DAYTON | Contributions from a group of Ohio
nursing home operators helped the Montgomery County Republican Party
give $22,000 to the campaign of Republican attorney general
candidate Jim Petro.
Most of the operators are prohibited from giving directly to
Petro because state law bans groups that receive Medicaid payments
from donating to campaigns for attorney general or county
prosecutor. The law, in effect since 1978, was enacted when the Ohio
attorney general was given jurisdiction to investigate Medicaid
fraud, which it usually does in concert with county prosecutors.
The $8,700 in nursing home donations were among nearly $25,000
given Feb. 1 to the Montgomery County Republican Party's state
candidate fund, one of three campaign finance accounts overseen by
county Chairman Jeff Jacobson.
Very little, if any, of the $25,000 came from local contributors,
and campaign finance reports indicate the county party used the
money to cover a $22,000 check to Petro's candidacy. The party sent
the $22,000 on Jan. 31, the day before the nursing home and other
donations were recorded. The party's state candidate fund had a
balance of $5,128 before the donations came in.
Neither the six nursing home operators nor a spokesman for the
industry's lobbying group, the Ohio Health Care Association,
returned calls seeking comment.
But Jacobson and the Petro campaign deny that the nursing home
donations were steered through the county party's accounts.
Jacobson said, however, he never considered the potential
conflict between the state's campaign finance laws, which allow
county parties to bundle donations and give them to state
candidates, and the law banning donations to attorney general
candidates from companies that serve Medicaid recipients.
"It seems to me in looking at it the question was never
considered," Jacobson said. "It seems to me this is an area of the
law that needs to be looked at."
A spokesman for state Sen. Leigh Herington, D-Ravenna, the
Democrat running against Petro for attorney general, said the
donations should be returned.
"Somebody who wants to be the chief law enforcement officer for
Ohio, who is supposed to defend Ohio law and the spirit of Ohio law,
should certainly return that money and apologize to the citizens of
Ohio for literally thumbing his nose at what little pay-to-play
protections the law has," said Brian Rothenberg, Herington's
campaign spokesman.
But Jonathan Hughes, a spokesman for the Petro campaign, said the
campaign has no control over county party donations and no way of
knowing where party money originated.
He also said the campaign does not solicit donations from nursing
home owners, but does sometimes direct prospective donors to county
party state candidate funds.
"If people ask us how they can be supportive we tell them about
state candidate funds," Hughes said. "We have no control over the
direction of that money. It is up to the discretion (of the county
chairman) what, if any money we get. . . . We make it
clear that anyone who is going to contribute to any state candidate
funds (that) we have no control over whether that money comes to
us."
Jacobson said he has been soliciting donations from the nursing
home industry for two years, not with the intent of sending the
money to Petro's campaign, but for any statewide Republican
candidate.
Rothenberg said having nursing homes route donations to Petro
through county parties would violate the spirit of the law, if not
the letter.
"No matter how you try to toy with county parties and money
laundering, the intent of Ohio law was clear," Rothenberg said.
"This law was put in effect to protect Ohio's senior citizens from
undue influence of Medicaid providers and Ohio senior citizens
should be outraged."
The use of county party accounts to augment statewide campaigns
has been common in recent years. But the donations to the county
parties are not typically able to be traced directly to the state
candidate who received them.
"Very rarely do you see the close proximity," said political
scientist John Green of the University of Akron.
On Feb. 1, 23 people, companies and political action committees
donated $24,850 to the Montgomery County Republican Party's state
candidate fund, campaign finance reports show.
Six of the donors are on the board of trustees of the Ohio Health
Care Association: Michael J. Scharfenberger, with Nursing Care
Management of Cincinnati; Lisa J. Mitchell, with Swanton Health Care
and Retirement of Swanton; Robert Coury, founder of Generations
Healthcare of Berea; Gerald Schroer Jr., with Altercare of North
Canton; William H. Kinschner with HCR Manor Care of Toledo; Barry N.
Bortz, CEO of Carespring Healthcare Management in Cincinnati. At
least five of the companies serve Medicaid patients.
Also donating that day were the HCR Manor Care political action
committee, a realty company of which Scharfenberger is a partner,
and three relatives of Coury. Coury died March 2.
The Feb. 1 donations also included $5,000 from Columbus attorney
Scott E. Baughman, who has already donated the maximum allowed by
law, $2,500, directly to the Petro campaign. Baughman did not return
a call seeking comment.
In the last race for Ohio attorney general, in 1998, the nursing
home industry apparently stayed on the sidelines in campaign giving.
That year, people or PACs affiliated with the nursing home industry
gave $300 to incumbent Betty Montgomery, who won, and $100 to
Democrat Richard Cordray, according to an analysis by the group Ohio
Citizens Action. The industry gave more than $400,000 to other
statewide races that year.
Contact Jim Bebbington at (937) 225-2262 or
jim_bebbington@coxohio.com
[From the Dayton
Daily News: 05.25.2002]
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