Politicos suddenly dumping free $$$
Indicted brokers’ gifts quickly ejected
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Mark Niquette
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
With the potential taint of the state investment and ethics scandals looming over Ohio politics, some state Republicans are scrambling to give up campaign cash from the two people most recently charged in the investigation.
U.S. Sens. Mike DeWine and George V. Voinovich and state Auditor Betty D. Montgomery all said yesterday they are donating to charity or another source contributions received from brokers Michael W. Lewis and Daniel P. O’Neil and their wives.
Lewis and O’Neil have been indicted on federal charges related to allegations that they conspired to bribe the former chief financial officer of the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation in exchange for getting lucrative bureau business.
Both men have pleaded not guilty to the charges, but with Democrats arguing that Republicans have presided over a "culture of corruption" in Ohio and Washington, some officeholders aren’t waiting for the outcome of the case to act.
Many GOP candidates and officeholders already have surrendered contributions from Thomas W. Noe, the rarecoin dealer at the heart of the state scandals.
Voinovich is donating $9,000 he received from the brokers and their wives since 1994 to an undetermined charity, and DeWine is donating the $3,000 he received in 2004 to charity as well, spokesmen said.
Voinovich considers both brokers friends and had O’Neil manage his personal financial portfolio after leaving the governor’s office, spokesman Chris Paulitz said. O’Neil only executed trades without providing investment advice, he said.
"The senator is disappointed but determined to allow the justice system to take its course," Paulitz said. "While the senator believes they are innocent until proven guilty, he will send their modest campaign contributions since 1994 to a charity."
A spokesman for DeWine, who is locked in a fight for re-election with Democratic U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown, declined to respond to a statement yesterday from the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee calling on DeWine to donate the "tainted funds" to charity and saying "you can tell a lot about someone by the company he keeps."
Montgomery, who is running for attorney general this year, gave the $1,000 she took from O’Neil and his wife last year to an escrow fund at the bureau yesterday, a spokesman said.
Lewis and O’Neil, who are both from the Cleveland area, contributed money in the 1990s to Democrats Thomas Ferguson, the former state auditor, and former state Rep. Patrick A. Sweeney of Cleveland.
Republican gubernatorial candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell, who took $200 from Lewis in 1994 and ’95 when he was state treasurer, sees no need to return the contributions and expects the brokers to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, spokesman Carlo Lo-Paro said.
The Ohio Republican Party, which took $3,500 in contributions from both Lewis and O’Neil in 1998, also plans to keep that money because Chairman Robert T. Bennett thinks it’s irrelevant to the problems at the bureau, spokesman John McClelland said.
According to a four-count federal indictment unsealed Monday, Lewis and O’Neil conspired starting in 1998 with Terrence W. Gasper, the bureau’s former chief financial officer, to allow Gasper and his guests to use an oceanfront Florida condominium for free in exchange for bureau business.
mniquette@dispatch.com
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Mark Niquette
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
With the potential taint of the state investment and ethics scandals looming over Ohio politics, some state Republicans are scrambling to give up campaign cash from the two people most recently charged in the investigation.
U.S. Sens. Mike DeWine and George V. Voinovich and state Auditor Betty D. Montgomery all said yesterday they are donating to charity or another source contributions received from brokers Michael W. Lewis and Daniel P. O’Neil and their wives.
Lewis and O’Neil have been indicted on federal charges related to allegations that they conspired to bribe the former chief financial officer of the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation in exchange for getting lucrative bureau business.
Both men have pleaded not guilty to the charges, but with Democrats arguing that Republicans have presided over a "culture of corruption" in Ohio and Washington, some officeholders aren’t waiting for the outcome of the case to act.
Many GOP candidates and officeholders already have surrendered contributions from Thomas W. Noe, the rarecoin dealer at the heart of the state scandals.
Voinovich is donating $9,000 he received from the brokers and their wives since 1994 to an undetermined charity, and DeWine is donating the $3,000 he received in 2004 to charity as well, spokesmen said.
Voinovich considers both brokers friends and had O’Neil manage his personal financial portfolio after leaving the governor’s office, spokesman Chris Paulitz said. O’Neil only executed trades without providing investment advice, he said.
"The senator is disappointed but determined to allow the justice system to take its course," Paulitz said. "While the senator believes they are innocent until proven guilty, he will send their modest campaign contributions since 1994 to a charity."
A spokesman for DeWine, who is locked in a fight for re-election with Democratic U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown, declined to respond to a statement yesterday from the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee calling on DeWine to donate the "tainted funds" to charity and saying "you can tell a lot about someone by the company he keeps."
Montgomery, who is running for attorney general this year, gave the $1,000 she took from O’Neil and his wife last year to an escrow fund at the bureau yesterday, a spokesman said.
Lewis and O’Neil, who are both from the Cleveland area, contributed money in the 1990s to Democrats Thomas Ferguson, the former state auditor, and former state Rep. Patrick A. Sweeney of Cleveland.
Republican gubernatorial candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell, who took $200 from Lewis in 1994 and ’95 when he was state treasurer, sees no need to return the contributions and expects the brokers to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, spokesman Carlo Lo-Paro said.
The Ohio Republican Party, which took $3,500 in contributions from both Lewis and O’Neil in 1998, also plans to keep that money because Chairman Robert T. Bennett thinks it’s irrelevant to the problems at the bureau, spokesman John McClelland said.
According to a four-count federal indictment unsealed Monday, Lewis and O’Neil conspired starting in 1998 with Terrence W. Gasper, the bureau’s former chief financial officer, to allow Gasper and his guests to use an oceanfront Florida condominium for free in exchange for bureau business.
mniquette@dispatch.com
posted by Kathie Bracy at 11:04 PM
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