[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 100 (Thursday, July 21, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H6312-H6313]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
POLITICAL SCANDAL PLAGUES OHIO
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, as those listening might recall, the 2004
Presidential election was decided in Ohio, my home State, and the
margin in the Presidential race was razor thin. But if you have been
paying attention to Ohio newspapers of late, you know that there is a
broad and widening major political scandal in Ohio that relates to the
last election. People who have paid attention to Ohio or live in Ohio
can read about it on the Web site of our local newspaper; the
toledoblade.com is the site.
But what this concerns is that the highest elected officials in Ohio,
starting with the Governor of Ohio, the Attorney General of Ohio, the
auditor of Ohio, the Secretary of State of Ohio, were all in receipt of
campaign contributions from an individual who is now charged with
diverting millions of dollars from the State of Ohio's Workers'
Compensation trust fund for personal use and for political use. There
is a grand jury that has been empaneled in Ohio now involving the
northern and southern districts of Ohio, looking at the diversion of
some of these dollars to the Bush campaign. It is a broad and widening
scandal, as I have said.
Then, today, the Secretary of State of Ohio is mentioned in articles
that were published by the Cleveland Plain Dealer and by the Columbus
Dispatch in our capital city, and I will just read a couple of the
lines: The Board of Elections of our capital city, and that, of course,
is Columbus, Ohio, the Franklin County Board docked its executive
director a month's pay for accepting $10,000 in his office last year
from a consultant from the voting machine company Diebold, with which
we have had so many fights over the last 2 years, trying to get
verified, auditable paper trails in those voting machines.
Now, it appears that that company, through its consultant, actually
walked into the office of the director of the Board of Elections and
wrote a check for $10,000, which the director of the board was a little
reluctant to accept, but said, well, why don't you write it out to the
local political party, the Republican Party of Columbus Ohio, Franklin
County, which was done.
Well, now, this has been all discovered, and the investigation of
what has transpired with the Secretary of State's office and Diebold
and this County Board of Elections is being investigated.
One of our State senators from Ohio, Senator Teresa Fedor, has sent a
letter to the Office of the United States Attorney in northern Ohio
requesting a formal investigation of Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth
Blackwell regarding possible violations of Federal law, including, but
not limited to, the Hobbs Act, regarding improper dealings between the
Secretary of State's office and Diebold Election Systems, or their
agents.
She goes on, and I will place the full letter in the Record, to ask
the Inspector General to look at a series of conflict of interest
questions here and the gravity of pay-to-play allegations, to determine
whether Mr. Blackwell, the Secretary of State, violated Federal law by
accepting campaign contributions in exchange for official acts.
Because, Mr. Speaker, if you look at what has been happening in Ohio,
there has absolutely been a preference for the Diebold machines; there
have been delays, there have been all kinds of efforts made to
advantage one company over other companies.
I want to place some of these news articles in the Record tonight.
Also, there is a huge court case pending between a company called ESS,
which is another company that has voting machines, and Diebold
Corporation. That is in the courts. Our Secretary of State is saying,
oh, you have to pick these machines, you have to pick the Diebold
machines; they are the only machines that we have certified without
giving other machines an equal chance.
What is interesting about this is that Ohio has received $136,552,794
over the last 2 years to purchase these machines, so there is Federal
taxpayer dollars involved, and another $44,616,967 for training of
election officials. None of those training dollars have been spent, but
$136 million has gone out for hardware in a very narrow process where
one company has been so very advantaged.
So I just wanted to draw people's attention to what is going on in
the State of Ohio, to the ongoing court case, to the false deadlines
set by our Secretary of State, now by the investigation that has been
requested by our very high-ranking senators of the U.S. Attorney in
Ohio, and I commend listeners to the toledoblade.com Web site to the
developing political scandal in the State of Ohio.
[From the Blade Columbus Bureau, July 19, 2005]
Elections Chief Punished For Taking Check
Franklin County official accepted $10,000
on behalf of GOP from diebold consultant
(By Jim Provance)
Columbus.--The Franklin County Board of Elections yesterday
docked its executive director a month's pay for accepting a
10,000 check in his office last year from a Diebold Inc.
consultant seeking county business.
Matt Damschroder accepted the check on behalf of the county
Republican Party.
He came forward after a Diebold competitor, Nebraska-based
Election Systems & Software, sought to depose him as part of
a lawsuit alleging special treatment for Diebold on the part
of Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell.
Mr. Blackwell plans to seek the GOP nomination for governor
in 2006.
His office denied any connection between campaign
contributions and his decisions affecting Diebold.
Diebold's device has the only computerized touch-screen
machine so far to win state certificatlon for its paper-
receipt backup system.
Such a system was mandated last year by the Ohio General
Assembly.
[[Page H6313]]
Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien had suggested that
Mr. Damschroder be fired. He would not confirm yesterday that
an investigation was under way.
According to Mr. Damschroder, political consultant Pasquale
``Pat'' Gallina, who works for consultants Celebrezze &
Associates, walked uninvited into his office in January,
2004, on the day the board was considering a contract for
voter-registration software. He offered to make out a check
to him on the spot.
Mr. Damschroder said he instead accepted a ``voluntary''
contribution to the county GOP. A former executive director
for the party, Mr. Damschroder accepted the check even though
the law prohibits using government property for political
business.
``I don't believe I committed a crime,'' he said. ``I think
I did something that would best be described as a lapse of
judgment and clearly in the gray area . . . The biggest thing
I wish I had done was throw the guy out on that day he came
in and certainly not have taken physical receipt of the
contribution.''
The county has joined the ES&S lawsuit, which seeks to
break Diebold's monopoly on touch-screen machines available
to counties.
Celebrezze & Associates is on a monthly retainer for
Diebold.
``Any contribution he made was on behalf of Celebrezze &
Associates and of his own volition,'' said Diebold spokesman
Mike Jacobsen. ``Diebold had no knowledge of any such
contribution.
``Diebold does not condone any political contributions made
on its behalf, implied or otherwise,'' he said. ``In
particular, our company's ethics policy restricts political
contributions since June, 2004.''
That policy was, in part, a reaction to a letter authored
by Walden O'Dell. chief executive officer of Diebold, Inc.,
of North Canton, Ohio. In the letter, Mr. O'Dell promised to
help deliver Ohio to President George Bush, triggering a
firestorm during the presidential election campaign.
The Lucas County Board of Elections has selected Diebold to
supply its touch-screen machines. A review of filings with
the county elections bureau by the county Republican and
Democratic parties revealed no contributions from Mr.
Gallina.
In a phone conversation that took place a year after the
contribution to the party, Mr. Damschroder said Mr. Gallina
bragged that he had been given $50,000 to Blackwell interests
and worked with Blackwell campaign adviser Norm Cummings to
position Diehold for state business.
``I have never asked, accepted, received, or was offered
any money [from Mr. Gallina], period,'' Mr. Cummings said.
Mr. Gallina, of Reynoldsburg, could not be reached for
comment, but he told the Associated Press there was no
$50,000 contribution for Mr. Blackwell and that the
$10,000 to the county party was his own money.
Mr. Gallina has given a total of $8,000 to Mr. Blackwell's
campaigns since 1998, according to records filed with the
secretary of state. Also in January, 2004, he gave $10,000 to
Citizens for Tax Reform, a Blackwell-backed group that
unsuccessfully sought to force repeal of a temporary penny-
on-the-dollar sales-tax surcharge enacted in 2003.
Blackwell spokesman Carlo LoParo said Mr. Blackwell made
several decisions adverse to Diebold, negotiating contracts
at first with four manufacturers of touch-screen and optical-
scan voting machines to give counties a menu from which to
choose.
Later, after lawmakers enacted the requirement for the
voter-verified paper audit trail, Mr. Blackwell took all
touch-screen devices, including Diebold's, off the table
because none had been certified as meeting the new mandate.
Mr. Blackwell later reversed position when Diebold's
receipt-equipped machine won federal and state approval.
``It wasn't the secretary of state who forwarded the VVPAT
requirement,'' Mr. LoParo said. ``It wasn't the secretary of
state who prevented vendors from meeting that requirement.
From the beginning, this process has been transparent and
fair.''
Sen. Teresa Fedor (D., Toledo) yesterday urged U.S.
Attorney Gregory White to investigate Mr. Blackwell's dealing
with Diebold.
``We need to get to the bottom of this,'' she said. ``I
don't care if it was $50,000 or $5, you're not supposed to be
able to buy influence in America.''
Mr. Damschroder said the loss of 30 days' pay will cost him
$11,220. William Anthony, Jr., chairman of the Franklin
County elections board and that county's Democratic Party,
said the board believes there was no criminal intent on Mr.
Damschroder's part.
As for Mr. Gallina, Mr. Anthony said, ``If somebody gives
you a check for $10,000, I guess they would want something.''
____
The Ohio State Senate,
Cleveland, Ohio, June 18, 2005.
Gregory White, Esq.,
Assistant U.S. Attorney, Office of the U.S. Attorney,
Cleveland, Ohio.
Dear Attorney White: I am contacting you to ask that you be
in a formal investigation of Ohio Secretary of State J.
Kenneth Blackwell and his cabinet regarding possible
violations of the federal law, including, but not limited to,
The Hobbs Act, 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1951. Questions have been
raised by both The Columbus Dispatch and The Cleveland Plain
Dealer regarding possible improper dealings between the
Secretary of State's office and Diebold Election Systems and/
or their agents.
The Hobbs Act was meant to prohibit corruption by elected
officials. As you know, the Act prohibits ``obtaining the
property from another, with his consent . . . under color of
official right.'' 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1951(b)(2). The United
States Supreme Court has held that an elected official
violates the Hobbs Act if the ``public official has obtained
a payment to which he was not entitled, knowing that the
payment was made in return for official acts.'' Evans v.
United States, 112 S. Ct. 1881, 1889 (1992). The Court went
on to say that ``the offense is completed at the time when
the public official receives a payment in return for his
agreement to perform specific official acts; fulfillment of
the quid pro quo is not an element of the offense.'' Id.
According to Franklin County Board of Elections Executive
Director Matthew Damschroeder, officials or agents of Diebold
Election Systems, including lobbyist Pasquale Gallina,
allegedly made a deal with Secretary of State Blackwell, and/
or his associates, that Diebold would receive a substantial
or exclusive rights to supply electronic voting machines to
the State of Ohio in exchange for a substantial donation to
``Blackwell's political interests.'' If this is, in fact,
what happened, it appears to be a clear violation of federal
law. Even if no quid pro quo existed, Mr. Gallina's alleged
$10,000 payment to ``Citizens for Tax Repeal,'' of which
Blackwell is Honorary Chair, raises significant conflict of
interest questions.
Because of the gravity of these ``pay-to-play''
allegations, I urge your office to fully investigate to
determine whether Mr. Blackwell violated federal law by
accepting campaign contributions in exchange for official
acts. This immediate investigation is necessary to fully
protect the taxpayers of Ohio and the sanctity of government
procurement in the State. If these allegations are true, no
business in the country can trust that they will have fair
dealings with Ohio. Thank you for your attention to this
important matter and please do not hesitate to contact me
with any questions or concerns you may have.
Sincerely,
Teresa Fedor,
State Senator, 11th District.
____________________