• Questionably constituted and inadequately supervised county boards of revision that cut $400 million off the tax rolls by ruling on thousands of challenged property values without giving property owners a hearing. After Plain Dealer reporters Gabriel Baird and Mark Puente brought this travesty to light, County Prosecutor Bill Mason belatedly came up with an opinion that such administrative reviews were contrary to state law — including, evidently, the review in which Mason’s own property values were reduced.

• Or County Auditor Frank Russo continuing to thumb his nose at voters and federal prosecutors by perpetuating the cronyism, conflicts of interest and patronage at the heart of the biggest public corruption probe in local history. Russo still operates on the government-by-friends-and-family model. Why else would he appoint the sister of his longtime housemate, Michael Calabrese, to help restore “credibility” to the property-tax appeal boards? Especially when one of the boards that Cindy Bialowas now oversees sliced $10,000 off the value of her home via administrative review.

It was exactly such shenanigans that prompted voters last November to reject the entire edifice of Cuyahoga County government and institute something new in its place. Partisan primaries for a new county executive and council are Tuesday, with new leaders to be elected Nov. 2 and to take office in January.” Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Read the whole editorial

COLUMBUS — “A new federal lawsuit is challenging the process for how absentee balloting is handled in Ohio, saying it violates the rights of voters who don’t live in certain counties, including Franklin.

That’s because although Franklin and several other counties are sending an application for an absentee ballot to all active registered voters, as well as paying the postage for the ballot’s return in some cases, the remaining counties are not.

‘This unequal system of voting by absent voter’s ballot, which is dependent upon the county in which the elector resides, deprives Ohio electors of the right to participate in elections on an equal basis,’ the lawsuit says.” Mark Niquette, The Columbus Dispatch.

Read the whole story

Setting aside the now-famous Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling from the Supreme Court, which allowed corporations and unions to spend freely on campaign advertisements, there has been a flurry of challenges to other campaign finance laws in the courts.

Although several of these challenges were filed before the Supreme Court ruled on Citizens United, that decision encouraged opponents of campaign finance reform to push their challenges even further, according to experts on campaign finance cases.” Andrew Kreighbaum, OpenSecrets.org.

Read the whole story

Democrats and Obama administration officials accuse the Republican minority in the Senate of systematically opposing the president’s nominees to prevent him from putting his stamp on a judiciary that, Democrats say, moved to the right under President George W. Bush.

Republicans and conservative analysts say the stalled pace of ‘replenishment’ is part payback for congressional Democrats’ efforts to scuttle some Bush nominees and part indifference on the part of President Obama, who they say has been slow to nominate judges.” Carol J. Williams, Los Angeles Times.

In the race to become Ohio’s next Attorney General, Republican candidate Mike DeWine played up to just this kind of stereotype during an interview with ONN anchor Jim Heath on the Aug. 15 edition of Capitol Square. Heath asked DeWine if he was concerned about trailing Democratic Attorney General Richard Cordray in fundraising. Cordray reported he had $3.5 million at the end of July, while DeWine, a former U.S. senator, had $2.1 million.

After explaining that recent campaign finance reports showed the fundraising gap narrowing, DeWine turned the focus back onto Cordray, insinuating that he is a tool of the Democratic party and labor union bosses with a much narrower base of support.” PolitiFact Ohio.

Read the whole story

Catherine Turcer, who heads the Money and Politics project for the watchdog group, Ohio Citizen Action, said the probe is the best argument for why the new county government needs an ethics officer.

‘Cuyahoga County is suffering the cost of corruption right now,’ she said. ‘It makes sense to spend some money to get the train back on track.’

Turcer praised the code in general, especially the posting of financial disclosures on a website so citizens could search for any potential conflicts of interest.

‘How do you stop pay-to-play?’ she said. ‘Putting a big shining light on it makes great sense.’

Read the whole story

Cuyahoga County bargains down price of corruption paperwork

COLUMBUS — “In July, Jennifer Brunner notified county election officials of mismatches found by cross-checking the statewide voter registration database against records at the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles. The secretary of state then directed local officials to notify voters of the discrepancies and give them a chance to repair errors before Election Day.

The overriding goal of such exercises (required by federal law) must be to ease access to the ballot. That has been Brunner’s main concern. Another goal is to prevent last-minute questions about voter registration from triggering the use of provisional ballots, counted after voter information is rechecked. Ohio relies far too much on such ballots, risking a crush of lawsuits following a close election…. No question Ohio’s voter registration system should be as accurate as possible, bolstering confidence in election results while cutting down on lawsuits. Doing so shouldn’t turn into a game of ”gotcha,” creating unnecessary hoops through which voters must jump, raising the false specter of rampant vote fraud. Barriers enough (among them, the state’s cumbersome voter ID law) already exist. Jennifer Brunner has struck an appropriate balance, directing election boards to notify voters of mismatches and allow those voters an opportunity to fix errors before Ohioans go to the polls in November.” Akron Beacon Journal.

Read the whole editorial

Emily Pettigrew, a spokeswoman for Gibbs, said a computer glitch incorrectly reported individuals donating money to his general election campaign when the computer should have credited the contributions to his primary campaign…. The FEC questioned the original reports in two letters to Gibbs last week, warning that “if any apparent excessive contribution in question was incompletely or incorrectly disclosed, you must amend your original report with clarifying language.’” Jack Torry, The Columbus Dispatch.

Read the whole story

Total spending doubled in the past decade, from $83 million in the 1990s to $207 million in 2000-2009, according to the report from three nonpartisan groups — the Justice at Stake Campaign, the Brennan Center for Justice and the National Institute on Money in State Politics.

Equally alarming, those pushing the spending — corporations on one side, trial lawyers on the other — are using shell organizations such as the American Justice Partnership and the Alabama Civil Justice Reform Committee to keep their involvement hidden.” Akron Beacon Journal.

Read the whole editorial

The Supreme Court cited the Constitution’s First Amendment provision about abridging the freedom of speech. The court seemed to ignore the stated purpose of the Constitution, in its preamble, about promoting ‘the general welfare.’

In my opinion, nothing so effectively abridges free speech in political campaigns as allowing large entities, with virtually unlimited funds, to buy out and bid up the price of the available broadcast time and printed advertizing space and flood them with professionally produced sales pitches for their preferred candidates and issues. These actions do not promote the general welfare.” The Columbus Dispatch.

Read the whole letter.