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Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2008 > July > 31
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Dann campaign spends cash on lawyers, consultants
In his last few weeks as attorney general and even after he resigned under pressure, Democrat Marc Dann spent more than $120,000 out of his campaign fund on lawyers, political consultants and new Apple computers, according to the latest campaign finance report filed this week.
Dann used the campaign fund to pay $13,680 to an Austin, TX-based political consultant hired in April to strike back at Dann’s critics. Dann for Ohio paid $3,100 to The Campaign Group, political consultants in Philadelphia.
The day he resigned, May 14, the campaign shelled out $50,000 in legal fees to M&R Land Co., which is an aviation company owned by Dann’s friend Mike Harshman, who is a pilot and an attorney. Two days later, Dann for Ohio paid a $10,000 retainer to Neal & Harwell, a civil and criminal defense law firm in Nashville.
Dann said via e-mail that the expenditures are allowed under Ohio law. “All expenditures were made after prior consultation with the campaign attorney. Each firm has provided significant services to the campaign and met all contractual obligations to the campaign,” Dann said in the e-mail.
According to his mid-year campaign finance report, Dann spent $233,567 out of the account since Jan. 1 — $120,325 of that since May 1.
The Secretary of State is still auditing Dann for Ohio’s 2007 campaign finance report. On May 2, Dann admitted to an affair with a junior staffer, said he wasn’t prepared to be attorney general, and acknowledged that his behavior may have sent the wrong message about how his managers could treat subordinates. He fired two friends he had hired into top slots and two others resigned. Dann resigned May 14.
His administration is now the subject of investigations by the state inspector general, state auditor, highway patrol, Ohio Ethics Commission and others.
Eye On Ohio: McCain ‘Celeb’ ad
By Howard Wilkinson
Cincinnati Enquirer
The ad: “Celeb,” 30 seconds.
Producer: The McCain campaign.
Where to see it: Airing on Ohio TV stations and in other battleground states. View it at DaytonDailyNews.com/eyeonohio.
Script: Announcer: “He’s the biggest celebrity in the world. But is he ready to lead? With gas prices soaring, Barack Obama says no to offshore drilling. And he says he’ll raise taxes on electricity. Higher taxes. More foreign oil. That’s the real Obama.” McCain: “I’m John McCain, and I approve this message.”
Video: As the announcer calls Obama the “biggest celebrity in the world,” a series of images flash by of enthusiastic Obama supporters at his appearance in Berlin, which drew a crowd of about 200,000. Interspersed among the Berlin shots are two quick frames that show celebrities who are famous for being famous, Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.
This is followed by long shots of the throngs that greeted Obama in Berlin and of the Democratic candidate, waving to the Berliners. The scene suddenly shifts to a still photograph of Obama, with a series of graphic messages: “Higher taxes,” “More foreign oil” and, the kicker, “That’s the real Obama.”
Analysis: While the ad makes points that the McCain campaign has raised before about Obama and his energy policies, the energy issue is almost an afterthought to the central point — the suggestion that Obama is more interested in adoring crowds than in being the kind of leader the nation can trust.
By emphasizing Obama’s “celebrity status,” the McCain campaign is trying to cash in on recent media coverage suggesting the Democratic candidate and his campaign operation have been presumptuous and arrogant, acting as if the election is already over.
This ad hits Obama again for his opposition to lifting the moratorium on oil drilling off U.S. coastlines, which Obama has said, accurately, “won’t produce a drop of oil for seven years.” Even McCain, who supports offshore drilling, has said that it would produce no immediate relief from high gas prices.
The McCain ad’s claim that Obama says “he’ll raise taxes on electricity” is based on an interview Obama gave to a San Antonio newspaper in February in which he said “what we ought to tax is a dirty energy like coal, and, to a lesser extent, natural gas.”
According to the Obama campaign, what Obama was referring to was his proposal for a cap-and-trade mechanism that would set a limit on greenhouse gas emissions, allowing entities to buy and sell rights to emit. If that is the case, McCain is criticizing Obama for a proposal that he, too, supports.
Howard Wilkinson is a reporter for The Cincinnati Enquirer. E-mail: hwilkinson@enquirer.com.
McCain and Obama neck and neck in Ohio
Two crucial swing states in the presidential election — Ohio and Florida — are now too close to call, according to a poll released Thursday, July 11, by Quinnipiac University.
Among likely voters in Ohio, Democrat Barack Obama has 46 percent of the vote to Republican John McCain’s 44 percent. Obama held a 6-point lead over McCain in a June 18 poll in Ohio.
In Florida, Obama has 46 percent to McCain’s 44 percent. Obama had held a 4-point lead last time.
In Pennsylvania, another swing state, Obama leads McCain 49 percent to 42 percent, but that’s down from a 12-point lead the Democrat held last time.
Pennsylvania and Ohio voters say energy policy is more important than the candidate’s position on the war in Iraq while Floridians are evenly split over which is more important.
By wide margins in all three states, voters support the idea of allowing offshore drilling for oil — something McCain supports but Obama opposes.
The poll was conducted July 23 to 29 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percent in Florida and Ohio and 2.7 percent in Pennsylvania.
