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Article
published November 2, 2001
Along with a new
mayor, Toledo will get a host of power
brokers
By JOE MAHR and MICHAEL D. SALLAH
BLADE
STAFF WRITERS
Jim Ruvolo makes a living advising
companies how to change public policy for their benefit - and now
he’s advising Jack Ford how to become Toledo’s mayor.
Richard
Stansley, Sr., started a Sylvania family business empire that has
doled out more than $100,000 to candidates over the last decade -
and now the family’s money is on Ray Kest.
When Toledoans go
the polls on Tuesday, they won’t just elect the next mayor of
Toledo. They will be indirectly choosing a host of behind-the-scenes
power brokers - many of them longtime friends who have helped line
the campaign coffers of the candidates - like Mr. Stansley and Mr.
Ruvolo.
The winning candidate’s entourage will not only have
access to northwest Ohio’s most powerful elected leader, they could
have direct influence on policies that shape the city for
decades.
These people insist they’re working hard to elect
their candidate solely for the good of the community. And each
candidate insists he’s made no promises of favors to supporters if
he wins.
Still, some supporters are expected to vie for city
contracts, jobs, and a host of other objectives that could be
critical to the well-being of themselves and their businesses.
That’s particularly the case as the city readies to let out $400
million worth of contracts for a major sewer upgrade.
Experts
say that local elections are no different than state and federal
campaigns: political favoritism is a fact of life.
It’s the
kind of atmosphere that leaves good-government advocates calling for
increased scrutiny not just of the candidates, but the people who
surround them.
"Not everyone’s a bad guy. But if the
supporters have given money, and they have a vested interest in the
city, it should raise flags: What do they want?" said Catherine
Turcer, campaign reform director of Ohio Citizen Action. "You have
to ask those questions."
The longtime operative
Mr.
Kest, the Democratic Lucas County treasurer, had been readying his
candidacy for a year when state Rep. Jack Ford, a longtime
Democratic officeholder, seriously considered joining the
race.
But Mr. Kest had raised big money and locked up key
endorsements. If Mr. Ford was going to catch up, he needed to enlist
a seasoned political strategist.
Enter Mr. Ruvolo.
The
former state Democratic Party chairman helped draft Mr. Ford for the
race and has been the campaign’s behind-the-scenes guide to turning
a late start into a commanding 14-point lead in the most recent poll
last week.
And, if Mr. Ford is Public Enemy No. 1 in the Kest
camp, Mr. Ruvolo is a close second. The Kest camp claims Mr. Ruvolo
is in the race only to enrich the client base of his political
consulting firm.
"If people want to see Jack Ford, they’re
going to go through Jim Ruvolo first. It’s going to be a pay-to-play
system," Mr. Kest said yesterday. "[Mr. Ruvolo] was the bag man when
Dick Celeste was governor of Ohio in the 1980s, and he’s going to be
the bag man with Jack Ford."
Mr. Ruvolo denies the charges,
claiming it’s really the Kest people who are connecting campaign
contributions to political favors.
"It’s indicative of the
way that Ray and people around him think," Mr. Ruvolo said. "They’re
the ‘pay-to-play’ guys."
The 53-year-old is typical of many
of Mr. Ford’s inner circle in this campaign - a professional
political operative with a history of running the local Democratic
Party. The circle includes county chairwoman Paula Ross and former
chairmen Peter Ujvagi, who is city council president, and Mike
Beasley, council clerk.
But Mr. Ruvolo is also the most
prominent strategist - and most controversial.
The
Pennsylvania native became a protégé for Lucas County Democratic
Party Chairman Bill Boyle in the 1970s. Two years after taking over
the local party, Mr. Ruvolo jumped to statewide party leader in 1983
after successfully leading Richard Celeste’s gubernatorial campaign.
Through the 1980s, he landed national party leadership roles as he
helped slates of Democrats win statewide.
Still, he drew
controversy over the years, including when it was revealed that he,
Mr. Boyle, and Democrat Frazier Reams, Jr., had teamed up with Lucas
County’s Republican Party chairman, Jim Brennan, in the 1980s for a
cellular phone license that helped them make 10 times their
investment. Although perfectly legal, the deal led some to question
the coziness of supposed political rivals.
In 1991, Mr.
Ruvolo quit the party job and moved back to Toledo to start a
political consulting firm. He has enlisted a host of clients for
which he said he offers advice on getting the government to do what
they want.
"Most of what I do is not lobbying. Most of what I
do is strategy," he said. "I think what I’m good at is not who I
know, but what I know. How do you develop a strategy to get what you
want?"
He confirmed a client list that includes First Energy,
ProMedica, The Mannik & Smith Group, Inc., a Maumee engineering
firm; and Montgomery/Watson Americas, a Colorado-based engineering
firm.
Montgomery/Watson is vying for the $25 million contract
to design city sewer upgrades - the biggest single contract the city
has contemplated in at least eight years. Mannik & Smith is
expected to vie for more sewer engineering work.
Mr. Ruvolo,
who owns a $390,000 home in Ottawa Hills, won’t say how much he is
paid by his private-sector clients. When he lobbied for the
Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority in the early to mid-1990s, he was
paid $24,000 a year.
His dual roles as a political consultant
and campaigner have raised eyebrows, including those of Mr. Ford. In
1992, when Mr. Ruvolo tried to meet with every Democratic city
councilman to lobby for Toledo Edison, Mr. Ford was the only one to
refuse.
"Jim Ruvolo is not out of party politics," Mr. Ford
said at the time. "[Council members] should deal with him as a
leader of the party. They should not be dealing with him one month
on issues concerning Edison and three months later as receiving
campaign contributions. It’s the kind of thing that comes back and
haunts them."
Mr. Ford is now meeting with him - regularly -
but Mr. Ford said it’s on different terms.
The 54-year-old
mayoral candidate said Mr. Ruvolo’s paid role is to craft media
advertising for the campaign - a key job in any campaign where TV
and radio spots can make the difference. Mr. Ruvolo said he expects
to be paid less than $20,000 for the job.
Mr. Ruvolo has
donated $5,000 to Mr. Ford’s campaign and said he has helped raise
$20,000. But he said that he won’t ask for any favors. And Mr. Ford
insisted he won’t give any, including on the lucrative sewer
project.
"Jim and I have had a very candid discussion about
that," Mr. Ford said. "I’ve said, ‘Jim, your help for me here has
absolutely nothing to do with that [sewer project]. And he said, ‘I
knew that would be a given with you, as it should be.’"
Added
Mr. Ford: "I’m the kind of person that if I think you’re going to
harm my administration or my reputation, I’ll kill you dead in a
second."
The wealthy suburbanites
At a backyard
Ottawa Hills party during the summer, millionaire Richard Stansley,
Sr., asked numerous guests to give $500 - not for him, of course,
but for his friend Mr. Kest.
The powerful businessman who
founded a trucking and crushed-stone conglomerate in northwest Ohio
has been raising money, offering advice, and trying to remove
roadblocks for the candidate.
He is representative of many of
Mr. Kest’s close allies - a cadre of wealthy and influential
suburban businessmen who are working behind the scenes to shore up
support for the 51-year-old Democrat. The group includes people like
Mr. Stansley’s son, Richard, Jr., developer Richard Moses, and
builder Tony Falzone, along with numerous others.
The
presence of so many wealthy builders, contractors, and developers
from suburban entities has fueled the Ford campaign to question Mr.
Kest’s priorities.
"I’m not sure Ray Kest would put the
interests of the city ahead of the interests of some of his suburban
supporters," Mr. Ruvolo said.
Mr. Stansley and other family
members have given more than $100,000 over the last decade, mostly
to Republican candidates.
For months, Mr. Stansley, Sr., has
been shaking the money tree for Mr. Kest, a close friend whom he met
in the late 1970s. At a summer party at the Ottawa Hills home of
Raceway Park co-owner Jack Lenavitt, Mr. Stansley made the rounds,
asking people to kick in $500 apiece.
"I have a lot of good
friends who want to help Ray," said Mr. Stansley, 67, who lives in
Sylvania Township.
So far, he and other family members -
including Richard, Jr., and his three brothers - have forked over
$11,000, and have convinced others to give thousands of
dollars.
Though his family owns a cement facility on Toledo’s
Stickney Avenue and their trucks are frequently stopped and fined
for being overweight, Mr. Stansley, Sr., said he would "never ask
Ray for anything.
"I have nothing to hide. We have more
trucks than most people. Some are bound to be [overweight]. That’s a
part of this business."
Mr. Stansley’s son, Richard, a
University of Toledo trustee who now runs the family businesses,
says his family support of Mr. Kest will certainly give him access
to the mayor’s office if Mr. Kest is successful. But he said he’s
not angling for favors - only to install a pro-business mayor
willing to cooperate with the suburbs.
He said the only time
he may call the mayor is if "we were in a bidding war" over a
contract, and "I felt we were the only local company, or we had a
better product to offer. I would hope that I could make that
point."
Mr. Kest said that he would not consider the
Stansleys part of his inner circle, though for years they’ve been
close friends. He has been a frequent guest of the Stansleys at
parties and events, and has ridden on the family’s decked-out motor
coach - complete with leather couches, a stateroom, and wet
bar.
Mr. Kest’s social circle includes people like Mr. Moses,
a prominent 62-year-old developer and Sylvania Township trustee. The
pair have been friends about 15 years.
Mr. Moses was the
first person Mr. Kest called when he learned in 1997 that he would
be sued for sexual harassment by one of his own employees in the
treasurer’s office. Mr. Kest and Mr. Moses brainstormed over how to
avert the complaint, with Mr. Moses approaching the employee, a
mutual friend, about avoiding a court battle.
The court case
went through, however, and a jury found in favor of Mr.
Kest.
Mr. Moses wasn’t done yet trying to help his
friend.
This summer, he fought to get Mr. Kest the
prestigious endorsement of the Home Builders Association of Greater
Toledo. But real estate landlord Jerry Sawicki III - a member of the
Lucas County Plan Commission - torpedoed that endorsement by
questioning Mr. Kest’s character.
Mr. Sawicki traced his
dislike to Mr. Kest back to a dispute the pair had in a Sylvania
Township restaurant about a decade ago, in which someone from Mr.
Kest’s table threw cake on Mr. Sawicki and his wife.
Both
sides dispute exactly what happened, but the Kest camp didn’t want
to leave anything to chance. Days later, Mr. Moses attended a
private meeting between Mr. Sawicki and Mr. Kest, at the Sylvania
office of Richard Stansley, Jr., to try to clear the air.
The
meeting failed to change the mind of Mr. Sawicki, who gave $1,000 to
the Ford campaign.
Granted, Mr. Moses has more than offset
that contribution. He has given $4,400 to the Kest campaign through
Oct. 25 - the most recent campaign finance report available - and is
part of the group "Republicans for Ray."
Mr. Moses said he
has not developed anything in the city in 25 years, but is
considering building a housing development on Bennett Road, possibly
consisting of 80 homes.
He said he would not ask Mr. Kest to
smooth any wrinkles for him if elected.
"I don’t have any
agenda and I’m not asking Ray for anything," he said.
Mr.
Kest said he is getting support from prominent businessmen in the
suburbs, like Mr. Moses, "because they know my position on
regionalism and cooperating with the suburbs, instead of always
fighting with them.
"I want Dick Moses to build houses inside
Toledo - high-end houses. That’s what I want from Dick
Moses."
Mr. Kest insisted that he will not show
favors.
"I will look at the projects or proposals, and if
they have merit, I will consider them," he said.
The
others
Mr. Kest worked all last year and through the spring
to lock up key union endorsements - Teamsters, carpenters, city
workers, electricians, and ironworkers. But there was one plum
endorsement up for grabs - the United Auto Workers - and Lloyd
Mahaffey made sure it stayed that way.
Mr. Mahaffey - the
UAW’s regional head - worked with party leaders to recruit for Mr.
Ford. And Mr. Mahaffey offered something none of the other three
did: big cash.
In two donations over the summer, Mr.
Mahaffey’s union gave $50,000 to jumpstart Mr. Ford’s fund-raising
efforts. At the time, Mr. Kest had raised about $300,000 for a race
that was less than six months away.
"We were hoping we would
be key to [the race], because he was way behind in funds," Mr.
Mahaffey said. "That’s why we wanted to get him funds
early."
That donation was the most given in this race. It
helped Mr. Ford raise $61,000 from unions up to Oct. 25. Mr.
Mahaffey said the union expects to give more, although he said he
doesn’t know how much.
The unions have played big roles in
this race, and Mr. Kest has decisively won the financial battle. Mr.
Kest’s take from unions - $124,810.
Among his biggest
financial backers are the American Federation of State, County, and
Municipal Employees and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters -
unions with members who work for the city. Mr. Kest also has the
support of the city’s police and firefighter unions.
But
there have been a host of other key supporters.
For Mr. Ford,
they include:
w G. Opie Rollison, a Toledo-Lucas County port
authority board member who has connections to ProMedica, the parent
company for Toledo Hospital.
Mr. Ford considers him one of
his closest advisers, saying they talk three or four times a week,
on average.
w Mr. Ujvagi, the man considered for months to be
the top rival for Mr. Kest in the mayor’s race.
Mr. Ujvagi
dropped out of contention in February, but kept a strong presence in
the race. He gave Mr. Ford’s campaign $10,000 and has lobbied
heavily behind-the-scenes to curry support for Mr. Ford.
w
Paula Ross, the Democratic Party chairwoman.
She helped draft
Mr. Ford for the race and shepherded him through the process to get
the county party’s endorsement.
w Millionaire developer Bruce
Douglas, of Ottawa Hills.
He is the wild card. He has been a
long-time political donor to Democrats, particularly those with ties
to Mr. Ruvolo, and has projects pending in Toledo. But, through Oct.
25, he had given a modest $1,050 to Mr. Ford, although it’s unclear
if he plans to give more in the final days of the race, as he has
done with other candidates.
Mr. Ford said his other close
advisers include Peter Silverman and Larry Sykes, Toledo Public
School board members; and Deborah Barnett, a vice president at
Huntington Bank.
Mr. Kest has a laundry list of supporters as
well, including:
w Jerry Chabler, a fund-raiser for a host of
Democratic Party candidates and a Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority
board member.
A Sylvania real estate developer, Mr. Chabler
raised a record $77,000 in a Kest fund-raiser in the spring - only
to break the record in October with a $114,000 soiree. Although Mr.
Chabler and Mr. Kest were not considered close allies before the
race, Mr. Kest said he counts Mr. Chabler as a close
adviser.
w John Irish, a friend with Mr. Kest since their
days at the University of Toledo, has been Mr. Kest’s chief
lieutenant in the treasurer’s office since 1984 as well as an
unofficial political strategist.
w Domenic Montalto, Mr.
Kest’s chief tax collector since 1984.
He is a party
operative who lost a power struggle with Mr. Ruvolo in 1980 to
become county chairman. He has helped Mr. Kest since his first race
for city council in 1975.
w Dave Huey, another friend from
the University of Toledo.
Mr. Huey, the current campaign
treasurer, has remained in the private sector, becoming president
and general manager of Buckeye CableSystem. [Buckeye and The Blade
are both owned by Block Communications, Inc.]
Mr. Kest’s
other close supporters include Jim Deaton, president of Laibe
Electric; Chester Devenow, retired Toledo industrialist; John Szuch,
Fifth Third Bank’s top regional administrator and a friend from UT;
and Ray Olczak, a recently retired executive at Ernst &
Young.
Pay for play?
It’s a classic debate:
Political donors insist their motives are pure. Good-government
groups suspect corruption. And scholars say the answer lies
somewhere in the middle.
Dr. Thomas Mann, who has studied
campaign finance for the Brookings Institution, said it appears that
favors likely come for small-time projects that involve few players
away from the public eye, such as contracts and zoning.
"You
get most attention in money and politics in Congress and the
presidency, but the feeling is, traditionally, it’s been more
influential at local levels," he said.
A study of municipal
elections in Cincinnati in 1997 and 1999 by Ohio Citizen Action
showed that of the 25 organizations that contributed to city council
campaigns, 15 had contracts with the city.
"Is there
pay-for-play systems? Of course," said Ms. Turcer, of Ohio Citizen
Action. "They are hard to prove."
While both campaigns said
they never would dole out favors, Mr. Chabler said it’s clear that
donors don’t expect to be ignored.
"Do they expect access? I
would think that any major contributor to either candidate - whether
it is Ray Kest or Jack Ford - would certainly expect a returned
phone call," Mr. Chabler said. "That’s universal."
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