Bob Schaffer, David Brennan and D'Oh!

by: Colorado Pols

Fri Apr 04, 2008 at 11:24:38 AM MDT

Schaffer's connection with Brennan could be getting worse in light of a couple of recent stories out of Ohio. From The Columbus Dispatch:

A record $5.2 million fine was levied yesterday by the Ohio Elections Commission against a pro-charter-school group that helped elect Republicans across Ohio in 2006.

The whopping fine fell on All Children Matter, a Michigan-based organization that the commission said illegally funneled $870,000 in campaign contributions through its Virginia political-action committee to its PAC in Ohio in 2006. David Brennan of Akron, Ohio's biggest charter-school operator, has donated $200,000 to the group.

Voting 5-0, the bipartisan commission agreed with the secretary of state's argument that All Children violated Ohio campaign finance laws that limited PAC contributions to $10,000.

The fine amount was unheard of, particularly from a commission that is regularly criticized by watchdog groups and others for going light on campaign-finance violators. Philip C. Richter, executive director of the commission, said his previous highest recommendation for a fine was about $90,000.

This certainly doesn't make Schaffer's involvement with Brennan look very good. And neither does this story from The Cincinnati Enquirer:

Schaffer Donor Story Gets Worse

by: Colorado Pols

Wed Aug 15, 2007 at 09:40:03 AM MDT

Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer has been trying to deflect charges that he took campaign contributions from a man connected to a group that received a favorable vote from Schaffer on the State School Board. But the story may be getting worse for Schaffer as new reports surface about the donor in question, David Brennan, and his history of using campaign contributions to influence votes for his money-making charter school operation that - in Ohio - has proved to be a disaster.

According to a blog called Schools for Tomorrow:

Rather than weigh in on the relative smelliness of that stench, I want to point to some contextual information. White Hat and Brennan may be unknowns in Colorado, but they are very well known back in  Ohio. A little over a year ago, the Cleveland Plain Dealer ran an article about them.  It’s a long, detailed article, and I recommend reading the whole thing. But here are some short excerpts:

It’s a “sad situation,” says  Columbia University professor Henry Levin, a national expert on privately run public schools. And the culprit, he said, at least in part, was “legislative conniving with one company in particular.”

That company is White Hat Management, the for-profit brainchild of Brennan, a Stetson-wearing tax-lawyer-turned-industrialist who blamed school failure on teachers unions and bureaucrats, and who wanted to prove that profit-seeking private enterprise could do better.

The Website ePluribus Media has more on the Ohio angle:

Brennan has had the ear and political support of Ohio Republican leaders like House Speaker Jon Husted and Senate President Bill Harris, among others, who during Republican rule of the state gave is at the center of the storm over newly revealed information that shows the Akron industrialist has contributed beaucoup bucks to a Virginia political action committee that then turned around and transferred $870,000 to an Ohio affiliate set up to elect Republicans.

Ohio Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, despite having been presented with the cold hard facts months ago by ProfressOhio, has only recently taken seriously the allegations that show such practices appear to be in violation of state campaign finance laws. Brunner's agency oversees compliance with campaign finance law.

If these allegations are all true, Schaffer's involvement with Brennan looks worse and worse and could turn into a major campaign story.