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Diebold Lobbyist Donates $10,000 to Blackwell Campaign
WTOL News

Saturday 10 June 2006

Columbus – Forty-nine of the 85 people who this year have given Republican Ohio secretary of state Kenneth Blackwell the maximum $10,000 allowed an individual donor have done so since May 2. Members of Cincinnati financier Carl Lindner’s family led the way by combining for $90,000. The maximum-donor list also includes Mitch Given, who is a registered lobbyist for Diebold Election Systems, one of the vendors of voting machines for election boards in Ohio.

Blackwell’s office approved Diebold’s selection as a vendor and negotiated the price for the machines, although the counties chose the machines.

Blackwell spokesman Carlo LoParo said the May 15 contribution came well after Diebold signed a contract with the state to provide the machines in February 2004 after bids were submitted by the vendors. LoParo also pointed out that Given lobbies for other companies and is a frequent contributor to GOP campaigns. Given also donated $10,000 to Betty Montgomery’s campaign a week after she dropped out of the governor’s race to run for attorney general.

“It’s important to note that he did not contribute to Secretary Blackwell during the bidding process,” LoParo said.

Messages seeking comment were left at Given’s office and home.

When Blackwell discovered in April that his investment firm had acquired stock in Diebold, he ordered it sold immediately. He said his portfolio is operated like a blind trust, and that he only found out about the Diebold stock when his ethics disclosure statement was filed.

Forty-nine of the 85 people who this year have given Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell the maximum $10,000 allowed an individual donor have done so since May 2. Members of Cincinnati financier Carl Lindner’s family led the way by combining for $90,000.

Blackwell got $430,000 from the Ohio Republican Party on the day of the primary. Ohio GOP chairman Bob Bennett, who didn’t take sides in the primary, said he held back until he was certain Blackwell would win. The last-minute donation also means the party can give a similar amount for the general election, Bennett said.

Despite the considerable donations Blackwell by Republican heavy-hitters since he won the May 2 primary, he trails Democratic nominee Ted Strickland 2-1 in cash available for the November election, finance reports filed Friday showed.

Strickland raised $2 million during the April 12 to June 2 reporting period and had $2.6 million on hand. Blackwell, who spent more than $1.2 million late in his primary fight against Jim Petro, raised $2.2 million and had $1.3 million in his account with five months to go in the campaign. Petro raised $255,000 and spent $572,000 down the stretch.

Strickland, a U.S. House member from Lisbon, trounced little-known former state Rep. Bryan Flannery in the primary. Strickland received $365,000 from the Ohio Democratic Party on the day of the primary.

Twenty-six of the 91 donations of $10,000 Strickland has received have come since May 2. Maximum donors to his campaign included Peter Lewis of Cleveland, president of Progressive Corp., the nation’s third-largest car insurer.

Strickland is seen as the Democrats’ best hope for the office they haven’t held since 1991, when former Gov. Richard Celeste finished his second term. Democrats expect to be more competitive this year because of an investment scandal that has tainted Republican Gov. Bob Taft’s administration and a lobbying scandal in Washington.