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Kitchen to face full hearing on campaign complaint
By Marc Kovac
and David Skolnick
COLUMBUS
The Ohio Elections Commission will schedule a full hearing, likely in September, to determine potential sanctions against a failed Youngstown mayoral candidate who accepted an improper $3,900 cash campaign contribution and neglected to report it in a timely fashion.
DeMaine Kitchen, who served as chief of staff/ secretary to former Mayor Charles Sammarone, did not participate in a preliminary review of the complaint against him Thursday in Columbus.
Sammarone gave a $4,000 cash contribution Oct. 27, 2013, to Kitchen’s mayoral campaign. State law doesn’t permit cash contributions to exceed $100.
Kitchen, who couldn’t be reached Thursday by The Vindicator to comment, did not respond to a notice of his alleged violations, leaving the state panel with little information to consider, other than a complaint letter from the Mahoning County elections board and campaign finance filings.
Sammarone, who wasn’t asked to attend the commission hearing, said Kitchen refunded the $3,900 in two payments, and the former mayor, who now serves as city council president, wrote two checks to Kitchen’s campaign fund.
“I don’t know if [writing the checks] resolves anything, but I did what I was supposed to do,” Sammarone said. Kitchen “paid the money back.”
That information wasn’t provided to the commission as Kitchen didn’t attend the meeting. Only a $2,500 refund to Sammarone is on the last campaign finance report filed April 1 by Kitchen with the Mahoning County Board of Elections.
Sammarone has said he should have known the election law better and not given cash.
Executive Director Philip Richter said he would like more details from Kitchen before recommending any potential fine.
Richter also left open the possibility of subpoenaing Kitchen and Sammarone, should the former continue to decline to respond to the election commission’s inquiries. But Richter added subpoenas are “out of the ordinary” for the commission.
“We have [certified mail] service on the respondent that showed he was aware of today’s proceedings,” Richter said. “He chose not to either submit a response, attend, whatever, all that’s available to him. We could have gone forward and made a finding. I’d like a little more information before we do that.”
He added, “Just dealing with it [by issuing a sanction without hearing from Kitchen] doesn’t do the case justice.”
Kitchen ran as an independent for mayor in the November 2013 election, losing to Democrat John A. McNally. Sammarone is also a Democrat.
Kitchen also reported the contributions about three months late in required campaign finance disclosures. He paid $2,500 of the total to Sammarone in April. In an earlier released statement, he said he would repay $1,400 more as soon as he could afford it.
Sammarone said Thursday that Kitchen refunded the $1,400 about a month ago, and he then wrote two checks — for $2,500 and $1,400 — to Kitchen’s campaign fund.
Mahoning County elections officials filed a complaint with the state panel in April, noting the improper contribution and delayed disclosure.
David Betras, county Democratic Party chairman and vice chairman of the county board of elections, has been a vocal critic of the cash contribution.
“Kitchen shouldn’t ignore the Ohio Elections Commission,” Betras said. “If [Kitchen and Sammarone] think this solves it, they should contact the commission. Cash has been a problem in Mahoning County, and the Ohio Elections Commission should ask the questions I’ve raised about how it was given, where it was given.”
Kitchen could face $11,700 in potential fines and a possible referral for prosecution in the case, but Richter has said that’s unlikely for a first-time offender.