GOP Questions Ohio AG’s Election-Cash Shuffle

Republicans yesterday challenged Attorney General Richard Cordray’s shifting of hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign cash to county Democratic Party organizations.

In a complaint filed with the Ohio Elections Commission, the Republican Party organizations in Summit and Franklin counties said Cordray forked over $765,000 to state and local Democratic Party groups in February to get around restrictions on carrying over money from previous election cycles.

The state Democratic Party and county parties in Franklin and Summit counties have since returned $493,000 to Cordray’s campaign.

“Richard Cordray is ignoring campaign-finance law and getting away with it,” Summit County Republican Chairman Alex Arshinkoff said in a news release. “The public will see that Cordray’s campaign was wiring money to Democratic leaders at the last minute in a frantic attempt to hold on to $765,000 of illegal money.”

Cordray’s fundraising practices have threatened to burn the state’s top law officer in a race in which he otherwise holds several advantages: a 2-to-1 lead in money raised over Republican challenger Mike DeWine, incumbency and a relatively scandal-free two years in office.

Cordray’s campaign and the Ohio Democratic Party both denied wrongdoing yesterday. “This is a bogus complaint that is completely without merit,” Cordray spokesman Adam Herman said in a statement. “The campaign has carefully and fully complied with all campaign-finance laws.”

The Ohio Democratic Party said that Jon Husted, the GOP nominee for secretary of state, transferred money to the Ohio Republican Party after his election to the state Senate in 2008. Ohio Democratic Party spokesman Seth Bringman said the party will file an elections complaint against Husted, although he expects it to be dismissed, just as the one against Cordray should be.

Republicans also questioned Cordray’s lack of spending for the campaign.

The salary for Cordray’s chief fundraiser does not appear on campaign-finance reports either as a direct expense or an in-kind contribution from the Ohio Democratic Party. The fundraiser, Melissa Barnhart, is being paid by the Ohio Democratic Party rather than Cordray.

A spokeswoman for Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said there’s no requirement that Cordray disclose Barnhart’s salary as an in-kind contribution from the party.

Read more from James Nash at The Columbus Dispatch