ProgressOhio

“I'm upset with the state legislature not doing anything to [State Rep. Tom] Brinkman for doing this. They should throw him out of office.”
Hon. Robert P. Ruehlman, July 11, 2007, Ohio v. Mingo,Ward

One month ago this week, the Cincinnati Enquirer ran a front page story titled: “Judge: Brinkman the ‘real criminal".

In a stunning sentencing involving two people hired by Brinkman to collect the signatures needed to challenge Cincinnati’s gay rights ordinance, Hamilton County Judge Robert Ruehlman condemned the behavior of Brinkman. The Judge openly questioned why the Ohio House allowed his fellow Republican to continue to serve, despite his role in the election fraud case before him.

Brinkman was a leader in a group called “Equal Rights not Special Rights” which was chaired by none other than CCV’s Phil Burress.

Burress and those in his orbit are the same people sending out press releases and paying for phone calls that feature Ken Blackwell accusing the strip clubs of improperly gathering signatures for their ballot issue.

The Judge went beyond just condemning Brinkman. He suggested the House should toss him from office.

So why then has Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted not referred the matter of Tom Brinkman to the Joint Legislative Ethics Committee -- or taken the action a prominent GOP Hamilton County Judge thought was necessary?

And even if he hasn’t, what does it take for Legislative Inspector Clouseau Tony Bledsoe to take action on his own? Does someone need to slap the Enquirer at his forehead to bring this to his attention? Or is news of wrongdoing not news unless it’s signed on a required colored paper form?

But then this of course is an agency that has not issued an advisory opinion since 2001. Yes, that’s 2001. No lobbyist has even bothered to ask for an advisory opinion in over six years according to their website – must be because Ohio politicians are well known for their pristine ethics in recent years , ya think?

And what exactly did the Judge say before sentencing the two people who altered petitions to collect an extra bonus?

“He's [Brinkman’s] the real criminal,” Ruelhman said, according to a transcript of the proceeding. “What he did is terrible, almost defrauding. A layer of foundation of our democracy is voting and free elections. To cheat the voting system. He's a State Rep. On top of that it.”

The Judge pointed out that the two defendants were poor and in need of money. Both were paid by the signature. Although the judge said they were wrong to alter the petitions in order to collect a bonus, he felt clearly that Brinkman in his oversight capacity took advantage of their plight.

At issue was the need to get 7,654 valid signatures from Cincinnati voters to put a referendum on the City of Cincinnati ballot to repeal a non-discrimination provision against gays and lesbians. According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, Brinkman admitted to Assistant Hamilton County Prosecutor David Stevenson that he changed more than 1,000 addresses to make the signatures valid.

The transcript indicates this Brinkman himself altered a large number of petitions.

THE COURT: Give me an example. There's one in particular that's most

intriguing. You had Bob Costelli (Phonetic.)

MR. STEVENSON: Robert Costelli's, listed address was in Mariemont, then that address was changed.

THE COURT: He actually signed it?

MR. STEVENSON: Yes, sir.

THE COURT: He actually signed it. But it turned out they couldn't use it because it was out in the county, not the city.

MR. STEVENSON: The address was changed to inside the city, which belonged to Robert Castellini.

THE COURT: I got a lot of this from talks in chambers. We talked about this case, which kind of bothered me. It turned out Brinkman actually admitted to that? How many others did he do like that that he admitted to?

MR. STEVENSON: I don't know the exact number, around 1,100, 1,000 addresses changed.

THE COURT: He admitted changing addresses?

MR. STEVENSON: Yes, sir.

Of course, Brinkman’s excuse was that a lawyer relying on a 1969 advisory opinion told him it was alright to change the petitions. To which Judge Ruehlman replied:

But it is like the one statute says: ‘Did knowingly state a falsehood in a matter in relation to which an oath or statement under penalty of election falsification’ is authorized by law, including a statement required for verifying any declaration of candidacy, declaration of intent to be a write-in candidate, nominating petition, or other petition presented or filed with the Secretary of State a Board of Elections.

Essentially, under the complicity statute it could be complicity. But at least the state, our state legislature -- I can't believe that the state, our state representatives didn't censor him yet for this. When a lawyer tells you to do something obviously wrong, you know -- two of my granddaughters are in grade school, they know that's wrong to sign a name for somebody - to take Bob Costelli's name and put his address, they would know that's wrong.

MR. STEVENSON: I can't argue.

The assistant prosecutor’s boss, Joe Deters, the former GOP State Treasurer who left town under a cloud of indicted associates, must have re-thought things for his staffer, Mr. Stevenson. He told the Cincinnati Enquirer that Brinkman’s “conduct fell in a gray area and was ‘not a clear cut violation’.” Deters told the newspaper the grand jury declined to indict Brinkman.

So let’s get this straight – a state representative authorizes changes to over 1,000 petition signatures and that is a “gray” area – but too schmucks who need a buck and follow instructions – albeit poorly or illegally -- wind up pleading to felonies for altering petitions and will be sentenced on August 20.

Tom Brinkman’s punishment: A bad headline in the local paper.

Ethics, ethics anyone? Outraged? Wait, there is more.

Regardless of where you are on the issue of “strippers” that is headed toward the ballot, Mr. Brinkman’s boss on this Cincinnati issue, Mr. Burress, has kicked up an all-out assault on – you guessed it – on the signature-gathering tactics of his opponents.

CCV and those in its orbit kicked a off a statewide radio campaign featuring Ken Blackwell’s rise from last November’s right-wing debacle to warn Ohioans how to strike their names from petitions (ostensibly since the Brinkman’s of the world can’t risk doing it for us.)

David Miller, CCV’s spokesman, says he’s gotten hundreds of calls – nothing a little radio won’t buy. (Let’s do the math: If Brinkman altered 1,100 of the 7,654 signatures, that would mean he altered about 15% of them. The strippers need 241,366 signatures to qualify for the ballot, and 15% of that is about 36,205 – lots more than the “hundreds’’ of people David Miller says signed the petitions under false pretenses.)

But it’s the sheer audacity of the Phil Burress/Tom Brinkman crowd that they could admit one month ago to altering about 1,100 Cincinnati petitions on their own and now make accusations at others – as if they are saying, “Do as I say, not as I did.”

There is something amoral to the core about the behavior of a group accused by a Judge of “cheating” that now tries to use self-righteous stereotyping that somehow strippers are morally bad, but they -- despite their cheating -- are morally superior. It’s as if they believe that the Ten Commandments has some kind of a grading curve based on hours with nose in the scripture.

And even worse than the self-righteous blabbering of the righteous right, is the amoral use of the term ‘’ethics’’ in our Statehouse.

When a Judge of the same political party questions the need to censure a state representative for his actions – and the Speaker and Joint Legislative Ethics Committee (JLEC) are silent for over a month, – our system of policing legislative ethics is toothless, spineless and worthless.

What good is a legislative agency that merely tracks forms for lobbyist registration, costs of meals and golf outings – but looks the other way at petition tampering?

Are we at a point as a society where the privileged are somehow able to escape moral and legal culpability for cheating, while the poor are to face a criminal record for the same conduct? Is Tom Brinkman above the law because of his status and connections as a state representative.?

After all, we are a state that saw a Governor convicted for failing to file paperwork on his golf outing – but a cheating state representative who alters 1,100 signatures on a ballot issue walks away with no repercussions about the potential disenfranchisement of an entire city full of voters – Ohio’s third largest at that.

And even more so, are there not higher ethical standards that the Ohio House should aspire to – regardless of JLECs inactivity?

You can be disappointed in Mr. Brinkman’s behavior and favors, or disgusted by voter fraud, but the real failure in Buckeyeland is with the leadership of a House that is looking the other way at Judge Ruehlman’s concerns, and an ethics panel that -- regardless of its title -- lacks ethical behavior.

But for now, all we are left with is Judge Ruehlman’s frustration as he sentenced two lowly people who worked under Mr. Brinkman.

“This is all Citizens for Community Values,” Judge Ruehlman says in the transcript. “They're kind of high and mighty, always talking about pornography and things like that. I think free election and voting is most important community value, don't you, the foundation of democracy. I think that's one of the values maybe they're missing here.”

Amen and hallelujah Judge.

Anyone over at JLEC listening – yoohoo – Mr. Bledsooooe – anybody home.