Bill would limit contributions to political campaigns to $2,500

COLUMBUS -- Contributions by any person or entity to any political candidate would be limited to $2,500 including direct donations, loans or services or products, under a bill to be introduced in the Ohio Senate.
"We need a simple law that sets definite limits," said state Sen. Marc Dann, a Trumbull County Democrat who's planning to introduce the measure.
The proposal, if adopted, would also require all contributions to and expenses of any candidate or entity engaged in "electioneering" to be disclosed on a Web site maintained by the Ohio Secretary of State within 72 hours of receipt, except the last 30 days before the election. During that time, they must be publicized within 24 hours.
The proposal, expected to be introduced soon, would also limit aggregate contributions from individuals to $25,000 per calendar year and would ban any entity that takes corporate political contributions from ever contributing, loaning or indirectly contributing to a political candidate.
Dann's measure, once introduced, comes in the wake of state and federal probes of what authorities have called campaign fund-raising irregularities reportedly connected to political consultants who had been linked to the Ohio House Republican Campaign Committee.
The OHRCC and other GOP political groups have since severed their ties to the consultants, one a former top aide to House Speaker Larry Householder, R-Glenford, and another a former top fund raiser for the Ohio House Republicans.
No criminal charges have been filed in the case.