03/19/02

Columbus

- At least $71 million in contributions poured into Ohio's statewide and legislative elections between 1999 and 2000, a government watchdog group reported yesterday.

And that's probably just the tip of the iceberg, said Catherine Turcer, a co-author of the year-long Ohio Citizen Action analysis.

"There's a heck of a lot that we don't know. This provides only a snapshot," said Turcer, the group's campaign reform director.

"It's frustrating to put so many hours of work into analyzing the giving and still to know it isn't a complete picture."

Because of loopholes in Ohio's campaign-finance law, Turcer said, everything from the home addresses and professions of the smallest donors, to some of the largest contributions by wealthy individuals or corporations may remain a mystery to Ohioans.

The study suggests that term limits may be helping slightly to diminish the power of the dollar in legislative races.

In 1999-2000, the candidate who prevailed on Election Day had the most money in 90 percent of cases.

But in open seats, most often vacated because of term limits, the bigger moneymaker won 83 percent of the time. In other words, candidates with less money won 17 percent of the time.

But Turcer said money continues to talk in Ohio elections, and voters deserve to know who's giving and who's getting.

"Many have been concerned about the circus of even talking about campaign-finance reform," Turcer said. "But I submit that we dealt with the circus of redistricting and the circus of the budget, so let's get on with a substantive discussion of how to fix these laws."

The contentious Supreme Court race of 2000 proved to be the most expensive, the study found. On average, candidates for the bench raised $779,595 each during the two-year period, compared to the $518,036 raised by the average candidate for the five statewide elected offices.

Senate candidates raised $164,383 on average, while House candidates raised $53,816.

In conjunction with the study, the group called for a series of stepped up disclosure and reporting requirements - including mandatory disclosure of state and county party operating funds that can accept unlimited donations from undisclosed donors under current law.

Bills to do just that have been introduced in both the Ohio House and Senate since The Plain Dealer reported that now-jailed Lehman Brothers broker Frank Gruttadauria gave $50,000 to the Hamilton County Republican Party's operating fund shortly before he disappeared.

In the two years before the donation, Gruttadauria had helped his employers land lucrative work with the office of State Treasurer Joseph Deters, whose campaign was the primary beneficiary of the Hamilton County GOP's state candidate fund.

Citizen Action also called for limits on donations to parties, and more thorough reporting of lobbyist activity, PAC sponsorship, and legislative voting records - and improved access to all three on the Internet.

Contact Julie Carr Smyth at:

jsmyth@plaind.com, 800-228-8272