Three stories under the radar screen to note, two of which are in Ohio.
The first:
Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner is asking the Federal Election Commission to determine the legality of a secret agreement designed to allow her U.S. Senate campaign to use equipment bought by her now-defunct state campaign.
A week ago, Brunner told The Dispatch that she knew nothing about the purchases and that they would be reviewed. Yesterday, she sent a letter to the FEC asking for a legal opinion about an agreement that her husband’s law firm and her Senate campaign are said to have signed about four months ago.
The second, a nice example of the low bar for “accountabilty” in scandals:
The deal kept the Ohio Elections Commission from considering more serious allegations against Dann, including charges that he used campaign money to subsidize living expenses at a Dublin-area condo he shared with two aides, and that he improperly steered $12,000 from his transition fund to his wife’s dinnerware business.
The commission could have referred those matters to prosecutors.
Instead, the panel voted 5-1 for the $1,000 fine against either Dann or his campaign account, which still had more than $183,000 early this year.
“I’m not 100 percent sure that this is an appropriate resolution to this case, but given the amount of time the parties have spent working toward a resolution, I’m voting to accept it,” said commission member Bryan Felmet.
The one dissenting member, chairman Chuck Calvert, noted that the panel was unlikely to reject a deal that both Dann and Charles had brokered.
“We know that we have a person elected to this state to be our chief law-enforcement officer who has done some strange things,” said Calvert, a former GOP legislator. “It appears that we will be imposing a $1,000 fine, and that doesn’t strike me as an appropriate resolution to this case.”
Dann, a Democrat, was elected attorney general in 2006 as a crusader against corruption. His administration stumbled early and was brought down by a sexual-harassment scandal in May 2007.
Finally, from the AP, “The revelation that Democratic appropriations kingpins may face a House ethics investigation of their campaign receipts from lobbyists for recipients of government grants and contracts moves Republicans closer to gaining a corruption issue in 2010.”