Union slips funds past PAC limits

BY DENNIS J. WILLARD
Beacon Journal Columbus Bureau

COLUMBUS: The state's largest union for teachers has found a unique and apparently legal way around the law that limits political action committees from giving more than $5,000 to a legislative candidate for an election.

The Ohio Education Association has three PACs.

Through the primary, the OEA has given as much as $7,500 to selected candidates running for the Ohio House and Senate -- a figure that exceeds the contribution limit for an individual or PAC for a single calendar year and is three times the amount allowed in an election cycle.

And it appears the three PACs will be able to double that amount before the November election.

In 1995, state lawmakers enacted a campaign finance reform law that limited contributions to $2,500 in a primary and $2,500 in a general election.

Lawmakers touted the new law as a way to stop organizations and individuals from having undue influence in the political process by writing five- and six-figure checks.

The new law made it illegal for an organization to bypass the limits by creating multiple PACs.

But the three PACs that the OEA operates are legal, said Michael Billirakis, president of the organization representing 118,000 teachers.

The union is making contributions from its original committee and an OEA Crisis Fund PAC that was created in August 1995. Both predate the current contribution limits, though the law didn't come with a grandfather clause.

Billirakis said the OEA, which dumped more than $500,000 into the crisis fund in 1995, can only spend down on the money and can no longer put any money into the PAC. He said the union will eventually operate only two PACs.

The OEA created the third PAC, the Political Contributing Entity PAC, after one provision of the 1995 law -- which prohibited unions from using dues for political activity -- was challenged and overturned in state and federal courts.

The original PAC raises money from union members who check off on their paychecks that they want money going to the fund. The new PAC receives money from the OEA's treasury, which is funded by union dues.

``We do not believe that this is a proliferation at all,'' Billirakis said.

J. Curtis Mayhew, Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell's campaign finance administrator, said the three PACs are legal.

``I think they're OK by law, but the law may not be absolutely clear,'' Mayhew said.

He said other unions could create a separate Political Contributing Entity PAC and corporations may in the future have the same opportunity.

``You can have multiple PACs, but you will share a contribution limit if you are affiliated, but affiliation is hard to prove,'' Mayhew said.

Mayhew said affiliation is based on the people running the PACs and not the organization, business or union behind them.

Laura Yeomans, an Ohio Citizens Action spokeswoman, said organizations such as the OEA should be limited to operating one PAC.

``If one organization can operate multiple PACs, giving at the maximum contribution limits, contribution limits will have no meaning,'' Yeomans said.

The OEA's committees have a common treasurer and address, and they are issuing checks on the same day to legislators, but Billirakis said they are governed by distinct committees and individuals within the union.

Since 1994, the OEA has topped the list of organizations with PACs giving money to lawmakers and statewide candidates.

And over the years the OEA has been party-blind. The union gave big to Democrats when they controlled the Ohio House and quickly switched political allegiance when Republicans grabbed the reins of power.

This year, the OEA's three committees have contributed to Republicans who disagree with two Ohio Supreme Court rulings that found that the way the state funds schools is unconstitutional.

At the same time, the OEA is backing some Democrats who are sympathetic to the continuing lawsuit.

Three Democrats vying for Ohio House seats -- Natalie Mosher, Teresa Fedor and Valerie Federico -- received $7,500 each in contributions from the OEA committees on the same day.

Five Ohio Senate candidates, including House Speaker Pro Tem Randall Gardner, R-Bowling Green, each received $6,000 in the primary.

Gardner, who is term-limited in the House, has been working on a joint committee to address the latest school funding ruling, but he has been critical of the court's decisions.

He is also one of the top ``banks'' in the legislature since 1995, contributing $366,000 -- collected from PACs and individuals -- to the caucuses, other candidates and county and state political parties.

Banks such as Gardner have allowed lawmakers to circumvent the contribution-limits law. Legislative leaders and their hired fund-raisers give lists containing the names of ``banks'' to contributors. The contributors write more checks for smaller amounts to the lawmakers, who in turn contribute the money back to the legislative leaders.

Billirakis said he has talked to Kyle Sisk, the fund-raiser for the House and Senate Republicans, but he has never been told who to contribute to or given a list of legislative banks.

Billirakis said the three OEA committees contribute to friends in critical races. But the committees have given to key legislative banks, including state Rep. Priscilla Mead, R-Upper Arlington, who is running this year for the Ohio Senate without Democratic opposition.

Mead received $6,000 from the three OEA PACs in the primary. During that time, she gave $20,000 to House Republicans and $30,000 to Senate Republicans.

Billirakis acknowledged that Mead does not have opposition from the Democrats.

``Priscilla Mead has been a friend for us,'' Billirakis said.

Dennis J. Willard can be reached at 614-224-1613 or dwillard@qn.net