Figured fines

redhorse — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 21:16:26 -0800

would be the minimum; hoped the code might have teeth. For a habitual abuser, I'd like to see a penalty with a real stick; perhaps disallowing candidate petitions until compliance is met.

Hypocrisy & Hubris

Cranky Old Man — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 17:36:57 -0800

Hypocrisy & hubris ran Ohio Republicans out of most of the statewide offices. 2 separate Secretary's of State have been after him, and now he's leading the caucus? If the Greeks taught us anything, it's that hubris is always punished. Though Strickland's camp doesn't say so publicly, I'm sure they are constantly worried about Marc Dann tarnishing the party. Now they have another name to add to that list. As bad as Fedor may have been, she held tight with the administration on the budget. If you're going to reorder the leadership team, do it in January of 2009.

Probably Just Fines...

ProminentOHblogger — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 09:20:22 -0800

I'll pull the code late when I get home today, but I would assume just fines. However, it's pretty apparent this has been a knowing violation since Richter's been on Miller's ass for a while. That could ratchet things up a bit.

Ok, ME

redhorse — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 08:39:17 -0800

let's suppose Miller is eventually and formally found to have 1) violated CF law, and 2) done so willfully.

What penalty would he run?

I know I shouldn't be, but often I'm floored by the audacity of people. Miller has designs on the US Senate in 2010 but he hasn't completed a state finance report for 2+ years? Does he think the FEC will care if he's lost records b/c he moved offices?

Meet new Senate Minority Leader Ray Miller: Habitual campaign finance violator

modernesquire — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 06:16:16 -0800

You know, this is just the kind of story to make me wonder what the hell the Senate Democratic Caucus was thinking. From the Columbus Dispatch, we learn that Senate Minority Leader Miller has a history of not filing campaign finance reports:

Sen. Ray Miller of Columbus has failed to file several legally required campaign-finance reports dating back to 2002, according to three complaints filed with the Ohio Elections Commission by the Ohio secretary of state's office. Miller soon may face a fourth complaint because he has not filed a completed report since mid-2005.
...
The secretary of state's office filed its first complaint in August 2004 and the second in November 2005. Miller asked the commission to delay the matters, saying in February 2006 that he needed time to find the information, which was in boxes packed for a pending move of his personal business office.
The secretary of state filed a third complaint in October 2006. In January 2007, Miller wrote the commission that he needed about two more weeks to finish the reports. None was filed.
This past October, Miller wrote to the commission that his accountant was "making good progress." He said many bank statements and receipts were destroyed during his business move, and he requested an additional 30 days. The reports are not yet filed.
Meanwhile, Brunner's office has been trying to get Miller to file seven campaign-finance reports from 2005-2007.
On July 31, Miller filed cover sheets for those seven reports, but J. Curtis Mayhew, the secretary of state's campaign-finance administrator, told him that was inadequate. He asked Miller to file more-detailed reports by the end of November, but that didn't happen.

Miller's excuse for not filing legally required campaign finance reports for over two years?

"Sometimes you have difficulty with treasurers who may not be able to handle it properly," Miller said. "Then I had a situation when I moved my office and lost an awful lot of receipts."

Great, first you only file a cover page report which only reports the sum totals of what you spent and raised, and now you claim you will never be able to report who's been donating to your campaign.

The best spin Miller can put on the situation is to say that he wouldn't be handling the reporting duties of the Senate Caucus campaign fund.

We are a party that supports campaign finance reform, and yet, we have at the head of our legislative caucus a member who has shown a complete and utter disregard of Ohio's campaign finance reform laws. Miller has repeatedly lied and mislead the Ohio Elections Commission by suggesting that reports would soon be filed to avoid action by OEC when none were filed. (His first excuse was that the information was in boxes for his impending move to a new office. Then he claimed that his bank statements and receipts were subsequently destroyed in that move. Now he says they were simply "lost in the move." I don't buy it. Before the move, he knew that he needed that information for the OEC, and it somehow gets destroyed or lost??? One must wonder if Miller was keeping any records of who was bankrolling his campaign whatsoever.)

Miller's failure to file timely campaign finance reports is inexcuseable. His ability to avoid sanctions for this long, and his history of misleading OEC to delay action is disgraceful.

I want another coup...

Buckeye State Blog - Meet new Senate Minority Leader Ray Miller: Habitual campaign finance violator - Comments

Figured fines

Hypocrisy & Hubris

Probably Just Fines...

Ok, ME

Meet new Senate Minority Leader Ray Miller: Habitual campaign finance violator