COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — Was it all for naught?
Ohio lawmakers wrapped up an intense week-long special session to ensure President Joe Biden qualifies for Ohio's November presidential ballot. But far more controversial was how the GOP supermajority enacted a ban on foreign nationals from contributing to statewide ballot issues campaigns.
Despite an apocalyptic drumbeat—today, Sen. Rob McColley cited a "clear and present threat that we have to our elections" from foreign donors—supporters have not backed up their unqualified assertions with solid proof. Essentially, the claims boil down to this: A Swiss billionaire gave a boatload of money to a liberal dark money group (a 501(c)4) in Washington, D.C., and then the dark money group gave money to Ohio issues campaigns.
Do those facts merit the Republicans' insistence that millions of foreign dollars have penetrated Ohio issues campaigns?
"It's evidence. But it's not enough evidence for me to bring a case," said David DeVillers, former U.S. attorney for southern Ohio who helped unravel the tangle of dark money groups funneling millions to now-imprisoned former Speaker Larry Householder.
"It's a fact-sensitive question, and they don't seem to have enough facts. That's the inherent problem with c4's."
Derek Willis, lecturer at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, has spent much of his career working with data to ferret out hidden campaign finance information.
He has serious doubts about the justification for Ohio's ban.
"I don’t see how they could possibly know that without issuing subpoenas, and maybe even not then. The devil is in the details here, and broad statements aren’t evidence," Willis said.
He also checked out the proposal to bar foreign money from Ohio.
"The 'loophole' the proposed legislation aims to close could be circumvented by groups with access to smart lawyers—precisely the situation we have now," Willis found.
Brendan Glavin is deputy research director for OpenSecrets, which calls itself "the nation's premier research group tracking money in U.S. politics."
"I would agree that you can't just attribute the money from the (dark money group) Sixteen Thirty Fund given to groups in Ohio as being all foreign dollars," he said.
"The money flowing into Sixteen Thirty fund from (Swiss national) Hansjörg Wyss represents only a portion of the revenue for Sixteen Thirty. It would be fair, though, to say that Ohio groups received significant funding from Sixteen Thirty Fund, a dark money group that is known to be partially funded by a Swiss billionaire."
Last week, longtime Ohio Elections Commission executive director Phil Richter said the fact that the Swiss donor's cash passes through the Washington nonprofit, where it's commingled with money from all sorts of sources, makes claims of foreign funds flowing to Ohio difficult to prove.
"If the contribution came from the guy we're talking about, that would be improper. But if it comes from a proper source otherwise, statutorily, that would appear to be a proper contribution," Richter said.
Cincinnati-area Rep. Bill Seitz, the main House negotiator with the Senate to achieve a compromise on the issue, said GOP leaders were concerned about a way to enforce the foreign money ban despite the "comingling" issue.
"The Senate wanted to change this and make a last-minute addition to somehow get to that issue by requiring segregation of those funds within the c4 enterprise. And I said, well, that might be a good issue, but it is too late in the day for us to worry about that right now," Seitz said.
After the Senate approved the ban Friday afternoon, President Matt Huffman was asked by 6 On Your Side about his assertions that all $14 million of the contributions from the DC dark money group that went to Ohio represented foreign money.
"I guess the answer to that is I can get somebody to detail what the basis is for all of that," Huffman said. "We’ll give you all the evidence we have."
As of Friday night, Huffman had produced no additional information.
What happened during Friday's special legislative session?
Biden may not win Ohio this year but at least he'll be on the ballot.
The Senate approved the legal fix Friday afternoon, providing presumably a back-up to Democratic plans announced earlier this week to nominate the president through a virtual vote in early August. The party's convention comes after Ohio's current filing deadline.
Gov. Mike DeWine is expected to sign the measure over the weekend. The action stems from a special legislative session DeWine called last week. Lawmakers met all four days of the holiday-shortened week.
Senate Democratic leader Nickie Antonio asked if Lakewood wasn't sure the legislative fix would affect the plans for a virtual convention vote weeks ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
"I am not the DNC. I do not make those decisions. That’s way above my pay grade," she said.
The bitter battle over how to ban foreign cash from issues campaigns
McColley acknowledged the Senate's original proposal was reduced to a mere five-page bill.
"Ultimately, this bill is weaker—I'll be honest—this bill is weaker than what we have passed out of the Senate previously. However, I do think it's still is a step in the right direction. It's still a bill worth passing.
"And it's still a bill that identifies this clear and present threat that we have to our elections."
Democrats continued to criticize the leading role of the Ohio attorney general in enforcing and prosecuting potential violations versus the Elections Commission, which is made up of three Republicans, three Democrats, and one independent.
But McColley stressed the issue is too complex to leave to the commission or county prosecutors.
"That's important because inherently, we're dealing with what will be an international white-collar scheme to get this money into the state of Ohio," he said.
Yost issued a statement Thursday: "I did not ask for the authority in this bill, and I don’t care whether it is my office or someone else that does the work — but the work must be done. We need to put a stop to this and do it now."
Democrats challenged giving such heavy responsibilities to the state attorney general, a partisan politician possibly with their own interests at stake. Yost is challenging a federal court ruling this week that found he improperly barred an issues group from launching its petition drive to make the ballot.
Antonio accused Republicans of ignoring much more significant campaign finance challenges.
"We haven’t dealt with the issues of dark money and the (Householder et al.) scandal that still hangs over us. I don’t believe that Ohioans are getting a fair shake with this bill," she said.
The minority party also continued to insist the measure's restrictions are so sweeping and the penalties so serious that it will hurt future attempts at statewide ballot issues.
Columbus Sen. Bill DeMora's attempt to amend the bill to only bar foreign campaign contributions was rejected by Republicans.
"We are against foreign money. We just tried to offer an amendment to ban foreign money," he said.
"We’ve all know all along that this bill isn’t just for banning foreign money. It is basically for taking away rights of people to do ballot issues."
What about green-card holders?
The only voice of Republican dissent came from Niraj Antani, the first Indian American state senator in Ohio history. The southwest Ohioan predicted the law would be overturned in court because it includes a ban on campaign contributions from green card holders as well as foreign nationals.
"The entire thing is going to get struck down because we, as the legislature, are overreaching."
Antani, who later voted for the overall bill, called the added restriction a major departure from federal law.
It was not in the proposal unveiled on the House floor Thursday. But it was added via an amendment sponsored by Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Circleville, and easily approved.
drowland@sbgtv.com
@darreldrowland
