From the Dispatch blog:
It took six years to resolve a claim that corporations and the Ohio Chamber of Commerce conspired to illegally dump money into the 2000 race for the state Supreme Court.
Now, attorney Clifford O. Arnebeck Jr. wants to go another round.
Arnebeck, who represented the liberal Alliance for Democracy in an Ohio Elections Commission case against the chamber, this morning announced his intention to sue the chamber under the state’s corrupt-practices law.
Arnebeck told reporters in his law office that corporations illegally funneled some $15 million into Supreme Court races in 2000, 2002 and 2004 through the chamber’s political arm.
Here’s Arnebeck’s opening salvo (pdf). Much more on this at Buckeye State Blog and Progress Ohio. They’re focusing on Republican Columbus mayoral candidate Bill Todd’s involvement- he was the lawyer for Citizens for a Strong Ohio, the Chamber of Commerce political group, which the Ohio Election Commission found had acted improperly. Here’s an AP news item dated December 26, 2006, which I could only find on one of the complainants’ sites, the Alliance for Democracy:
Citizens for a Strong Ohio called itself an issue advocacy group, free from elections laws that require political action committees to fully disclose their activities, such as disclosing names of contributors and the amount they give. Yet its TV ads so clearly targeted [candidate for the Ohio Supreme Court Alice Robie] Resnick that the elections commission found the group had crossed the line into partisan politics.
The group’s ads targeting Resnick began running in the early fall of 2000. The ads implied that Resnick was for sale.
One ad featured a lady justice figure lifting her blindfold as money was placed on one of the scales of justice. Another portrayed a female judge changing her vote as bags of money were piled on her desk. The chamber group claimed Resnick voted 70 percent of the time with lawyer-contributors.
Resnick, a Democrat, had caught the wrath of pro-business groups for her votes on insurance, workers’ compensation and in other cases. The ads drew the attention of two nonprofit reform groups: Common Cause and the Alliance for Democracy.
Both filed complaints against Citizens for a Strong Ohio before the election, which Resnick won with 57 percent of the vote.
The fight dragged out for six years, ending less than two weeks before the end of Resnick’s term on Jan. 1 [2007]. Veteran elections lawyer Cliff Arnebeck, who represented the Alliance for Democracy, said the long battle was worth it.
“We had to fight to get the chamber to adhere to the same law everybody has to adhere to. It’s important when large entities are held accountable,” Arnebeck said.
William Todd, a longtime lawyer who mostly represents Republican causes, came on board with Citizens for a Strong Ohio early in the case. Todd tried to make the case that advocacy advertising is a form of free speech and shouldn’t be subjected to campaign law.
Which I agree with, actually. But the question for the mayoral race: how much will this affect Bill Todd? I don’t have a good guess, but I’m leaning toward “not much”. We’ll see how accurate that is as time marches on.
UPDATE: Here’s OPENERS’ report:
Public interest attorney Cliff Arnebeck, who represented Alliance for Democracy in the earlier litigation, on Thursday sent the Chamber’s attorney, Bradley Smith, a letter stating that he plans to bring a lawsuit against the Chamber under the state’s corrupt practices act. Arnebeck said he probably will file the suit in September but still doesn’t know who all the plantiffs will be or who the suit will target beyond the Chamber itself.
Arnebeck estimates the Chamber spent up to $15 million campaigning for Republican judicial candidates between 2000 and 2004 and said that he will ask for $45 million in his suit — $15 million trebled, as the law allows, if victorious.
Smith, the chamber’s attorney, said Arnebeck should move on and focus on upcoming elections. If the lawsuit comes as promised, Smith said, he’s prepared to defend the business group.