BY HOWARD WILKINSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Hamilton County Republican leaders are accusing their Democratic counterparts of trying to skirt Ohio's judicial campaign spending limit law by buying TV ad time for Judge Marianna Brown Bettman. But Democratic Party chairman Tim Burke said Sunday the expenditures are "perfectly legitimate."
Sunday afternoon, Christopher Finney, the lawyer for the Republican party, delivered letters to the homes of Mr. Burke and Judge Bettman, who is running for re-election to the Ohio 1st District Court of Appeals, warning of "legal remedies" if the party does not pull the TV ads by noon today.
Mr. Burke said that will not happen.
The Republicans could go to court to try to stop the ads or file a complaint with the Ohio Supreme Court.
The Republicans claim the Democratic Party made a TV buy of $60,940 for ads promoting Judge Bettman's candidacy; and that that money puts her over the $125,000 spending cap for appeals court candidates.
Mr. Burke said his understanding was that the ad buy was for about $47,000 and said it was an independent expenditure made by the party; and that Judge Bettman's re-election campaign committee "had nothing to do with it."
The GOP letters point to a $50,000 contribution to the Hamilton County Democratic Party on Sept. 29 by retired Judge Gilbert Bettman, a Republican and Judge Bettman's husband; and earlier contributions totaling $11,000 to the Democrats by Sidney Brown, the judge's father.
The donations and the later TV buy, Mr. Finney wrote, represent a "conspiracy to evade contribution and expenditure limits for Ohio judicial races."
In a campaign finance report filed last week, the Bettman campaign reported spending $112,125 through Oct. 14 -- about $13,000 from the legal limit.
The Republicans argue that the Democratic party expenditure is a way for the Bettman campaign to get around the spending limit law.
Robert Brown, Judge Bettman's attorney, called the Republican charges "nonsense."'
"There was no coordination between the Bettman campaign and the Democratic Party on this; the $50,000 from (Gilbert Bettman) was given with absolutely no strings attached," Mr. Brown said. "No one can regulate what the party does with its own money, Whether they spend it on Marianna Bettman or any other candidate."
Hamilton County GOP chairman Mike Allen said his party is not doing independent expenditures on behalf of Judge Bettman's opponent, Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Ralph Winkler.
The GOP is sending a mailer to 75,000 homes urging voters to support Judge Winkler and two other GOP judicial candidates, but Mr. Allen said the party is dividing the costs by three and applying that sum to the spending caps of the three candidates.
