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SNS local mobileCordray faces ethics complaint on campaign funds
Groups say the attorney general has been illegally holding over funds.
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COLUMBUS — Two county Republican parties don’t like the way incumbent Democratic Attorney General Richard Cordray has shuffled around hundreds of thousands of dollars in his campaign account.
A complaint filed on Wednesday, July 28, with the Ohio Elections Commission by the Franklin and Summit County Republican parties charges that the shuffling was aimed at letting the Cordray campaign illegally hold onto $765,000 left over from a previous campaign.
“The public will see that Cordray’s campaign was wiring money to Democratic leaders at the last minute in an attempt to hold on to $765,000 of illegal money,” Alex Arshinkoff, Summit County Republican chairman, said in a press release.
Adam Herman, Cordray’s campaign spokesman, said in an e-mail that “this is a bogus complaint that is completely without merit.” Also, Chris Redfern, Ohio Democratic chairman, said in a press release that state Sen. Jon Husted, R-Kettering, transferred funds to the Ohio Republican Party after his election in 2008 and that Democrats would file a complaint with the elections commission about that.
Redfern said he expects his complaint and the “frivolous and politically motivated” complaint against Cordray both to be dismissed.
Cordray is running for re-election against former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, a Cedarville Republican.
The GOP complaint is based on a July 18 Dayton Daily News story about Cordray’s campaign fund maneuvers.
Ohio law prohibits state candidates from carrying over more than $200,000 from a previous election cycle and requires the candidate to donate excess money to charity, give it to the state or refund the donations, the GOP complaint said.
After Cordray defeated Republican Mike Crites in a 2008 special election, he had about $1.1 million in his campaign account. In February, Cordray donated $765,000 to the Ohio Democratic Party and the Franklin and Summit County Democratic parties, the complaint said.
Since then, those parties have donated about $493,000 to Cordray’s current campaign, according to the complaint.
Catherine Turcer of Ohio Citizen Action’s Money and Politics Project said in the July 18 story that while she was sure Cordray followed the “letter of the law. It’s certainly not following the spirit of the law.”
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Has ANYONE EVER met a Democrat who is not a crook? Not in the last 30 years!
I like the Dems much better when the liberals ran it instead of these leftists that are in there now.
10:19 PM, 8/23/2010
Go back to watching reruns of Matlock. Aren't you supposed to be at Partners in Prime soon anyway? You'll miss your Bridge game in that clubhouse I'm being robbed to pay for. Toddle along now.
uncleandy45014@yahoo.com
10:17 AM, 7/29/2010
9:01 AM, 7/29/2010
7:26 AM, 7/29/2010