ProgressOhio

Special counsel to probe CCV ban campaign

Columbus--A state probe of the campaign to pass Ohio’s marriage ban amendment three years ago will begin once a special counsel is selected, says the secretary of state’s office.

A complaint filed in March by the watchdog group Progress Ohio accuses the amendment’s backers of using a charity to hide donors to that campaign and another one, an unsuccessful attempt to retain Cincinnati’s anti-gay charter amendment.

Both campaigns were run by groups connected to Citizens for Community Values of Sharonville, Ohio, and its president Phil Burress.

Ohio law requires political campaigns to report their contributors and expenses. But non-profit charities don’t have to name their donors.

Non-profits are allowed to make limited contributions to ballot initiatives in line with their expressed mission--but they cannot finance entire campaigns.

Progress Ohio’s complaint is based on CCV Action’s tax return for the time of the campaign, filed last October.

[snip] 

The non-profit CCV Action told the Internal Revenue Service that it used “newspaper ads, radio ads and television ads” to amend the Ohio Constitution to ban same-sex marriage in 2004.

Progress Ohio contends those activities constitute a campaign, and that CCV Action acted as a campaign committee, violating Ohio election law.

Their complaint asks Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to investigate.

Related Posts:

Right-Wing Group Hid Campaign Cash ProgressOhio Study Reveals

(link includes documentation attached to the complaint)