(ePluribusMedia OhioNews Bureau)
PRYCE AVOIDING 08 "SLUGFEST" FOR SAKE OF DAUGHTER
News swirled Wednesday first at Buckeye State Blog and then at The Columbus Dispatch that long-time incumbent Ohio Republican Congressman Debra Pryce may consider retirement rather than take on her arch nemesis, Franklin County Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy, in next year’s election.
Besting Kilroy by only 1,055 votes in 06, and with the tide turning to Democrats in 2008, Pryce's prospect of the tough slog her campaign would be seems reason enough after 15 years in Congress, despite her cover story of a call to duty for family, to call it quits.
08 SLUGFEST MAY BE TOO MUCH FOR PRYCE
The slugfest that was the 2006 match-up between Pryce and Kilroy may be more than Pryce can handle. As other Ohio Congressional Republicans like David Hobson head for the hills rather than defend eight years of catastrophic governance under President Bush and run against the tide of Americans going blue, such openings bring smiles to some Congressional wannabes like former Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro and Republican State Senator Steve Stivers, one of only three Ohio lawmakers who can say that served in Iraq.
Like Rover and others who didn’t have the stomach for the fight, Pryce cites family as official reason for bailing:
Dispatch: "Pryce, 56, has been a fixture in the U.S. House since her election in 1992. Republican sources say if she does not run, former Ohio Attorney General James Petro might seek the seat. Petro today declined comment.
A senior Republican who spoke only on condition of not being identified said Pryce has concluded it is far too difficult to raise her daughter Mia in Columbus while simultaneously maintaining a five-day schedule in Washington."
OEC HEARS CASE ON CHARTER SCHOOL’S FISHY FUNDS TRANSFER
In a bellwether case that will give important direction going forward on whether the transfer of campaign contribution funds between one state PAC and its Ohio affiliate is legal, The Ohio Elections Commission (OEC) is being served a hot potato in the no-holds barred battle between Republican contributors who support charter school groups, school vouchers and like-minded lawmakers and Progressive groups who want to break the web of partisan funding and influence peddling they say is at the heart of this and other socially divisive issues.
Background on the story, which has hit Ohio headlines recently, can be found here and here.
The case to be heard on August 23rd involves the transfer of $870,000 between a Virginia PAC established by All Children Matter and its Ohio affiliate done prior to the 2006 elections.
ACM ACCUSES SOS BRUNNER OF DOUBLE STANDARD
As they gear up for the impending fight at the OEC, ACM is making a case that their actions are legal and that Ohio’s new Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner is talking through both sides of her mouth.
Brunner, who agency oversees campaign finance filings and who ran and won last year on a campaign of making Ohio elections "free, fair, open and honest," has in her short time in office raised the ire of Republicans and others for various proposals and actions she had made. Her recent filing with the OEC will no doubt add to her record in office of being as partisan as her predecessor, Ken Blackwell.
Enquirer: "Brunner's office says the Virginia PAC failed to register with elections officials in Ohio and did not file three required campaign finance reports in 2006. The Ohio group failed to make required changes to their finance reports and exceeded the limit that an Ohio PAC can accept, Brunner's complaint said."
William Todd, a Columbus Republican attorney representing ACM who is also running to unseat two-term Democratic Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman this November, argues in a published report that state law allows unlimited transfers between any affiliated PACs of the same organization.
As a candidate for Columbus mayor, Todd has said the city should take over Columbus public schools. With a statement like this, which opens the door to supporters of his like David Brennan to give him more campaign cash, it’s no wonder progressive bloggers find this chummy relationship, for good reasons, too much to resist.
In a media release posted at Right Angle Blog, ACM makes the case that not only will its actions be vindicated by the OEC, but that Brunner has turned a blind eye to similar fund transfer practices by the United Auto Workers Ohio State PAC, America Votes for Working Families 2006 and the Communications Workers of America Ohio Legislative Action Committee, three pro-union, left of center groups it names in its media release of having done the same thing.
Excerpted from ACM’s media release dated August 13, 2007:
"Ohio statute is very clear that unlimited transfers between affiliated political action committees are legal. Ohio Rev. Code § 3517.102(C)(7). Therefore, transfers between ACM-Ohio and its affiliated PAC in Virginia were completely compliant with Ohio law."
Transfers between Ohio-registered PACs and their out-of-state affiliates are routine. In fact, numerous union-affiliated PACs have performed similar transfers without drawing the ire of the Ohio Secretary of State. The Secretary of State’s office has failed to explain why it selected ACM – Ohio for its complaint but is choosing not to target these other Ohio PACs with its complaint....New complaints were filed last week with the Ohio Elections Commission against three Ohio organizations to demonstrate the double standard being applied by the Ohio Secretary of State."
In a previous statement included in this article about why the group thought it was alright to make the fund transfer it did, ACM’s executive director Greg Brock said," "There was an advisory opinion issued (by OEC) to us, but it did not address the statute in a way that we had asked, so we moved forward,"
THE BOOGIE MAN IN THE WINGS
The boogie man the OEC may unleash if it vindicates ACM's argument is that there will be every reason to set up different PACs in different states and just transfer unlimited amounts of campaign cash between them, as was done between Virginia and Ohio. And if this is indeed the future, Ohio lawmakers may be forced to step in to adjust campaign finance law to avoid this legal detour around current laws.