03/21/02

Columbus

- State Treasurer Joe Deters' fund-raising scandal offers fellow Republicans a chance to pass meaningful campaign finance reforms, according to letters from two top GOP officeholders to House and Senate leaders.

In separate letters dated Tuesday, Secretary of State Ken Blackwell and Attorney General Betty Montgomery said Ohio should close a loophole that allows political party operating accounts to accept unlimited donations and conceal donors' names.

"Disclosure is a Republican idea, and we should not let it pass simply because others wish to take credit," Blackwell wrote to the Senate president and speaker of the House.

The "others" are Democrats, particularly those running in November for statewide offices now held by Republicans.

Over the last two weeks, Democrats have fanned across the state, contending that Deters appears to be operating a pay-to-play system in which people doing business with his office are encouraged to donate to the Hamilton County Republican Party. Deters and the Hamilton County GOP share a fund-raiser - a fund-raiser Deters hired for Hamilton County during his 15-month stint as its chairman.

In the last year, as the Hamilton County GOP has collected donations from people doing business with Deters, the party has poured $302,000 into Deters' re-election campaign.

Although some of the donors' names are public, at least one - now-jailed broker Frank Gruttadauria - contributed $50,000 to a Hamilton County operating account that does not have to make public its donor lists. Gruttadauria is accused of defrauding clients out of nearly $300 million.

Mary Boyle, the Democrat who hopes to run against Deters in November, said she welcomes the Republicans' support to open future operating accounts but renewed calls for Hamilton County to disclose all donations the account has collected in the past. And she said Deters should urge the party to do the same.

"Why doesn't the treasurer resolve this?" Boyle told a news conference. "His responsibility is to hold and maintain the trust of the people of Ohio."

Deters has insisted that Hamilton County should decide the fate of the account.

Two pending bills would open party operating accounts. Their passage appears unlikely because of opposition from Senate President Richard Finan, a suburban Cincinnati Republican.

Contact Sandy Theis at:

stheis@plaind.com, 800-228-8272