OHIO POLITICS Blackwell warns about accounts

The official backs a bill requiring disclosure of donations to the accounts.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- Political party operating accounts, which allow the parties to spend money from undisclosed donations on party-building activities, are illegal under the new federal campaign law and ought to be shut down, Republican Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell says.
However, a spokesman for Blackwell's own state party said the operating accounts aren't used on candidates and thus are perfectly legal.
Blackwell said he has the solution: a bill that has been stuck in a Senate committee for nearly a year. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Randy Gardner, a Bowling Green Republican, would require disclosure of contributions to the accounts and specify how their money could be spent.
By funding these accounts with soft money -- not directly contributed to candidate campaigns -- the Republican and Democratic parties are violating the campaign finance law passed last year, Blackwell said.
'Changes the rules'
The court's decision "effectively changes the rules under which political parties operate," Blackwell said. "The use of soft-money operating accounts must be terminated immediately."
Blackwell also asked lawmakers to pass legislation requiring all contributions or expenses by a political party to be made public.
"For nearly a year, I have warned the General Assembly and both major political parties that Ohio must act immediately to make accommodations for changes mandated by McCain-Feingold," Blackwell said, referring to the federal law sponsored by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Russ Feingold, D-Wis.
Jason Mauk, an Ohio Republican Party spokesman, disagreed with Blackwell's assertion. He said the party uses its operating account to run its building and pay salaries, among other purposes.
They also can be used for get-out-the-vote activities such as mailers of candidate slates.
"What Secretary Blackwell is saying is that the very operation of the building, the fact we have staff there doing Republican work, may not be a specific expenditure on a candidate but is indirectly benefiting them because they have a facility where they can go," Mauk said.
Federal accounts
"What we are saying is operating money is not spent on candidates or campaigns. Even though Secretary Blackwell contends operating money indirectly benefits those candidates, any operating expenditures related to a federal candidate are paid for out of a federal account where it is fully disclosed and limited."
He said money spent directly on candidates or campaign purposes comes from different accounts.
Dan Trevas, spokesman for the Ohio Democratic Party, said the party has not used its operating account. "We haven't used that account in that fashion for years," he said.
Thomas Moyer, the chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court who is running for re-election next year, said the separation of federal, state and local candidates could pose problems for the parties.
The three levels of government have different rules covering campaigns.
"The problem is with slate cards, where you have president, senator, candidates for those offices on the same slate cards as state offices. I'm not sure what the state chairmen can do about that," Moyer said Friday before filing his re-election petitions with Blackwell's office.
Blackwell said his office is studying how to enforce McCain-Feingold at the state level.
"It is now my duty as Secretary of State to consider the serious legal consequences of our current situation," Blackwell said.