By John McCarthy
The Associated Press

COLUMBUS - Gov. Bob Taft, his own re-election seemingly assured, donated $45,963 in television time to opponents of a drug-treatment ballot issue and $403,000 to other campaigns in the two weeks leading up to the election, campaign finance reports filed Friday showed.

Mr. Taft, a Republican, beat Democratic challenger Tim Hagan 58 percent to 38 percent in the Nov. 5 election.

Mr. Taft raised a total of $10.7 million for the campaign, compared with $1.4 million for Mr. Hagan, a former Cuyahoga County commissioner.

Campaigns were required to file reports detailing fund-raising and spending from Oct. 17 through Dec. 6.

In other elections, the four candidates for two Ohio Supreme Court seats raised a total of $6 million. The four court candidates in 2000 combined to raise $2.6 million. However, one special-interest group spent $4 million.

This year, spending by those groups was less.

Citizens for an Independent Court, a coalition of unions and trial lawyers, spent $1.4 million. Mr. Taft donated a total of $50,439 to Ohioans Against Unsafe Drug Laws, a group co-chaired by his wife, Hope. Issue 1, which would have required judges to impose treatment instead of jail time for first- and second-time, nonviolent drug offenders, lost 67 percent to 33 percent.

Hope Taft's group raised $1.1 million to fight the issue and spent $865,000 the last two weeks of the campaign, most of it on TV ads.

It received dozens of contributions from corporate Ohio, including $50,000 from Cincinnati Reds owner Carl Lindner. Attorney General Betty Montgomery also contributed $58,000.

The Ohio Campaign for New Drug Policies, which put the issue on the ballot, raised and spent about $450,000.

But it received $1.2 million for advertising through in-kind contributions from its national parent group, funded by billionaires Peter Lewis, George Soros and John Sperling.

Mr. Taft also contributed $55,000 to Franklin County candidates in the campaign's waning days and $348,000 to the Ohio Republican Party. In all, he donated $1.2 million to the state party.

Among Supreme Court candidates, victorious Republican Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton led with $1.8 million, compared with the $1.2 million raised by her re-election opponent, Democrat Janet Burnside.

Republican Maureen O'Connor, who will join the court in January, raised $1.7 million while Democratic challenger Tim Black raised $1.3 million.

House Speaker Larry Householder raised $6.8 million for his candidates, compared with $1.3 million raised by House Democrats.

Senate President Richard Finan, directing his last GOP caucus campaign because of term limits, helped raise $4.8 million. Senate Democrats raised $823,000.