagn).

A majority of Reineke’s campaign contributions came from PACs, corporations, or family members.

“It’s going to take over $100,000 just to craft and market a decent personality for the poor thing,” Ackison said of Reineke. “It would take MILLIONS to wipe away his lack of legislative accomplishments.”

Ackison reported raising around $34,000 since the beginning of her campaign, spending $6,922 and having about $26,272 on hand.

“God knows he’s going to have to invest in notecards because he can’t formulate a decent thought on his own, unless his goons tell him what to say,” Ackison said. “Now that he’s tapped out all of his PACs and special interest cash, what will he do?”

“See you on the debate stage Scrooge McDuck!,” Ackison added.

Ackison is a small business owner and conservative activist from Marysville, who previously ran in the GOP primary for U.S. Senate in 2018.

Reineke, of Tiffin, currently serves as State Representative for the 88th district (Sandusky & Seneca counties) and owns a network of car dealerships, Reineke Family Dealerships.