Sun Feb 12 2012
By Marc Kovac
Record-Courier Capital Bureau
COLUMBUS -- A few thoughts following the latest chapter in
the still-kicking Marc Dann saga:
* Is there any remaining doubt that Dann, forced to resign
following sexual harassments allegations against one of his
hand-picked managers and the resulting scandal that brought
to light his extramarital affair and questionable use of
campaign and transition accounts, will face some kind of
criminal charges?
Three of his underlings have already pleaded guilty to
various counts uncovered by investigators, who continue to
dig for more evidence of wrongdoing. And all three, as part
of their plea agreements, are cooperating with prosecutors.
* The criminal complaints that Leo Jennings and Edgar
Simpson pleaded guilty to last week in Columbus prompt an
obvious question: What planet are these people living on?
Seriously, $21,000 from the Ohio Democratic Party for work
done on the campaign? And a $1,000-plus commission for
coming up with the wording on the inaugural ball
invitations?
"There's really no allegation that I didn't earn the money,
because I did," Jennings told reporters after his court
appearance. "Quite frankly, I'm good at what I do, and so I
was paid for it."
Nice work, if you can get it.
* What the heck is going on with Substitute House Bill 5,
the legislation that was prompted by the Dann scandal to
limit transition accounts, which office-holders us to pay
for inauguration parties and other expenses as they assume
elected or appointed posts.
Unlike other campaign finances, candidates have not been
required to disclose who donated to their transition
accounts or how the funds were spent.
David Freel, executive director of the Ohio Ethics
Commission, said Dann and some of his underlings used
Dann's transition account as a "personal piggy bank."
"For a long time in Ohio, public officials in Ohio used the
money that was given to them after their election to their
first day of service to pay for expenses in between," Freel
said. "In this case, the transition account without any
transparency, without any disclosure, was used ... to pay
loans to Mr. Gutierrez, his commercial loans, to pay living
costs for the two of them in their public service and for
other payments that there was no ability of the public for
you to know about."
The legislation would continue to allow transition accounts
for state office-holders. But it would cap individual
donations, limit the use of those funds, require disclosure
statements be filed with the Secretary of State and require
the accounts to be closed out after 120 days.
The legislation is tied up as the House and Senate haggled
over an amendment, added by the Senate, to stop statewide
candidates from using issue-oriented campaigns and taxpayer
funding to support their own candidacies.
* It's a shame that Dann will forever be remembered for the
scandal that led to his early exit from office, rather than
for some of the good things he did as attorney general.
"I wrote a speech that Marc gave at the City Club in 2007,
two and a half years ago, where he laid out quite clearly
that the nation was headed for very serious problems
because the referees had been pulled out of the game as it
relates to the big banks and the investment houses,"
Jennings said. "Our office was the first in the country to
file an action against a predatory lender. Our office was
the first in the country to drag the ratings agencies in,
to talk about their role in rating what were basically junk
bonds based on bad mortgages as Triple A securities."
He added, "I think one of the really unfortunate things is
that the great work that was done in the office has been
submerged beneath what's happened at the personal level."
Marc Kovac is the Dix Capital Bureau Chief. E-mail him at
mkovac@dixcom.com or on Twitter at Ohio Capital Blog.
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