SpringfieldNewsSun.com

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — The campaign of Democratic candidate for state representative Richard Spangler is accusing his Republican opponent of taking credit for legislation that was not originally his own.

Incumbent state Rep. Ross McGregor, in response, says Spangler's claim shows how "naive he is about how the legislative process works."

Spangler's camp pointed out two instances — one in 2007 and one in 2006 — where McGregor allegedly took pieces of Democratic legislation that stalled in the state Legislature and recycled them into bills of his own and passed them into law.

House Bill 372 exempts the estates of soldiers who died in combat from probate fees and eliminates state income taxes on military benefits, among other provisions for the members of the armed forces. Dominic Paretti, Spangler's campaign manager, claims it was initially three Democratic bills that never passed after repeated attempts.

An "even clearer example" occurred back in 2006, when a bill sponsored by Rep. Peter Ujvagi, D-Toledo was never passed; It was identical to a bill introduced by McGregor a year later that was signed into law, Paretti pointed out.

The 2006 bill, HB 576, guarantees tuition waivers for the spouses of soldiers killed in the line of duty after 1975.

"The fact is that McGregor was never even a co-sponsor of any of these previous bills and in the end has had his Republican majority pass a photocopied version for himself to sponsor," Paretti said.

McGregor suggested that Spangler should be more worried about the future rather than bills that passed two years ago.

"My concern is, is this all Richard Spangler has to talk about," McGregor said.

Spangler said that it doesn't seem right that McGregor doesn't share credit more readily.

Bills 'lifted'

In a phone interview, Ujvagi told the News-Sun that McGregor "lifted" both bills.

"I'm sorry to say that both of those bills were lifted after I originally authored them," Ujvagi said. "Then they were introduced as Republican bills after all of the groundwork and everything else was done."

McGregor balked at Ujvagi's description of what happened. He said that was "no intentional act of trying to take away someone's legislation."

Regarding the 2006 bill, McGregor said he "inadvertently had similar legislation" to Ujvagi and asked the representative to co-sponsor the bill with him. Ujvagi was also one of several sponsors of bills in 2007 that ended up being similar to McGregor's HB 372.

McGregor said that he and Ujvagi have always had similar concerns for military veterans.

"We introduced the bill and we did not know that Rep. Ujvagi previously introduced the bill," McGregor said about HB 372. "Immediately within 24 hours of introducing that bill, I called (Ujvagi) to be my joint sponsor and he agreed."

McGregor said he acknowledged Ujvagi's efforts for military benefits, citing a Nov. 7, 2007 video where both lawmakers thank each other for bi-partisan support for HB 372.

But in a May 10, 2006, video Ujvagi appears to stumble when speaking about HB 576, cutting himself off from saying "273" — the original legislation that he authored — to say "576."

Still, "why didn't (Ujvagi) raise an issue?" McGregor asked. "If someone was going to say, 'Hey, you dirty dog, you stole my bill,' you'd see it (on the video)."

Ujvagi said that's not what's done on the House floor. "There's a measure of decorum," he said. "And I did want the bills to pass. So I bit my tongue."

Ujvagi said McGregor's "stealing" of his legislation is not the way the House of Representatives should operate.

McGregor and Ujvagi do agree on one thing — the bills were good pieces of legislation.

"The bottom line is that I got the bill passed," McGregor said. "It's good legislation and I've always credited Peter Ujvagi for being a champion of veterans issues."

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0374 or boutten@coxohio.com.