GO BUCKS -- WITH FREE GAME TICKETS
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| Also listed in: Licking County Pro-Active Citizens (www.licopac.org) |
Ohio State's first game is still a month away, but already football tickets are a campaign issue.
Again.
WBNS-TV reporters, in an article in Monday's Dispatch, said the public interest group Common Cause "might file formal complaints with the Ohio Elections Commission against officeholders who have used (campaign) contributions to pay for things such as country-club memberships, out-of-state trips and tickets to sporting events."
The word "might" is the tip-off that even Common Cause knows it's trying to crack a very old chestnut here.
The Akron Beacon Journal in the early '90s probably took the most exhaustive look in recent history at this kind of mischief by members of the Ohio General Assembly.
"A Beacon Journal sampling of recent reports filed by legislators shows
substantial expenditures on such unlikely campaign items as season tickets to Ohio State football games, lawn-care service, apartment rents, automobile
tires, art glass, membership in the National Rifle Association and Christmas
party booze. "(9/23/90)
"In addition, because Ohio's campaign laws are so lax, lawmakers are allowed to pay themselves thousands of dollars from their campaign treasuries-- saying only that the payments are reimbursements for unspecified expenses."
If this week's WBNS/Dispatch article advances the issue, it's only because one of our own in Licking County, State Rep. Jay Hottinger, seems to have achieved a new level of arrogance in justifying the practice.
After admitting to using campaign contributions to buy OSU tickets for himself, his family, friends and constituents, Hottinger is quoted as explaining:
"I don't believe that it helps me execute the office, but I will tell you that many times, before games or after games, we participate in functions that are official functions of Ohio State University."
In other words, being invited to a pre-game buffet by an OSU lobbyist makes cheering for the Buckeyes on the 50-yard line just another stop on the campaign trail.
"Look, there's Jay Hottinger doing the wave!!! I'm going to vote for that dude."
Hottinger, a former state senator who because of term limits jumped to the House two years ago, obviously loves football - but hates spending his own money for tickets.
Three years ago, Hottinger got swept up in a short-lived state investigation into free Bengels tickets given to him and four other state lawmakers.
" With a global biotech company picking up the tab, five state lawmakers and their guests dined at an Italian restaurant and got luxury box seats to the Cincinnati Bengals' first Monday night football game in 15 years," reported the Dispatch on . July 8, 2005.
"The tickets to the Oct. 25 game cost $300 apiece, and the total tab for the evening topped $5,000."
(Hottinger, it should be noted, was the only one of the group that reported the tickets as gifts in his required financial disclosures, and he eventually paid back $647 for game tickets for himself and a nephew, the Dispatch said.)
In this week's article, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner is quoted as saying the law is clear that "you can't use your campaign funds for personal benefit."
Legislators, of course, say none of these perks of office are for their "personal benefit."
Attending OSU or Bengal games is just what they do to stay in office and serve the public, they maintain.
But at least one of Hottinger's contributors, Lucy Tavener, an member of the Ashbrook clan in Johnstown who has been around politics and politicians all her life, says she isn't buying these kind of excuses.
"We don't expect to provide entertainment for them and their family," she's quoted as saying in the Dispatch article. "We don't expect to clothe them. That isn't the purpose for which we're sending money."
So Jay, why not start buying your own football tickets instead of tapping into the campaign slush fund and winding up in the headlines for it every year or so?
Hottinger's Democratic opponent, Howard Hill, no doubt will make an issue of this latest flap, as he should since it shows once again that some of our current assemblymen think they don't have to follow both the spirit and the letter of the law.
But Jay, if you don't listen to Howard or to Lucy, listen to your wife, Cheri, who wrote this in a campaign letter to your constituents two years ago:
"I have never met a man with more integrity," wrote Cheri Hottinger. "He is honest, loyal and compassionate. He does what is right because it is right, not because it is popular or fashionable.
"Jay knows the best way to teach our children right from wrong is to lead by example."
Again.
WBNS-TV reporters, in an article in Monday's Dispatch, said the public interest group Common Cause "might file formal complaints with the Ohio Elections Commission against officeholders who have used (campaign) contributions to pay for things such as country-club memberships, out-of-state trips and tickets to sporting events."
The word "might" is the tip-off that even Common Cause knows it's trying to crack a very old chestnut here.
The Akron Beacon Journal in the early '90s probably took the most exhaustive look in recent history at this kind of mischief by members of the Ohio General Assembly.
"A Beacon Journal sampling of recent reports filed by legislators shows
substantial expenditures on such unlikely campaign items as season tickets to Ohio State football games, lawn-care service, apartment rents, automobile
tires, art glass, membership in the National Rifle Association and Christmas
party booze. "(9/23/90)
"In addition, because Ohio's campaign laws are so lax, lawmakers are allowed to pay themselves thousands of dollars from their campaign treasuries-- saying only that the payments are reimbursements for unspecified expenses."
If this week's WBNS/Dispatch article advances the issue, it's only because one of our own in Licking County, State Rep. Jay Hottinger, seems to have achieved a new level of arrogance in justifying the practice.
After admitting to using campaign contributions to buy OSU tickets for himself, his family, friends and constituents, Hottinger is quoted as explaining:
"I don't believe that it helps me execute the office, but I will tell you that many times, before games or after games, we participate in functions that are official functions of Ohio State University."
In other words, being invited to a pre-game buffet by an OSU lobbyist makes cheering for the Buckeyes on the 50-yard line just another stop on the campaign trail.
"Look, there's Jay Hottinger doing the wave!!! I'm going to vote for that dude."
Hottinger, a former state senator who because of term limits jumped to the House two years ago, obviously loves football - but hates spending his own money for tickets.
Three years ago, Hottinger got swept up in a short-lived state investigation into free Bengels tickets given to him and four other state lawmakers.
" With a global biotech company picking up the tab, five state lawmakers and their guests dined at an Italian restaurant and got luxury box seats to the Cincinnati Bengals' first Monday night football game in 15 years," reported the Dispatch on . July 8, 2005.
"The tickets to the Oct. 25 game cost $300 apiece, and the total tab for the evening topped $5,000."
(Hottinger, it should be noted, was the only one of the group that reported the tickets as gifts in his required financial disclosures, and he eventually paid back $647 for game tickets for himself and a nephew, the Dispatch said.)
In this week's article, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner is quoted as saying the law is clear that "you can't use your campaign funds for personal benefit."
Legislators, of course, say none of these perks of office are for their "personal benefit."
Attending OSU or Bengal games is just what they do to stay in office and serve the public, they maintain.
But at least one of Hottinger's contributors, Lucy Tavener, an member of the Ashbrook clan in Johnstown who has been around politics and politicians all her life, says she isn't buying these kind of excuses.
"We don't expect to provide entertainment for them and their family," she's quoted as saying in the Dispatch article. "We don't expect to clothe them. That isn't the purpose for which we're sending money."
So Jay, why not start buying your own football tickets instead of tapping into the campaign slush fund and winding up in the headlines for it every year or so?
Hottinger's Democratic opponent, Howard Hill, no doubt will make an issue of this latest flap, as he should since it shows once again that some of our current assemblymen think they don't have to follow both the spirit and the letter of the law.
But Jay, if you don't listen to Howard or to Lucy, listen to your wife, Cheri, who wrote this in a campaign letter to your constituents two years ago:
"I have never met a man with more integrity," wrote Cheri Hottinger. "He is honest, loyal and compassionate. He does what is right because it is right, not because it is popular or fashionable.
"Jay knows the best way to teach our children right from wrong is to lead by example."
