Dispatch Public Affairs Editors Five Columbus brokers whose com-

panies do millions of dollars worth of business with state Treasurer Joseph T. Deters' office contributed a total of $125,000 last year to the Hamilton County Republican Party, the largest bankroller of Deters' campaign fund.

The contributions came after Deters stepped down in March 2001 as chairman of the Hamilton County GOP and before the party had finished sending $302,000 to Deters' campaign coffers.

A government watchdog and members of both political parties said that although nothing illegal may have occurred, there is an appearance that the Hamilton County GOP was used to launder money from the Columbus brokers into Deters' campaign fund.

"At some point, it is not enough simply to obey the law; they have to avoid conflicts of interest, too,'' said Catherine Turcer, campaign-reform director for Ohio Citizen Action.

Deters refused to be interviewed, but Mark R. Weaver, his political spokesman, said the treasurer had no knowledge of the generous donations to the Hamilton County GOP from brokers in Columbus and elsewhere around the state.

The contributions, Weaver added, had nothing to do with whether the brokers received business from Deters' office and were not used to fund Deters' campaign.

Asked why Columbus brokers would give to a Cincinnati-based party, Weaver said the Deters campaign and the party shared the same fund-raiser, Eric Sagun of Columbus.

"If he's working for the Hamilton County Republican Party, it makes sense for him to raise as much money as possible for the party there,'' Weaver said, noting that the Columbus brokers also did business with Deters' Republican and Democratic predecessors.

But Ohio Democratic Chairman David J. Leland suggested that those doing business with the treasurer's office would face less scrutiny by donating to Deters' home party.

"Who thought that anybody was going to look in the Hamilton County campaign fund and find these people there?'' he asked rhetorically.

The importance of county political parties to statewide campaigns has grown markedly since Ohio's campaign-finance laws were rewritten in the mid-1990s. Although the changes sharply limited big-money contributions directly to candidates, the rules are much more relaxed on donations to the political organizations.

None of the five brokers -- Dennis D. Meadors and Brian P. Doyle of Raymond James & Associates, Robert S. Meeder and Robert S. Meeder Jr. of Meeder Financial, and Dennis V. Yacobozzi of United American Capital -- returned phone calls seeking comment.

Sagun, Weaver and Matthew J. Borges -- top Deters campaign consultants -- were paid thousands of dollars by the Hamilton County GOP from separate accounts for work they performed for both the Deters campaign and the party. They were hired by the party while Deters was its chairman from December 1999 to March 2001.

At Deters' request, the Hamilton County GOP paid at least six consultants to his campaign.

Disclosure of the contributions from the Columbus brokers comes in the wake of news that a Cleveland broker accused of defrauding clients out of millions of dollars during the past 15 years contributed $50,000 to the Hamilton County GOP.

Frank Gruttadauria, now in the Trumbull County jail, gave the money to the party's operating fund, which legally can accept unlimited contributions from undisclosed donors. Weaver confirmed that Deters had raised about $700,000 for the fund while he was chairman of the Hamilton County GOP.

But under Ohio law, Deters' campaign cannot accept money from the operating fund, and he did not personally solicit contributions from Gruttadauria, Weaver said.

Gruttadauria managed the Cleveland office of Lehman Bros., an investment-banking firm that has done millions of dollars worth of business with Deters' office.

Democrats accused Deters of using the Hamilton County GOP to launder money into his campaign for attorney general. In a showdown for the party's attorney general nomination with state Auditor Jim Petro, Deters gave in to state party pressure to get out, announcing in December that he instead would run again for treasurer.

Mary Boyle, Democratic candidate for treasurer, called Deters "a major player and leader in the Hamilton County Republican Party laundromat.'' She questioned how out-of-town brokers contributing to the party "relate to the business of the state treasurer's office.''

Said Leland: "I think Joe Deters misread the job description for state treasurer. He's supposed to protect the money, not launder it.''

Weaver responded: "The Democrats want this to be a scandal because nobody's paying attention to them now. But it's never a scandal when the law is followed. It can't be an appearance of a conflict if the law is followed.''

Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell -- like Deters, a Republican from Hamilton County -- said neither the treasurer nor the party appears to have broken the law.

"My understanding of what he's doing is within the pale,'' Blackwell said.

Money from the five Columbus brokers and others from throughout the state went into either the Hamilton County GOP's state-candidate fund or its local-candidate fund. There are no limitations on the amount of money individuals can contribute to the local fund. But there is a $5,000 annual limit on the amount an individual can donate to the state fund, which is the only account from which contributions can legally be given to candidates for state offices.

Doyle and Meadors each gave $25,000 to the local fund, and they and their wives each gave the maximum to the state fund. Their firm, Raymond James, traded more than $6 billion worth of securities for the treasurer's office from 1999 through 2001, about 2.4 percent of the total amount of transactions during that time. It is unknown how much the firm or the two brokers received in commissions, a treasurer's office spokesman said.

Yacobozzi, former investment director for Democratic state Treasurer Mary Ellen Withrow in the 1980s, contributed $25,000 to the Hamilton County GOP local fund.

The firm Yacobozzi owns has received $1.16 million from the treasurer's office since July 1 as investment adviser for the STAR Ohio fund. Yacobozzi used an undisclosed portion of that fee to pay Meeder Financial as a subcontractor. The treasurer also paid Yacobozzi $15,000 last year to teach at seminars for local treasurers.

The father-and-son Meeder team each gave $12,500 to the Hamilton County GOP local fund and $2,500 to the state fund. Along with sharing a portion of Yacobozzi's million-dollar unbid contract, Meeder Financial brokered a $20 million trade for the treasurer's office from 1999 to '01.

Hamilton County GOP Chairman Mike Barrett said allocating $302,000 from the state fund to Deters' campaign "was pretty much my decision.'' He said the party has a record of generosity to its three favorite sons: Deters, Blackwell and Gov. Bob Taft.

But state Rep. Tom Brinkman Jr., R-Cincinnati, said the Hamilton County GOP is "a total fixed game,'' run by Deters, Barrett and a few others.

"When Deters took over as chairman, we on the outside suspected what he was doing was raising money for his attorney general campaign,'' Brinkman said. "It just is a way to launder money for the Deters campaign. He knew he controlled the state-candidate fund, and if he wanted every bit of it, he could have got every bit of it.''

Weaver and Barrett denied the accusation. Beyond asking the party for help, Deters "didn't have anything to do'' with the party's campaign-spending decisions.

Sagun, the fund-raiser, was paid $95,000 by the Hamilton County party -- $30,000 for working on Deters campaign and $65,000 for raising money for the party.

Weaver, a lawyer and media consultant, was paid $45,000 -- $35,000 for Deters campaign work and $10,000 for consulting and designing a Web site for a candidate for county commissioner. Borges was paid $32,000 -- $5,000 for Deters campaign work and $27,000 to help with strategic planning and grass-roots organizing for the party.