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Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Neighborhood Endorsement?

Folks have been talking for days about the recent issue of the Pleasant Ridge neighborhood's community newsletter, which encouraged people to support City Council candidate Pat Fischer. Fischer, a lawyer with Keating, Muething & Klekamp who raised the most campaign money so far, lives in the neighborhood and was formerly president of the community council. He's also past president of the Cincinnati Bar Association.

Blogger Jason Haap, aka The Dean of Cincinnati, this morning asked for an investigation. Here's the e-mail he sent to John Williams, director of the Hamilton County Board of Elections, and copied to reporters:

Attention Hamilton County Board of Elections:

I would like to file a formal complaint against the Pat Fischer campaign for City Council. It appears there may have been misconduct concerning an endorsement placed in the Pleasant Ridge community council newsletter. I believe this warrants investigating from the BOE.

A recent issue of the Pleasant Ridge newsletter included an endorsment of Fischer, which is in violation of a community council's standing as a 501(c)3. Fischer is a former president of that group, and one of his campaign volunteers, Kate Powell, reportedly still has a role with the 501(c)3.

I trust the BOE will conduct a swift and detailed investigation into this matter. We must insure that politicians do not blatantly corrupt our political processes with a flagrant disregard for the rules.


Respectfully,

Rev. Jason A. Haap, MA

The Dean of Cincinnati

Publisher, The Cincinnati Beacon

Haap first complained to the city, but Roshani Hardin, chief counsel in the city solicitor's office replied that the Cincinnati Elections Commission has no jurisdiction because his concerns do not involve "campaign contribution limits imposed by the Cincinnati Charter, or related reporting requirements imposed by the Charter or the Municipal Code."

Kreg Allison, Fischer's campaign manager, says he's looking into it.


12 Comments:

at 12:54 PM, July 18, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Maybe Fischer can use some of his money to buy his way out of this little scandal. Probably won't be able to buy his way onto council though.

 
at 2:28 PM, July 18, 2007 Blogger Unknown said...

Whether this was illegal or not, it was clearly unethical. Those involved need to apologize. Fischer especially needs to move quickly to condemn this. This incident is only making it easier for people to tar him with the "sleazy lawyer" stereotype.

 
at 3:24 PM, July 18, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Who is responsible for newsletter content? None other than community council secretary Kate Powell, an attorney, who is also the volunteer coordinator for Fischer’s campaign.

But the city-funded Community Councils aren't allowed by statute to promote a political campaign: "Ineligible activities and expenses include: (L) Use of NSP funds to endorse or promote political candidates."

So either Fisher's camp is incredibly unethical or incredibly stupid . . . or both.

 
at 4:04 PM, July 18, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

If "folks have been talking for days" about it, why didn't we read anything on this blog?

This blog is supposed to be about politics, after all. It should to do more than reprint press releases and tell us how much money candidates have raised.

 
at 8:28 PM, July 18, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is unethical & this is illegal.

Is it any wonder that these criminal community clowncils can only recruit 1/3 of their total population base to feed into their slippery scams, secret balloting, lobbying like minded crooks to fill the board seats?

In addition, there's a small band of vigilantes who are blowing their mouths to kick some judges off the bench because they don't like them. The hate factor is pretty high with these scary marauders. These communities need their taxpayer funded NSP money cut off too & their criminal community clowncils shut down.

I'm glad this story is getting out. Someone needs to clean up these community clan cliques & fast!

 
at 9:23 PM, July 18, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

I appreciate the reporting.

How can Fischer raise so much money and make such a stupid mistake? Could you imagine if each of the 52 neighborhoods began using City dollars to endorse candidates? That would set a terrible precedent.

I also applaud the Dean for raising the issue.

When will Fischer apologize?

 
at 10:02 PM, July 18, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anon 3:24 PM, I favor 'both'!

 
at 3:06 PM, July 19, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hamilton County BOE is likely the wrong jurisdiction for this...especially if the City won't even look at it.

 
at 2:35 PM, July 22, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

What about the illegal yardsigns? Good thing we have someone as politically savvy as Haap to defend the integrity of the electoral system.

 
at 9:46 AM, July 23, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Enquirer needs to investigate immediately the sources of Fisher's mailing list. I've spoken to many people who said they subscribe to Pleasant Ridge's newsletter, but never subscribed to Fisher's campaign newsletter. I'm one of these people. Fisher is our former Community Council President, and I fear he took our mailing list and used it for his own politcal campaign. This is not allowed.

 
at 10:44 AM, July 24, 2007 Blogger Nathaniel Livingston Jr. said...

Using Haap's "logic" in defense of Smitherman -- that he isn't yet an official candidate and won't be one until he files his signatures and filing fee with the Board of Elections -- Fischer isn't an official candidate so there can be no violation.

 
at 1:54 PM, July 27, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

NOTHING PAT FISCHER DOES WOULD SURPRISE ME. I was involved in litigation for over 2 years on a case where Pat Fischer was one of many lawyers on the opposing side -- AND I PERSONALLY FOUND PAT FISCHER to be a very deceptive and dishonest trial attorney. IF KREG ALLISON is a real smart guy, he'll get away from Pat Fischer ( a KMK goonie ) as fast as possible -- it's ALL MY PERSONAL OPINION based on my previous experience with Fischer.

 
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