Ohio Republican Campaigns to Return $30,000 to PACs of Charter School Kingpin

Return of Questionable Funds Avoids Scrutiny, Fines by Ohio Elections Commission

OhioNewsBureau

COLUMBUS, OHIO: David Brennan, a wealthy Akron industrialist whose White Hat Management charter school company has reaped millions in public funding made possible by Republican legislators in spite of accounts showing the schools are failing, will have $30,000 in campaign fund contributions he made to various Republican campaigns over two election cycles returned, as the result of an agreement entered into Monday between those campaigns and two political action committees (PAC) associated with him that avoids bringing the matter before the Ohio Elections Commission (OEC).

In announcing the agreement, state campaign finance officials said in a media release that the agreement resolves questions raised by the state's chief election overseer over whether Brennan, through Go-Go PAC and Main Street PAC, violated state law limiting individual donations to candidates at $10,000 per election cycle.

The questionable contributions, which occurred in the November 2006 and 2007 election cycles, were made by Brennan and his wife, Ann, who each donated $10,000 to the 2006 Republican campaigns of Mary Taylor, who was elected Ohio Auditor, J. Kenneth Blackwell, the former Secretary of State who ran and lost the race for governor and to Betty D. Montgomery, who lost her race to become Attorney General again.

State campaign finance officials said the Brennans used two political action committees to donate about $20,000 to Ohioans for Blackwell, about $5,000 to Citizens for Mary Taylor committee and $500 to the Montgomery Campaign Committee, also in 2006. Moreover, state records show the Brennans being the sole contributors for Go-Go PAC and Main Street PAC since 2005.

Campaign finance records also show that in 2007, David and Ann Brennan gave the maximum contribution of $10,000 to the Batchelder for State Representative Committee. Bill Batchelder, a Republican House member who left the bench to win a seat in the Ohio House again and whose name is bantered about as the next Speaker should Republicans maintain their majority this year, received $5,250 from the Brennans and their PACs.

The campaigns and the funds they will now return to the Brennans are as follows:

• Citizens for Mary Taylor Committee will refund $5,000 to Go-Go PAC.
• Ohioans for Blackwell will refund $10,000 to Go-Go PAC.
• The Batchelder for State Representative Committee will refund $250 to Go-Go PAC.
• The Montgomery Campaign Committee will refund $500 to Go-Go PAC.
• Ohioans for Blackwell will refund $10,000 to Main Street PAC.
• The Batchelder for State Representative Committee will refund $3,660 to Main Street PAC.
• Main Street PAC will refund $10,670 to David Brennan.

The agreement states that Main Street PAC and Go-Go PAC will have 30 days to complete the refunds and notify state campaign finance officials when they have been completed. In this case, as with others individuals or groups, the office notifies them of alleged violations and gives them an opportunity to respond in order that a remedy can be achieved obviating the need to send the matter to the Ohio Elections Commission.

Mayhew said, he thinks the two PACs are "affiliated" under Ohio law, because the Brennans are the sole source of funding and the two share a common officer. That means the PACs share contribution limits, so the fact that each donated $10,000 to Blackwell also is a violation of the campaign-finance limit of $10,000.

Curtis Mahew, the state's campaign finance chief, said in a published report that he believes that a "sufficient basis exists to file a complaint with the Ohio Elections Commission against David Brennan and Ann Brennan for violation of the contribution limits and possibly other campaign-finance law."

In news related to Brennan and his financial involvement with charter schools, All Children Matter (ACM), a Michigan-based political-action committee, was fined a record $5.2 million last week by the OEC for exceeding campaign-contribution limits. The OEC determined that ACM illegally funneled $870,000 from its Virginia PAC to its PAC in Ohio, a move designed to circumvent Ohio election laws by funneling funds from another state's PAC to an Ohio PAC. Brennan donated $200,000 to ACM. Brennan will appeal the ruling to the Franklin County Common Pleas Court.

Based on the fine imposed against All Children Matter, Mr. Brennan could face a fine of more than $90,000 if a complaint is filed and the Elections Commission rules against him.

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