Cordray political donation debated

Gave Franklin County recorder candidate $500 contribution.

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By Jessica Wehrman, Staff Writer 9:47 PM Sunday, February 12, 2012

WASHINGTON — Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director Richard Cordray vowed during his confirmation hearings that he would keep politics separate from his work, adding that “the work of a federal independent agency and law enforcement work, in particular, must be completely absolved of politics.”

But Cordray, a former Ohio attorney general, nonetheless gave $500 to a candidate for Franklin County recorder in December, while his confirmation was pending before the U.S. Senate.

The amount accounted for almost half of the money raised by Democrat T.J. Brown.

A Cordray spokeswoman said the director gave the donation as a private citizen. Government employees “can and do participate in the democratic process as private citizens,” said Jen Howard, a spokesman for the bureau. “That is what happened here.”

In January, President Barack Obama used a recess appointment to name Cordray as the bureau director after Senate Republicans blocked his nomination.

While it’s not illegal, political nominees are typically discouraged from any involvement in politics. There are definite no-nos — they can’t, for example, attend a fundraiser for a candidate and solicit contributions for that candidate. Voting, however, is considered perfectly fine.

But for Cordray, whose agency is an independent one, political involvement — even writing a check for a local candidate “is a very bad idea,” according to Richard Painter, a law professor at the University of Minnesota who served as the chief ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush from February 2005 to July 2007.

“It is extremely important for someone holding a position such as this to be staying away from partisan political activity,” he said. “I think it’s very much frowned upon.”

Craig Holman of Public Citizen, a nonpartisan watchdog that monitors government ethics, said the donation isn’t a big deal.

“Local offices wouldn’t be addressed by ethics rules or campaign finance laws,” he said, adding that watchdogs would be concerned if the fundraising could be “perceived as a means of trying to influence an appointment.”

“I don’t see that here,” he said.

Lawmakers as bosses

Sure, they cast votes on legislation, but how’s your lawmaker doing as a boss?

A new report by the Sunlight Foundation tracks congressional staff retention, and Ohio lawmakers appear to have high turnover.

The report said the average House member had a 64.2 percent retention rate. It tracked the data based on all members who served in both 2009 and 2011, examining how well they did at hanging on to staff from the third quarter of 2009.

Among those with the most turnover were Reps Steve Austria, R-Beavercreek, who had a 26.7 percent retention rate and Mike Turner, R-Centerville, who had an 37.5 percent retention rate.

Among those with the highest staff retention rate in Congress: Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, who managed to hang onto 92.9 percent of his staff, and Dennis Kucinich, D-Cleveland, who hung onto 86.4 percent of his staff.

Jessica Wehrman reports from Washington for the Dayton Daily News and The Columbus Dispatch.

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