Big money, many job titles So who is David Brennan?

From John Curry, September 9, 2007

What will it take?

No wonder campaign contributions to political candidates are hard to track back to White Hat Charter Schools magnate, David Brennan. Jim Siegel, Ohio Statehouse reporter, divulges why I (and others) have difficulty tracking these donations. Wouldn't it be nice if Ohio political candidates were forced to be more candid in their reporting to the Secretary of State concerning their campaign contributions? Don't you think that if you were given five or ten thousand dollars for your campaign that you could at least spell the name of the generous donor or donor's organization who donated these big bucks to you? Did these candidates intend to blur this source of their donations or were they just careless? I have my hunch....how about you? John

Source: Dispatch.com

Big money, many job titles So who is David Brennan?

"If you’re reading this blog, there’s a good chance you’ve at least heard of the millionaire Akron industrialist, charter school operator, and mega-GOP contributor. But there appears to be much disagreement among Ohio Republicans as to what Brennan specially does for a living.

Under a routinely violated Ohio law, candidates and political committees are required to list the employer of every contributor. Sometimes omissions are understandable, such as when random people give $20 here or $30 there.

Far from random, Brennan is a rock star in political circles who has given more than $2 million to Ohio Republican candidates and committees since 2000.

That hasn’t stopped politicians in their campaign finance filings from linking Brennan with all sorts of businesses and job titles, some of them accurate (he’s involved in several ventures), others incorrect or tremendously vague. They include: Berlin Group Industries (it’s Brenlin); Brennan Group; Brennan Enterprises (actually a Texas home improvement company); Brennan Industrial Group; Brennan Management Group; White Mat Consulting (it’s White Hat Management); White Hot Management; White House Management.

And there’s more: attorney, banker, chairman of the board, consultant, entrepreneur, investor, self employed industrialist, businessman, business owner, lobbyist (this would surprise Legislative Inspector General Tony Bledsoe), and retired (this would surprise Brennan).

And finally there are the 19 Brennan donations where candidates didn’t bother to list a job or employer. Or maybe weren’t sure if it was THAT David Brennan."

Posted by Jim Siegel, Statehouse reporter on July 19, 2007 9:53 AM