Ryan owes citizens campaign law compliance

For the howls of protest that emerged from Ohio Sen. Tim Ryan, D-Niles, when his congressional campaign got into hot water over an improper $50,000 loan made to his campaign committee, you would have thought that until that point Ryan's campaign finance reporting was a model of accuracy and probity. But if you thought that this was a Ryan campaign's first slip-up -- as he maintained -- you would have been wrong.
This may have been the first major error in a congressional campaign finance report -- which is a federal report -- but Ryan's financial report for his campaign for state senate was hardly a paragon. In fact, after reviewing the campaign finance reports of politicians throughout the state, Ohio Citizen Action assigned letter grades from A to F for their compliance with state disclosure requirements. And how did Ryan fare? He got an F -- along with state Rep. Anthony A. Latell and former state Rep. Ron Hood. Voters should take note.
Minimal requirements
Lest citizens thinks that campaign finance reports exhibit the complexity of tax returns, for example, they should know that politicians are actually asked to do very little. For every individual or group that gives a candidate $100 or more, the campaign treasurer need only list the donor's name, address, the amount and date of the contribution, and an individual's employer or occupation or political action committee's registration number.
That's hardly an onerous burden, and it lets voters know where a candidate's support is coming from -- an important consideration
But look at Ryan's 2001 annual report, (available on the Ohio Secretary of State's Website) and you'll see how empty the column is that asks for donors' employers and occupations.
Ryan isn't alone. In 1998, Rep. Sylvester Patton "earned" an F from Ohio Citizen Action, which noted this year that despite a vastly improved A rating, Patton could still provide more complete information. State Rep. John Boccieri, D-New Middletown, was similarly chastised.
While many big donors and groups would rather hide the origins of the political money they give, we expect that the kind of mistakes Ryan's campaign has made are more likely to result from carelessness than guile.
Nonetheless, we would expect that Ryan, who graduated from law school, should understand the importance of federal and state laws.