COLUMBUS — Political scientist Herb Asher
began his long career at Ohio State University in the fall of 1970,
right in the middle of one of the state’s major political
earthquakes.
More than 30 years later, Asher, now a professor emeritus, feels
a slight tremor, but said it’s far too early to tell whether voters
will rearrange the political landscape next November.
"We may be early in the process," Asher said the other day. "But
certainly at the minimum, it will be an issue in the Deters-Boyle
race."
Asher was referring to this year’s race for state treasurer
between incumbent Republican state Treasurer Joe Deters and Deters’
likely Democratic challenger Mary Boyle, a former Cuyahoga County
commissioner and two-time U.S. Senate candidate. Boyle doesn’t have
the Democratic nomination locked up, but is considered the favorite.
She faces opposition in the May primary from Willis Blackshear,
Montgomery County assistant treasurer.
The tremor and the earlier earthquake both started in the state
treasurer’s office.
In 1970, Republicans held every statewide administrative office
and controlled both the Ohio House and Senate, just like they do
today.
That fall the Democrats took advantage of what became known as
the Crofters’ loan scandal to win elections for governor, auditor,
treasurer and attorney general. Republicans retained control of the
legislature and the secretary of state’s office.
According to the Ohio Politics Almanac, Crofters Inc., a
company that arranged loans and that had many Republican friends,
helped arrange questionable loans from the state treasury to two
companies that went bankrupt soon after getting the money. Crofters
had contributed $33,000 to Republican candidates, including that
year’s Republican candidates for treasurer and attorney general, the
almanac says.
That’s chump change by today’s multimillion-dollar campaign
standards, but not an inconsequential sum at the time.
The dollar amounts that already have surfaced in this year’s
budding dustup are considerably larger.
It turns out that Frank Gruttadauria, a Cleveland stockbroker in
jail on suspicion of swindling clients out of $277 million, served
on a host committee for a Deters’ campaign fund-raiser last fall in
Cleveland. The $250-a-ticket event raised $38,800 for Deters’
campaign.
Gruttadauria, who worked for investment firms that completed $5.9
billion in trades for the state treasury, also contributed $50,000
to the Hamilton County Republican Party shortly before dropping out
of sight in January. He surrendered to authorities in February.
Democrats have been busy putting Deters’ name in the same
sentence with Gruttadauria’s at every chance and suggesting that
investment brokers who want to do business with the state have been
encouraged to give money to the Hamilton County Republican Party,
which Deters formerly chaired — and which last year gave more than
$300,000 to Deters' campaign fund.
Nobody has said Deters or his campaign broke any laws. His
campaign spokesman Matt Borges has said decisions on who gets state
business aren’t based on who contributes to Deters’ campaign.
Still, the whole mess is "newsworthy," Asher said. It helps
Democrats that Boyle is their likely candidate for treasurer, Asher
said. She already has introduced herself to the voters statewide
twice, in 1994 when she ran in the Democratic primary for the U.S.
Senate nomination and in 1998 when she mounted a losing U.S. Senate
campaign against the Republican winner, George Voinovich.
In 1970, Democrat John J. Gilligan, the Democrats’ candidate for
governor, was in a similar position. He had run a credible, losing
campaign for the U.S. Senate just two years earlier. This year’s
Democratic candidate for governor, Tim Hagan, like Boyle a former
Cuyahoga County commissioner, never has run statewide.
"I think he’s still trying to introduce himself (to voters),"
Asher said. Gilligan, in contrast, was "much more of a household
word."
Hagan and other Democratic hopefuls, especially state Sen. Leigh
Herington, D-Ravenna, the party’s candidate for attorney general
against Republican Jim Petro, are using the flap in the treasurer’s
office to ask questions about Republican campaign funds.
"People are looking more widely at the contributions raised by
all the incumbents and where those dollars have come from
. . . (at) how many of those dollars came from individuals
who did business with that office or benefited from that office,"
Asher said.
Democrats, who badly trail Republicans in campaign funds,
suddenly have an issue to talk about, and they don’t have to spend
any money to get news coverage.
"The Democrats will try to wrap all the Republicans in this,
whether that’s fair or not," Asher said.
• Contact Columbus Bureau Chief William Hershey at
(614) 224-1608 or william_hershey@coxohio.com
[From the Dayton
Daily News: 03.17.2002]
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