08/27/03

Washington- Sen. George Voinovich yesterday sought advice on how best to return a tainted contribution given to his old gubernatorial campaign by an imprisoned insurance executive.

Giving money back, it seems, is not as simple as it sounds.

Voinovich's gubernatorial committee went out of business in 1998, leaving zero assets and no liabilities. In the course of two campaigns, it received $85,000 from Larry Rogers, the co-founder of P.I.E. Mutual Insurance Co., who is now behind bars.

Voinovich says he is willing to return the money if it is tainted. But it is not clear whether dollars can be transferred legally from his flush Senate campaign committee - which has $3.4 million - to cover the return of the donations.

"If the Federal Election Commission permits him to use federal campaign funds in a state-related way like this, then, of course, he's going to continue to return contributions which are determined to be illegal," said Voinovich spokesman Scott Milburn.

The money would go to a court-appointed liquidator because P.I.E. Mutual collapsed in 1998 and was sued by the state in an attempt to recover tens of millions of dollars in malpractice claims. Rogers is serving a 40-month sentence for the theft of $6.8 million from the failed company.

Voinovich, chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee, last year returned $15,450 that Rogers gave to his 1998 Senate campaign committee. He did it after getting advice from former U.S. Attorney Emily Sweeney, who made the federal case against the insurance executive. Sen. Mike DeWine and State Auditor Betty Montgomery also returned money linked to Rogers or the discredited insurance firm.

In a letter to the election commission, Voinovich asked if he could use his Senate campaign dollars to refund the questionable money since the state committee that originally accepted the donation "no longer exists and has no assets."

The commission has two months to give him an answer. FEC spokesman Bob Biersack said the new McCain-Feingold campaign reform act changed wording in election law that previously permitted spending for any lawful purpose. "There aren't solid precedents under the new law," Biersack said in an e-mail.

State Sen. Eric Fingerhut, a Democrat from Cleveland seeking to oppose Voinovich in his re-election bid next year, said the Republican's acceptance of the $85,000 and his failure to return it quickly "is just part of his mismanagement of the medical malpractice problem" in the state during his two terms as governor.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

tdiemer@plaind.com, 216-999-4212